Luke 2, 41 – 52
41 Every year the parents of Jesus used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. …
51 Jesus went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people.
New Jerusalem Bible
Doubleday 1984
FAITH LIVED AND PRAYED
NAZARETH: REFLECTIONS OF BLESSED PAUL VI
Basilica of the Annunciation, 5 January 1964
Blessed Pope Paul VI pays tribute to “Mary Most Holy”
Nazareth, 5 January 1964
Art Source: piercedhearts.org
Blessed Paul VI became the first “papal pilgrim in the Holy Land” after St Peter the Apostle. His first thoughts at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth on 5 January 1964 was to offer “Mary Most Holy … the tribute of his devotion” and “to nourish that devotion with reflections that will make it genuine, profound, and unique, in conformity with the plan of God.”
Art Source: bostoncatholic.org
The Final Report of the Bishops’ Synod on the Family images (article 38) the Holy Family of Nazareth living out “the covenant of love and fidelity” as “an icon of the Trinity.”
This Synod also upholds (article 41) Jesus — the Son of God born in a family — as “a paradigm for the Church.” Jesus seeing “in Mary and Joseph a faithfulness lived in love” draws all to become “part of God’s family.”
The “spiritual dimension of family life” — as the Synod further notes (article 87) — is cultivated by family members “listening to the Word of God in common” as one key element.
Blessed Paul’s reflections in Nazareth and its environs — which once provided “the natural backdrop for the words of the Divine Teacher” give a holistic approach to grasp “the letter and the spirit” of the living Word of the Gospel.
NAZARETH: THE SCHOOL OF THE GOSPEL
Blessed Paul VI saw Nazareth as “the school in which we begin to understand the life of Jesus … the school of the Gospel,” where we
- learn to “observe, listen, meditate, and penetrate the profound and mysterious meaning of that simple, humble, and lovely manifestation of the Son of God”
- learn almost “imperceptibly to imitate Him”
- learn the “method by which we can come to understand Christ,” and
- “discover the need to observe the milieu of His sojourn among us” – places, period of time, customs, language, religious practices — all used by Jesus to reveal Himself to the world.
The late Pope elaborated that everything in the Gospel scene revealing Jesus “speaks to us meaningfully with a twofold significance.” His approach enables us to compose ourselves exteriorly to enter into the passage through our five senses and interiorly to grasp with our interior senses what God in Jesus wants to say to us in our lives.
[1] “The letter” of the Gospel, with its “exterior significance” can
- be sensed, perceived, studied, and examined but
- engender illusions and intellectual pride in one who approaches these “external elements” without
- clear vision,
- humility,
- a good intention, and
- a prayerful spirit.
[2] “The spirit” with its “interior significance,” – reveals divine truth … supernatural reality” contained in the Gospel and “manifested” to persons disposed in “harmony with its light.” Blessed Paul explained that this harmony is due to:
- the person’s initiative to remain “upright in spirit, in mind and heart” and
- the “mysterious, free, and unmerited outpouring of God’s grace” mercifully bestowed to sustain people of good will in God’s proper time and manner
A “spiritual discipline” is thus necessary for one wishing “to follow the teachings of the Gospel and to become a follower of Christ,” in attaining the “true meaning of life” and the “higher wisdom of divine truth!”
NAZARETH’S LESSON: THREE FRAGMENTS
Blessed Paul VI further aspired for the listener three “fragments of the lesson of Nazareth:”
[1] “THE LESSON OF SILENCE” … In the chaotic and frenzied pace of the world where our “spiritual condition” is deafened by much tumult and noise
“O silence of Nazareth, teach us
- recollection, reflection, and eagerness to heed the good inspirations and words of true teachers;
- the need and value of preparation, study, meditation, the interior life, and secret prayer seen by God alone.
[2] “THE LESSON OF DOMESTIC LIFE:”
May Nazareth teach us
- the meaning of family life, its
- harmony of love,
- simplicity and austere beauty,
- sacred and inviolable character
Statue of Holy Family, Church of St Joseph in grounds of Basilica, Nazareth
Art Source: catholicreview.org
- how sweet and irreplaceable is its training,
- how fundamental and incomparable its role on the social plane.
In the address the Pope continued:
May Nazareth
- serve as a model of what the family should be
- show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplifying its basic function in society:
- a community of love and sharing,
- beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings;
- in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children—and for this there is no substitute.
[3] “THE LESSON OF WORK:”
O Nazareth, home of “the carpenter’s son,”
We want here to
- understand and to praise the austere and redeeming law of human labor,
- restore the consciousness of the dignity of labor,
- recall that work
- cannot be an end in itself, and
- is free and ennobling in proportion to the values – beyond the economic ones – which motivate it.
- salute all the workers of the world, and to point out to them their great Model, their Divine Brother, the Champion of all their rights, Christ the Lord!
Pope Paul VI leaves the Basilica of the Annunciation
Nazareth 5 January 1964
after celebrating Mass
Art Source: telegraph.co.uk/
PRAYER TO THE HOLY FAMILY
The Final Report of the Synod concludes (94) with a
Prayer to the Holy Family
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendour of true love,
to you we turn with trust.
The Holy Family
Mama Delfina nativity
Managua Nicaragua
Art Source: carmenamato.net
Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again
experience violence, rejection and division:
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
graciously hear our prayer.
Amen
RESOURCES
Pope Paul VI, An Address at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, 5 January 1964
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6reflect.htm
Synod of Bishops, XIV Ordinary General Assembly, 4 – 25 October 2015, The Final Report to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, on The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World, Vatican City, 24 October 2015.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20151026_relazione-finale-xiv-assemblea_en.html
Cf Related post
ORDINARY TIME: SUNDAY 14 [B] – PROPHETS DISHONOURED AT HOME—Faith Celebrated
Bible scholars and archeologists like Jerome Murphy O’Connor have suggested that Joseph and Jesus might have worked in Sepphoris a northwest hour’s walk of 6.5 km from Nazareth.
Towns and Villages in Galilee during Jesus’ Day
Map Source: Bible Mapper adapted by itsGila
Sepphoris — at the time when Jesus was growing up in Nazareth — was Galilee’s provincial capital and administrative centre. It underwent a huge restoration project and grew into an artisans’ paradise for carpenters, masons, and mosaic designers in its cultural, societal, and religious developments under great influence of Roman and Greek cultures.
SONGS
When Love is Found (2)
Brian Wren
Tune: WALY O WALY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hktqCT6GVE
For the Beauty of the Earth (2, P)
John Rutter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaMkj4_H8WM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpEbQGsPqHE
Good Christian Friends (Men) Rejoice! (G)
Valentin Triller 1573
trans John Mason Neale 1853
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR7ZdtWQAfE
FAITH CONVERTED
On ending this year’s Christmas Season we reflect with Blessed Paul VI
on the three lessons he gave
on the Holy Family of Nazareth:
the lesson of silence,
the lesson of family life, and
the lesson of every day work.
The Holy Family
Painting on Silk
Japan, 20th c
Art Source: thexiansatirist.wordpress
What first steps can be taken in my family
to come to know Jesus Christ more
in the Gospels
through these three lessons?
till Christ is formed 