Lessons From the Feast of Holy Innocents and the Holy Family

The first few days of Christmas we learned some Lessons From St. Steven And St. John. I got these insights from a priest’s homily when I went to Mass. He had a few more insights on some other feasts days that occur during the Christmas season.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
four calling birds 
(fourth day of Christmastide)

The Feast of the Holy Innocence reminds us of our Christian responsibility to defend the lives of those who cannot do so themselves. Evil will always seek to destroy the most innocent of life first. Once innocent life is destroyed then evil comes after the rest of us, Just a warning for those who think abortion doesn’t affect them. The Feast of the Holy Innocence reminds us of our responsibility to hold all human life as sacred. So, if we hold grudges, if we harbor hate or seek vengeance we have failed in that responsibility.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents was set aside this year as it fell on a Sunday and was preempted by the feast of

The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us of our Christian responsibility to our families.  This applies to our homes and blood relatives, but it also applies to our large larger family; the church. Just as we have a responsibility provide for our own individual personal families, we also have responsibility to provide for the needs of the church and the physical needs of our parishes and diocese. Our responsibility of charity to the missions and to provide for those less fortune than ourselves.  Just as we have a responsibility to heal wounds within our blood families, we have a responsibility to heal wounds within our neighbor. The holy family gives us a spiritual instruction manual to do this.

These next thoughts on The Holy Family come from a sermon preached at Holy Apostles Church on the vigil of the holy Family. I asked Deacon Greg Albanese if he could send it to me so I could use it in a blog post, and he was more than delighted to do so. He did it for me last year as well in the post  Things Are Going To Be Different For The Next Few Weeks | Preparing For Advent.

Deacon Greg’s Holy Family Homily

Instruction Manuels

Instruction manuals…We all know that instruction manuals are useful because they assist us in trying to assemble and use things in the correct way.  I think back to when my kids were little, and many of their Christmas presents came with a large booklet with the words “adult assembly required” in large bold letters on the front cover…and for most people, that booklet would be enough to help the person in charge to assemble the object quickly and easily…for me, not so much.

When we don’t follow the instruction manual, when we don’t assemble or use things in the way they were designed to be put together or used, disaster often follows.

Two quick stories:

Story # 1: Wrong Oil

One time, my car needed an oil change.  My good friend, being very well intentioned, offered to do it for me so that I would save the bother and expense of bringing it somewhere.  I was grateful, but the next day after the procedure I was driving over the Jamestown Bridge when BOOM…a small explosion, smoke coming out of the hood, and panic .  I managed to get to the end of the bridge and pull over to the side of the road, and the expense of the oil change was replaced by the expense of a tow truck.  My friend used the wrong oil filter, and it was a disaster.

Story #2: Wrongly Held Camera

When I was young, home videos on vacations were recorded on a large camera and I believe the format of the film strips was 9mm.  After several vacations, my mother who always did the filming remarked to my father that the camera seemed very difficult to work with and use.  Today, there are many old filmstrips in my family with beautiful memories…all upside down.  The reason why the camera seemed so awkward and difficult to use was because the camera was upside down the whole time my mother was using it…another disaster!

Holy Family Instruction Manuel

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family today, we are provided with an instruction manual about how to be a good family member from the prophet Sirach and St. Paul.  So let’s look at the manual…in the first reading, Sirach spoke to us about respect and understanding our place in our family.  Think about our families…are we always respectful?  Kind?  Willing to be patient with those we love?  And in our second reading, St. Paul just gave us a list of virtues we are expected to practice at work or school and in the community, we live in, but also and especially at home when we are with our families and interacting with those we love.

How Are We Doing?

So how are we doing in the categories of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience?  How about two/three days ago at the Christmas celebrations?

Were we kind and patient with everyone, or did our dinner more resemble the Griswold family dinner from the movie Christmas Vacation?

The Feast of the Holy Family

The Church always designates the Sunday after Christmas as the Feast of the Holy Family, and it is a nice time for us to honestly think about and pray about our role in the family we have been blessed with.  And the Church offers us the ultimate family as our model to try to live up to—Jesus, Mary and Joseph the Holy Family.

During the last weeks of Advent and into Christmas, we have been dwelling on the story of Jesus’ birth and everything leading up to and surrounding the birth of our Savior, and how Mary and Joseph had to use their faith and those other good qualities we heard about in the readings.  And I think many of us would be tempted to just picture the Holy Family as perfect, never facing adversity, and having a peaceful serene life together–just like those content, peaceful figures in the manger scene up there.

A Different Gospel Scene

But today we are given a very different scene in the gospel–a scene of danger, chaos and challenge.  King Herod had decided to murder all the male babies under 2 in Bethlehem to try to kill the Messiah, and Joseph was told to take the Holy Family, flee to Egypt and become displaced refugees for a time.  This part of the Christmas story should remind all of us that there are difficult times and challenges in every family.  Financial worry, sickness, strained relationships, danger,  and other obstacles to happiness happen to all of us, and the Holy Family was no different.  It is in those times that our faith must come into play, and our gifts and talents must be used to benefit our family.

St. John Paul II once said, “The family is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love.”  By what happens on a daily basis in your home and mine, are we promoting good or evil?  Are we enriching life or destroying it?  Are we modeling true love, or slipping into vengeance and hate?

Final Thoughts

Through the intercession of the Holy Family, I pray that all of us will appreciate the blessings of our family, and we will renew our commitment to being a positive contributor to a family of good and a family of love.

So in your families this week and beyond, use the right oil filter, and keep the camera right side up!

A quick look at the rest of the 2025 Christmas Season.

At the beginning of this new year which the Lord has granted us, we do well to lift our eyes and hearts to Mary. For, like a Mother, she points us to her Son. She brings us back to Jesus; she speaks to us of Jesus; she leads us to Jesus. The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, immerses us once more in the mystery of Christmas. In Mary’s womb, God became one of us, and we, who have opened the Holy Door to inaugurate the Jubilee, are reminded today that “Mary is the door through which Christ entered this world” (Saint Ambrose, Ep. 42, 4: PL, VII).

The Apostle Paul sums up this mystery by telling us that “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4). Those words – “born of a woman” – echo in our hearts today; they remind us that Jesus, our Saviour, became flesh and is revealed in the frailty of the flesh.

Born of a woman. Those words bring us back to Christmas, for the Word became flesh. – Pope Francis – Holy Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (1 January 2025)

Did You Know the Month of January is Dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus?
(Click to learn more)