Holy Family Homily 2024

Sister Lucia wrote a letter to Cardinal Carlo Caffara of Bologna, in its she writes:

“Father, a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family. And those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation. But do not be afraid, because Our Lady has already crushed his head.”

Cardinal Caffarra is the Archbishop emeritus of Bologna and the founding president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. He has also served as a Member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Member of the Presidential Committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

He was created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2006. Cardinal Caffarra was one of Pope Francis’ 45 handpicked delegates chosen to attend the Ordinary Synod on the Family in 2015.

Cardinal Caffarra describes how Satan is attempting to destroy the two pillars of creation, so as to fashion his own “anti-creation”.

Caffara: If we read the second chapter of Genesis, we see that the edifice of creation is founded on two pillars.

First pillar, man is not something; he is someone, and therefore he deserves absolute respect. [First pillar is dignity of the human person]

The second pillar is the relationship between man and woman, which is sacred. Between the man and the woman. Because creation finds its completion when God creates the woman. So much so, that after he created woman, the Bible says God rested.

Today, what do we observe? Two terrible events. First, the legitimization of abortion. That is, abortion has become a subjective right of woman. Now, ‘subjective right’ is an ethical category and therefore we are here entering into the world of good and evil, and we say that abortion is a good; it is a right.

The second thing we see is the attempt to equate homosexual relationships with marriage. You see that Satan is attempting to threaten and destroy the two pillars so that he can fashion another creation. As if he were provoking the Lord, saying to Him: ‘I will fashion another creation, and man and woman will say: we like better here.’

Marriage is not only the original design in which God created man and woman God has also made marriage a sacrament. That is to say: not only is marriage natural and good for us, it is also something sacred, something holy. It is holy and a means for making us holy. And so the devil has been selling us a false idea of love and marriage, his anti-creation. A corruption of the idea which attacks and destroys the family. A love which is fickle, unfaithful and short lived. A love which is selfish, self searching, which seeks to satisfy its own desires. A perverse, corrupt and tainted love. Sins which undermine the family have been facilitated and encouraged.

The Holy Family should inspire us to have holy families. It is true that we are not St Joseph we are not the Blessed Virgin Mary nor God Incarnate; however we are children of God endowed with abundant graces, enough to make us saints. If we love our family we ought to want the best for them, and so give them our best. The family should be a holy place, John Paul II calls it, the domestic Church. John Paul II says: “Catholic parents must learn to form their family as a 'domestic church,' a church in the home as it were, where God is honoured, his law is respected, prayer is a normal event, virtue is transmitted by word and example, and everyone shares the hopes, the problems, and sufferings of everyone else”.

Let us ask the Holy Family to bless our families, to protect them from the attacks of the devil and to heal those families and family members which have been misled and hurt by the devil and his temptations. May the Holy Family strengthen the love we have for our families and help us build a holy home where God is welcome and lives.