Why Was This Necessary?

Pastor's Column

Solemnity of the Holy Family

December 28, 2025

We can learn quite a bit from this Sunday's gospel of the flight into Egypt. Suddenly the Holy Family has to leave everything and move to a foreign country to avoid the king, who wants to kill Jesus. So Jesus is just a week old and already, there is trouble. Surely there had to be another way! Couldn't God have somehow just "taken care" of Herod? Why did the Holy Family have to suffer like that? Why was this necessary? Why this seemingly gratuitous suffering? Haven't you asked yourself the same questions in your own life? The real test of our faith comes when we come face to face with some sort of injustice or undeserved illness, some crisis in our family, an unexpected death, an accident, someone slanders us, our health or God just isn’t taking care of things as we might expect a friend would do. And the Lord wants us to ask questions, but also to learn to trust him.

In fact, it was only last year that I was not with you for the entire Christmas season because I lost my voice, and the same thing happened in 2008 (for 2 months!). I asked myself this question, "Why do these things happen?” This has happened six times in six years, most without warning, often for two weeks or longer. This has been a 50-year battle for me. Getting Mass coverage has become almost impossible in these situations, especially since Father Coleman passed away. It makes the parish very vulnerable. The only answer I've found is that God knows what he's doing, he's always taking care of us, and I've learned to trust him, although I continue to be unnerved by this cross that God has given me and actually the whole parish as long as I'm here. This is one reason Father Athanasius is here. I've just been too sick for too many times in the last six years. I'm only sharing that because it's something that we all share together. Not to lament my cross because many of you have worse ones than this.

We return to this Sunday's gospel, because the answer to our haunting question, why is this necessary, is hidden within this passage (Matthew 2:13-23). Yes, God could have bumped off Herod and solved Mary and Joseph's problem (this would be my solution!), but he didn't. Instead, it was absolutely necessary for their training in holiness that they experience a time of total dependence on God, total trust --as refugees even -- without knowing at that time why it was necessary. Even Mary and Joseph had to learn these things!

Why are our sufferings necessary, especially the ones we don't deserve? The answer to this question lies at the cross. Place yourself at the foot of the cross. Beneath it are the Lord's mother, a few friends, and one disciple. Why was this necessary? If we understand the answer to our question here, we shall understand it in our own lives as well.

All wisdom for us Christians lies, ultimately, at the foot of the cross. For Jesus will not fully answer in this life our deepest questions about why. Instead, he offers as a partial answer for us while we are on earth his very own sacrifice, which he makes present to us in the Holy Mass. Yes, somehow, it was necessary for the Lord to go through his own sufferings, innocent that he was. Because he has also suffered so much for us, we in turn can suffer for him out of love, for it is love alone that unites us to him. Our sufferings have meaning, even before we understand why they were necessary, because our Lord's suffering had meaning. It is at the foot of the cross that we will find the answers we need in this life. 

    Father Gary