Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family
Cathedral of St Peter and Paul
Sunday, 28th of December 2025
Formal Close of the Jubilee Year of Hope
On this holy Sunday, within the radiant light of Christmas, the Church gathers us around a simple yet profound mystery: the Holy Family of Nazareth. At the same time, here in our cathedral—the mother church of the diocese of Killaloe—we mark a sacred threshold: the formal close of the Jubilee Year of Hope. Providence could not have chosen a more fitting day.
The Gospel places before us not an idealized family untouched by struggle, but a real family who knew uncertainty, danger, and displacement. Mary and Joseph bring the Child Jesus to the Temple. They fulfil the Law faithfully, even though they carry in their arms the One who is the fulfilment of the Law. There, Simeon and Anna speak words of light and of shadow: promises of salvation, and the prophecy of a sword that will pierce a mother’s heart.
From the very beginning, the Holy Family teaches us this truth: hope is not the absence of hardship; hope is God’s presence within it.
The Holy Family: A School of Hope
This Jubilee Year has invited us to become pilgrims of hope. Today, the Holy Family shows us what that pilgrimage looks like in daily life.
- Joseph hopes when he obeys God in silence, even when the road ahead is unclear.
- Mary hopes when she treasures and ponders events she does not fully understand.
- Jesus, the Word made flesh, grows in wisdom within the ordinary rhythms of family life, sanctifying every home, every table, every act of love.
In a world where families are often fragile—wounded by division, economic pressure, migration, loneliness, and fear—the Holy Family does not stand above us as an unreachable model. They stand with us, reminding us that God chooses families as the place where hope takes flesh.
Closing the Jubilee Year of Hope
Over this past year, the Jubilee has opened doors—literal and spiritual. Doors of reconciliation through confession. Doors of mercy through works of charity. Doors of faith for those who had grown weary or distant.
Pilgrimages of Hope
Throughout the diocese there has been so many pilgrimages of hope to the multitude of pilgrimage sites and holy places and we as a diocesan community have ventured in hope to so many holy places around the country and world, Knock, Lough Derg, Lourdes, Rome, Medjugorje and many other places.
Where to now?
As we now close this Jubilee Year, the Church asks us an important question:
What happens to hope when the Holy Door is closed?
The answer is simple and demanding:
Hope does not end; it is entrusted.
It is entrusted to families who pray together, even briefly.
It is entrusted to parents and grandparents who pass on faith through example.
It is entrusted to those who forgive within their homes, who remain faithful in difficulty, who welcome life, who care for the elderly and the vulnerable.
The Jubilee ends not with an ending, but with a sending.
The Cathedral and the Home
Today, in this cathedral, hope resounds around the stone walls in this building, shaped by centuries of faith. But the Jubilee has taught us that the very important sanctuaries are also made of kitchen tables, places where young people gather, work places, hospital rooms, and quiet places of daily sacrifice.
Every Christian home is called to be a domestic church—a place where Christ is welcomed, where Scripture is lived, and where love and hope is learned patiently.
As bishop of this diocese, I thank you—for the hope you have carried this year. I thank families who have persevered, young people who have dared to believe, priests, volunteer ministers who have served faithfully, religious sisters and brothers who have witnessed joyfully, and all who have made hope visible through charity.
Going Forward
As we close the Jubilee Year of Hope on this Feast of the Holy Family, let us carry three simple commitments into the future:
- Protect family life, in all its forms and seasons, as a sacred gift.
- Practice hope daily, especially when it is costly.
- Keep Christ at the centre, for He is our hope, yesterday, today, and forever.
May the Holy Family of Nazareth walk with every family in our diocese.
May this cathedral continue to be a beacon of hope.
And may the Lord who began this work in us bring it to completion.
Amen.