In the midst of the Season of Christmas we celebrate this feast of the Holy Family. Since Christmas is about good news for us, as the angel said on the first Christmas night, this feast draws us to find good news and encouragement for our own families.

There is no doubt that the image of the family is changing very quickly in our society. There are things that are encouraging and things that are discouraging in the way family life is lived out today. For Catholic Christians, the family continues to be one of the most important institutions in our modern society and in our Church.

In these times of change, it is good for us to remember what we as Catholics believe about the family. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family.” (CCC 2202) We are well aware that there are other people in our society who would have other definitions of family including our governments.

However, it is good to remember that government definitions of family and marriage are most often in the context of who can get what benefits that are due to those who are a family member or a marriage partner. As a Church, our understanding of marriage and family is much broader than that. It is a way of living and learning, a calling from God. As we try to figure out in general what all this means, we only need to look at the members of our own families to see that what people today understand to be “a family” are complex and varied.

The celebration of Christmas encourages us to find light in the darkness from Jesus, whose birth we celebrate and who is for us the Light of the World. Jesus teaches us what it means to be truly a human being, a human being at his or her best. Jesus not only teaches us but he also accompanies us as Emmanuel, God with us, as we struggle to find how we should live our lives so as to find joy and fullness. The fact that Jesus is “God with us” is meant to be “good news of great joy” for us.

Just before Christmas, Pope Francis encouraged us to celebrate the Christmas feast contemplating Mary and Joseph: “Mary, full of grace, the woman who had the courage to rely totally on the Word of God; and Joseph, the faithful and righteous man who preferred to believe in the Lord instead of listening to voices of doubt and of human pride.” “With them,” Pope Francis said, “we walk together towards Bethlehem.” (angelus dec 22, 2013) And we could add today, with Mary and Joseph we walk towards a happy and healthy family life.

If we are going to have any influence on the world around us when it comes to family life and true family values, it will not be by having shouting matches with those whom we disagree. Rather it will be by the way we Christians live as families and the quality of life and happiness and security and faithfulness that will be evident to those who see us.

If there is anything in our Church that we need to do as regards families and family life, it is to help each other to live as Catholic families as Jesus has taught us. And what the Gospel clearly tells us, is that we must listen to what God calls us to do so that we can live as God calls us to live. In our understanding, Marriage is a vocation; it is a calling from God.

Marriage is a sacrament; it is a work of Jesus himself. Because it is a Sacrament, it is a way in which we find our salvation and our communion with God. Marriage is where people become holy. Marriage is where the world gets a glimpse of Jesus himself because the husband and wife are living signs of the faithful love that God has for all people, the love that became flesh in Jesus.

From the love of the spouses for each other, children are brought into the world. Here, among the members of the same family, we learn all the personal relationships that prepare us for life and here we learn those basic responsibilities that we as people have towards one another. The family is the school of life; the family is the basic unit of the Church because it is the fundamental community of faith, hope and love.

In the midst of many immense challenges, we people of faith need to help each other and strengthen each other in living the faithful and steadfast love that is marriage and the family. It is a known fact that fewer and fewer young people in Canada are getting married and starting families. Is this because of selfishness? That could very well be part of it. It is because of fear that the marriage might breakup? That also could be the case. Is it because they do not have hope for a happy future and so will not have children? The absence of hope is very real in our young people and in our society.

We are followers of Jesus. We are people of faith. We understand that our Catholic marriages and families need to be real signs to the world of the power of love, our love and God’s love. This love has the power to overcome the things that threaten marriage and family life.

We need couples who truly are living signs of fidelity and faithfulness; living signs of steadfast love which joins with God’s creative power in bringing new life into the world. We need couples who see that married love means sacrifice, as did Christ’s love for us. Making a commitment to be faithful and to bring children into the world cannot be achieved without personal sacrifice.

We must remember and pray for and help in any way we can those families throughout the world who suffer because of wars and violence and hatred. We cannot forget the refugees from Syria and the Middle East who need our help. As we heard in the Gospel, The Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus themselves were refugees who fled their homeland to save their lives as we heard in the Gospel today. They know what the modern refugees suffer. They urge us to show compassion and help in any way we can.

We need to remember the families in our own communities that suffer from poverty, addictions and violence. And we need to remember the children of these families whose lives little lives are often seriously damaged from their smallest beginnings.

Christmas gives us hope in the face of all our human fears and weaknesses. We know the things of darkness that we deal with. But, as the prophet Isaiah said to us at Christmas: “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” Mary and Joseph and Jesus lived that brightness in spite of all the difficulties they faced. That is the gift of the Holy Family to our families as well.