For the Love of Father: Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.

My dear brothers and sister, the gospel episode on this feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – focuses entirely on St. Joseph. As is often observed, St. Joseph is silent through the entire Gospel, he speaks not once. Not only is he silent, however, but the gospels do not provide us with very many details about this man, charged with the care of Our Lord.

For these details, we must turn to the pious traditions of the Church. While not essential to the faith – we are not obliged to believe them – we do benefit from paying attention to these traditions as these deepen our faith. According to the venerable Mary of Ágreda (1602-1665), who received special revelations directly from Our Lady concerning the life of the Virgin Mother of God, and recorded these in a book called The Mystical City of God, we learn that, having lived with Our Lady for a little longer than twenty-seven years, St. Joseph died at the age of sixty years and a few days. This allows us to date the age of Our Lord at the death of St. Joseph at about twenty-seven years.

We can see, therefore, how this verse from the first reading, from the book of Sirach, applies to Our Lord and His relationship with His father. From these revelations, we can deduce that Our Lord began his public ministry only after the death of His father, choosing to be close to St. Joseph until his death. In any case, given the lack of biblical reference to St. Joseph during Our Lord’s ministry, we can be sure that the public ministry of Our Lord commenced only after the death of St. Joseph.

My dear brothers and sisters, owing to the intimacy with the lives of others that the reception of holy orders offers, I have realized the extent to which the institution of the family is challenged. I refer not to persons who choose to live outside of marriage, or other forms of life that are not ordered to Christ, but to the number of parents who languish alone in old age. It is not that their children do not care; but their parents, and the heathen society we live in, have formed them to pursue and privilege material benefits alone. This has ensured that these parents are now left alone in their hometowns, while the children are far away, across oceans and seas pursuing lucre and material success.

Left all alone, the scenario is worsened when they fall prey to the illnesses that precede death. They must now rely on the kindness of strangers, nurses and other caregivers, who at times may not be kind. In any case, however, we must remember that the caregivers, not being family, cannot provide the affection that comes specifically from the children one raises, or the family one has grown up with. Communication is complicated by different languages and more importantly cultural mores. When you are sick, and even more when you know that you are on the edge of the grave, it matters that the caregiver have a bedside manner that one is familiar with.

The feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth offers us, dear brothers and sisters, the opportunity to model ourselves on this holy family, and above all on the example of Our Lord. We must not abandon our aged relatives – and I do not mean just our parents – to the care of strangers in their final moments. And this care cannot be given unless our entire life, from the time we are earning and working adults, is shaped by the determination to be present at a moment’s notice for our families in their time of need.

There is a beautiful tradition of depicting the death of St. Joseph surrounded by his Son and wife. This is the death that we should all hope for. Some time ago, I was informed of the death of a pious nun I knew the Italian town of Bagnoregio. Her sisters in the convent assured me that she died at dawn, in her bed, surrounded by her community who accompanied her death with prayers and hymns.

This, brothers and sisters in Christ, was the kind of death that St. Joseph enjoyed, and one that we must all aspire for our loved ones. And not just our loved ones, but every Christian, and ourselves! We must mobilise to pray at the bedside of those who are in ICU, those who are clearly dying, so that they die accompanied by the prayers of those who care for them – whether related by blood or not. To do so would be to imitate Our Lord and the holiness of the family of Nazareth.

One last word inspired from a portion of the reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, 
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 
with gratitude in your hearts to God.

How does one create the situation where despite being far away we are committed to our families? One sure way is prayer. I was recently edified by the example of a family that gathers virtually to pray the rosary of Our Lady – a great way to bind ourselves together and grow in holiness. The rosary is a prayer that is rich in the word of Christ, founded as it is on biblical episodes and facts. And our rosaries should not limited to the recitation of the Our Father and Hail Mary, but also as often as we can, accompanied by little reflections on the Marian mysteries we contemplate.

May the Holy Family of Nazareth bless you and aid you in your growth in holiness this Christmastide.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful on 27 December 2025 at the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa.)

(Image reference: The Death of St. Joseph, Bartolomeo Altomonte, 18^th century.)

A Sign in the End Times: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.

Here we are dear brothers and sisters in Christ, at the fourth Sunday of Advent. It would be a good time to ask ourselves, how have I spent this Advent season? Has it been in the spirit of fast and abstinence. Has it been in preparation for the final coming of Our Lord. Or has it been one of pre-Christmas feasting, and living as if nothing has changed? If our lives this Advent has not been one of patient preparation for the final coming of Our Lord, then shame on us.

God the Father offered us a sign, not so that our lives would remain unchanged, but so that we could learn to live eschatologically – to live knowing that the end times have begun, and that any moment now the King will return and put a permanent end to all evil and reign in triumph forever. To empower us on this journey to the end, He came to live among us, not just in the Eucharist, but through the Eucharist in our hearts and our bodies!

