The birth of the Child in the night of Bethlehem gave rise to the Family. Hence, the Sunday during the Octave of Christmas is the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. This is the Holy Family, because shaped by birth of Him whom even His adversary was constrained one day to call "the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). The Holy Family, because the sanctity of Him who was born became the source of a singular sanctification, both that of the Virgin Mother and that of her Spouse, who in the eyes of mankind, as lawful consort, was considered to be the father of the child born during the census of Bethlehem.
This Family is at the same time a human
family. The Church, therefore, addresses every human family through the Holy
Family in the Christmas season. Sanctity impresses a unique, exceptional,
irrepealable, supernatural character upon this Family. In fact, the Holy Family
was truly poor. It was without a roof over its head at the moment when Jesus
was born and was forced into exile.
When the danger was over, it remained a Family living modestly, in
poverty, through the labour of its hands.
Its circumstances were similar to those of
so many other human families. It is the place where our solidarity meets up
with every family, with every union of man and woman, in which a new human
being is born. It takes upon itself those profound, beautiful and generally
difficult problems which married and family life brings.
~ Pope John Paul II
