Feast of the Holy Family
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
December 28, 2025
Hope at the Heart of the Family
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. It does so within the Octave of Christmas, the “eight days of Christmas” the Church observes each year. This year’s celebration of the Holy Family also takes place in the waning days of the Jubilee of Hope inaugurated last year by Pope Francis.
What can we learn from this? In short, the Holy Family teaches us that hope should be at the heart of every family. But let us be clear what hope is not and what it is: Hope is not mere optimism nor is it wishful thinking. Hope is trust in God’s Providence in the present circumstances of our lives. It is an abiding trust that, as we journey through life, God is purifying us, making us ready, for the Kingdom of Heaven, where the deepest longings of our hearts finally will be satisfied. We hope to attain such happiness, not because of our unaided efforts, but because God, in his mercy, has sent his only Son into the world to suffer, to die, and to rise from the dead to save us from our sins. If we keep in mind what hope truly is, I think we will see how the Holy Family exemplifies the enduring and authentic hope that is essential to the Christian vocation of marriage and family life.
Trust in God in Present Circumstances
If ever there were parents who had to trust and hope in God in the present circumstances of their lives – it had to be Mary and Joseph. Mary would not have consented to become the Mother of the Savior had she not believed and hoped with every fiber of her Immaculate Heart. And what of St. Joseph? The events surrounding the birth of Jesus were stressful enough. But now, Herod, learning of Jesus’ birth, regarded the child as a rival and sought to kill him. Due to Herod’s treachery, Joseph had to flee to Egypt with his little family.
The annoyances of modern travel pale in comparison to what this young couple and their child had to endure. It was up to Joseph to make whatever arrangements he could to bring Mary and Jesus to safety. It was Mary’s task to keep her child safe and healthy amid this turmoil. Both of them were a team, navigating a seemingly impossible situation. Amid all of it, Mary and Joseph continued to consent to God’s plans for them, continued to trust, continued to hope against hope – for their eyes were fixed on God and on the fulfillment of his promises.
Times have changed and progress has eliminated many of life’s hardships. But for all our progress, we have not eliminated the problems and challenges every family faces, sooner or later. The course of my parents’ lives was drastically changed when they discovered that my older brother was intellectually and emotionally disabled. They didn’t expect this and at first didn’t fully grasp the sacrifices that they would have to make as parents. Yet, through it all, mom and dad continued to trust and hope in God, to trust that the cross they were bearing was for a purpose. They trusted that God was working out their salvation in ways they would not have chosen and did not fully understand.
Every parent, every mom and dad listening to his homily understands this: things do not go as planned, the unforeseen happens, often with little warning – When such things happen, we may be tempted to blame God or to lash out – but we know how quickly we need to recover our moorings of trust in God. What is true of parents can also be true of their sons and daughters. Even when surrounded by their parents’ love, young people today face unprecedented problems and challenges. They, too, need to anchor their lives in the God whose love is trustworthy. Indeed, it’s when the going is rough that families must trust God is even more. For shared trust in God and in his love enables families to face problems together, and, when necessary, to repair broken bonds of trust and love within the family circle. Throughout life’s journey, the words of St. Paul should ring in our ears: “God makes all things work together for the good of those who believe.” Yes, God’s ways are not our ways and we must trust that he is leading us through the trials of this life to happiness in the next.
A Supernatural Outlook
Trusting in God’s Providence in present circumstances blossoms into full-blown hope when it looks to our eternal destiny – to the inexpressible joy of seeing God face-to-face with all the angels & saints. The Holy Family exemplifies this supernatural outlook. Mary and Joseph hoped and trusted in God and in his promises. Mary had a sinless heart, totally open to God, and Joseph was a genuinely holy and virtuous man. Little by little, they came to understand that God chose them to play a unique role in the fulfillment of his promises; they were chosen create a loving home where the Savior of the World would come of age.
Their vocation was unique but their supernatural outlook was never meant to be unique. It is meant to imitated, emulated, reproduced in every family: trust and hope in the supernatural destiny that God has prepared for us. That is why the Church calls the family ‘the domestic church’. The home is to be a sanctuary where children are brought into the world with love, a place where they learn to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him. A Christian home gives God priority, by being a place of prayer, by rooting family life in the celebration of the sacraments, by handing on the faith from generation to generation, by training young people to love and respect others, by forming children and young people in virtue, and by making the family a source of generosity and love for those in need.
If this all sounds a bit unrealistic, let us ask ourselves: How much loneliness, isolation, and anger – and how many social problems – could be headed off at the pass by families united in faith, hope, and charity? Families will always be a work in progress, & in spite of best efforts, there will be a measure of disappointment, discord, failure. Building bridges of trust is hard work and requires all the love we can give. Yet this work is essential for ourselves, our loved ones, and for society itself. For, as Pope Leo said, “Families are the cradle of humanity’s future.” We need each other. We belong to each other. We all belong to God. Together, let us step into a future full of hope.