So, how does one live as a sign of Our Lord in the end times? As always, St. Paul offers us an answer; as:

a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God

My dear brothers and sisters, we are not free to do our own will, but having been rescued from the useless ways of our ancestors (1 Peter1:18), we are called to be His servants. We are not only called to be apostles, to proclaim the Gospel, but as the words “set apart” indicate to us, we have to zealously separate ourselves from all things, and persons, who do not live according to the Gospel.

As Saint Paul says later in this reading from the letter to the Romans, we:

are called to belong to Jesus Christ;

… called to be holy.

To be holy is to consent to being set apart, to belong to Jesus Christ, and to Him alone.

And it is not just for our own little lives that we are called to be holy. As the Lord says through the Prophet Isaiah (49:6):

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

And this is precisely what, through the words of St. Paul, Holy Mother Church teaches us on this final Sunday of Advent. We are called to be holy:

to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles

This, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow Christians, is what we are called to be Christian for. To be obedient to the faith, and to bring others, the Gentiles we live among, and the Gentiles we can often become, to the faith. This is all we must live for, to bring others to obedience of the faith, all the while operating as a sign of what this kind of life must mean.

There may be costs to this separation, in fact I am dead certain that there are costs, but this we can gladly bear because we know what the end will be, both for all things and persons, and particularly for ourselves and those who repent and believe.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we have not spent this Advent in any kind of fast and penitence, without preparing ourselves to be the signs of His first coming and preparation for His second, there is still time. We have a few days, when we can embrace the spirit of Advent and triumph, for remember, God is with us and He makes all things possible.

Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful in Concanim at the parish church of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 21 Dec 2025.)

(Image reference: The Baptism of Christ, Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar, c. 1485/1500, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.)

Vita Sacramentalis: Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent

Amen, I say to you,
among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

It occurred to me, not a few days ago, that the kingdom of heaven is in fact nothing other than the sacramental life. With this insight, Our Lord’s saying; “The kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17: 21) is instantly understood.

Way back in the fifth century, St. Augustine, doctor of the Church, defined the sacraments as a visible sign of an invisible grace. This sharpens the insight that the kingdom of God is the sacramental life, and that the kingdom is already among us; because this is what the sacraments are, and what they do; they bring us into communion with the body of Christ.

Consider the words of St. Paul to the Romans (Rom 6: 4):

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

In baptism we are incorporated into the Church, the mystical body of Christ, and remain in Him through the rest of our lives, unless we willfully separate ourselves from him. From the moment of our baptism He holds us by our hand and carries us through this vale of tears, strengthening us through the other sacraments which are opened to us through baptism. In Confirmation we are sealed with the Spirit, with Confession our sins are forgiven and we can return to communion with Him, in the Eucharist He gives us bread for our journey, with the Anointing of the sick He heals our physical and spiritual wounds.

Those of us who are introduced to the sacramental life and remain with Our Lord are already in the kingdom of Heaven and this is so great a reward that Our Lord indicated that those who were in the kingdom of heaven by being His disciples were greater than John the Baptist. Recollect, that at this moment John the Baptist was locked away in prison by Herod and was soon martyred. After death he did not enter heaven, but had to wait for Our Lord to descend into the dead so that he could be liberated from hell – which is where everyone who died before Christ went. We are indeed blessed that our pathway to heaven has been cleared for us by Our Lord, a privilege that even St. John the Baptist did not enjoy.

My dear brothers and sisters. We celebrate today the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday. The word Gaudete, or rejoice, comes from the first word of the entrance antiphon for this mass:

            Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.

            Indeed, the Lord is near. (Phil 4: 4-5).

This is also one of the themes of the lectionary this Sunday, as we hear in the words of the prophet Isaiah. We can rejoice because we are given hope that in the sacramental life:

they will see the glory of the LORD,
the splendor of our God.
Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
make firm the knees that are weak,

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.

This is precisely what Our Lord asks John’s disciples to communicate to their master:

the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

My dear brothers and sisters, all that the prophet Isaiah foresaw, and Our Lord worked are what the sacraments do for us. We have been ransomed from death and can enter the heavenly Zion through baptism. Our spiritual sight is restored, our paths are made straight, our bodies are cleansed. This is our reason to rejoice.

There is one more theme to this note of rejoicing, which is in keeping with the spirit of Advent: patience. St. James counsels us today:

Be patient, brothers and sisters,
until the coming of the Lord.

We must be patient because as in the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (13:12):

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Augustine teaches us that the sacraments are visible signs of invisible grace. In the Tantum Ergo, his great hymn to the Blessed Sacrament, St. Thomas Aquinas sings:

Præstet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.

faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble senses fail.

We are already in the kingdom of heaven, but our feeble physical senses can still not perceive the glory of God. This will be revealed to us fully at the second coming of Our Lord, which is what we prepare for in this season of Advent. May our waiting be short but never lacking in intensity, and may we esteem the sacramental life, for:

Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return
and enter Zion singing,
crowned with everlasting joy;
they will meet with joy and gladness,
sorrow and mourning will flee.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 14 December 2025.)

(Image reference: The Seven Sacraments, Rogier van der Weyden, 1440-1445, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.)