An invitation to prayer "for all the families of the world" so they
may imitate "the Holy Family of Nazareth" was the main theme of Benedict XVI's reflection to the faithful gathered
in St Peter's Square
before the midday Angelus. This Sunday the Church celebrates the Holy Family. "Imitating the Holy Family of Nazareth, - prayed the pope - may parents seriously concern themselves about the growth and education of their children, so that they may mature as responsible and honest citizens, without ever forgetting that faith is a precious gift to be nourished in their children through personal example. At the same time we pray that every child is welcomed as a gift from God, is sustained by the love of the father and mother in order to advance as the Lord Jesus "in wisdom and age and favour before God and man " (Lk 2: 52).
The love, loyalty and dedication of Mary and Joseph are an example for all Christian couples who are neither the friends nor masters of their children's lives, but the guardians of this incomparable gift from God."
The silence of Joseph, the just man (cf. Mt 1:19), - he added - and the example of Mary who kept all things in her heart (cf. Lk 2:51), causes us to enter into the mystery full of faith and humanity of the Holy family.
Previously, the pope had referred more closely to the passage of today's Gospel (Luke 2, 41-52).
" In the liturgy the passage from Luke's Gospel presents the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph who, faithful to tradition, go to Jerusalem for the Passover with the twelve-year-old Jesus. The first time Jesus had entered the Temple of the Lord was forty days after his birth, when his parents had offered "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24) on his behalf, which is the sacrifice of poor.
"Luke, whose Gospel is filled with a whole theology of the poor and poverty, makes it clear ... that Jesus' family was counted among the poor of Israel; he helps us to understand that it was there among them where the fulfillment of God's promise matured" ( The Infancy Narratives, 96). Today Jesus is in the Temple again, but this time he has a different role, which involves him in the first person. He undertakes the pilgrimage to Jerusalem as prescribed by the Law (Ex 23.17, 34.23 ff) together with Mary and Joseph, although he was not yet in his thirteenth year: a sign of the deep religiosity of the Holy Family. But when his parents return to Nazareth, something unexpected happens: he, without saying anything, remains in the City. For three days, Mary and Joseph search for him and find him in the Temple, speaking with the teachers of the Law (Lk 2: 46 ,47), and when they ask him for an explanation, Jesus tells them they have no cause to wonder, because that is his place, that is his home, with the Father, who is God (The Infancy Narratives 143). "He - Origen writes - professes to be in the temple of his Father, the Father who has revealed Himself to us and of which he says he is the Son" (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, 18, 5)".
"The concern of Mary and Joseph for Jesus - he added - is the same as any parent who educates a child, introducing them to life and understanding reality."
"I wish for all Christian families - he concluded - to live in the presence of God with the same love and the same joy as the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph."