“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth : and was subject to them.” — Gospel of the day — St. Luke II 51

The Gospel of to-day brings before us the home life of the Holy Family at Nazareth. The home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph was a very poor but a very peaceful home. And from it we may learn how to regulate our homes, and make them the abodes of virtue and peace.

The only real comfort to be had in this world is to be sought in that sanctuary of domestic life which we call home, and the happiness of every true home, be it a palace or a hovel, is essentially the same. The most sacred memories of the heart are entwined around the old home. All the joys of childhood, all the deep affections of mature years, all the quiet peace of old age, are associated with it. There is no life so bleak as that which has no home recollections to rest upon.

Now, the home life at Nazareth answered to all the conditions that constitute the true home. There was perfect love and harmony, there was perfect peace and trust, and, although the roof was lowly, and the labor incessant, and the means pinched, there was sweet contentment and repose. Poor as it was, the little vine-clad cottage at Nazareth was the only spot on earth in which Jesus and Mary could take comfort. Every other place and prospect had the shadow of a great sorrow hanging over it. No doubt Nazareth had its shadow too, but it was distant, and peace reigned there for years unbroken.

And if our Blessed Saviour Himself, who came into the world to suffer, found some comfort in His earthly home, surely we may look for it also. Love is the first condition of domestic happiness ; there must be mutual love and trust between the inmates of every home that is worthy of the name. And this love must manifest itself in kindly, cheerful and unselfish devotion to the common interests and comforts. When love is lost, and ill-temper and ill-will take the place of cheerfulness and the will to serve, when there is bickering and barking and quarreling, there is no longer a Christian home, but only a den of snarling animals, without the common instinct of mutual harmony. And where there is drunkenness, and blows, and blasphemy, there is a den of demons who pollute the domestic sanctuary with the breath of hell itself, and make a hideous mockery of its happiness and peace.

It is amazing how some people will poison the sweetest waters of life by continually giving way to their mean, nasty tempers, and sacrifice the purest joys of existence rather than practise a little self-control. And nothing short of the direct influence of the evil one can account for the fact that so many infatuated creatures will utterly blight their homes and make their lives accursed for the pitiful consolations of the beer-jug and the demi-john.

Ill-temper and dissipation are the great enemies of domestic happiness, but they are not the only ones. Slovenly house-keeping, want of order and cleanliness rob the home of some of its best comforts. The poorest home may be made to assume an air of cheerfulness and comfort by keeping it neat and clean. And I have no hesitation in saying that a large part of the misery we meet with in the homes of the poor comes from dirt. You will often find in the same tenement-houses, and even on the same floors, apartments that present an immeasurably different appearance. Some will be bright, clean, and cosy ; others squalid and filthy, the very picture of misery and despair. It may be some exaggeration to say that “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” but certainly it is not far removed from it. For where you find order and neatness in a home you are sure to find some elevation of mind; but when you see homes that are kept like pig-pens you look for nothing except ignorance or vice. Women who keep their houses in a perpetual state of disorder and dirt are enough to drive their husbands to the saloons to become drunkards, and their children to the streets to become profligates. What comfort can a man take in his home when it is always in filth and confusion ? What inducement can children find to remain in-doors when their home is squalid and cheerless?

When will the people come to understand that the poorest home may be made bright and cheerful, and the abode of love and peace? When will the men and women of this generation awaken to the fact that the real comfort and happiness of life must be sought at home and must be their own creation ?

Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year
By the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893