The beauty of the Church's triennial cycle is that some feasts can be considered in different lights aided by the particular readings for that year.
The Solemnity of the Holy Family is one of them. And this year's readings take us to the Temple in Jerusalem, when Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to consecrate him to the Lord. What we see in this gospel is how one form of fidelity to God inspires another.
We also see a wonderful union in God across the generations, what we might call "a symphony of generations," in which a young couple and two elders join together to serve and praise God.
"When the days of his purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, according to what is written in the law of the Lord, 'Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,' and to give the oblation, as the law of the Lord says, 'a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons'".
Joseph and Mary are scrupulously faithful to the law. What a joy it gives God that young couples bring their newborns to Baptism as soon as possible, so that they may be made children of God without delay. "Let them, do not prevent the children from approaching me."said Jesus.
But the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary "triggers" that of the elder Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit who choreography clearly everything that happens. He, the Paraclete, was preparing everything, also through the years of prayer and fasting of the aged Anna, who appears a little later.
"Prompted by the Spirit, he [Simeon] went to the temple."at that precise moment. Because a man open to the Holy Spirit is always right at the right time. And soon after, Anna arrives, after some 60 years of constant adoration of God in the Temple.
The four adults, two young, two old, share a song of praise to God that is all the more beautiful because it includes young and old voices.
How inspired by the Spirit Pope Francis is to insist so much on the role and value of the elderly in the Church and in society, at a time when so many of them are being discarded. Their voice, too, is part of the symphony of praise that God desires.
The family extends across generations: it must include children, many of them, with a generous openness to life, but with an equally generous care for its older members.
Homily on the readings of the Feast of the Holy Family
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
