I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, with time to celebrate with family and friends. This is a very sacred time of the year as we reflect on the great mystery of the incarnation: God coming to live among us, in fact, as one of us. And, he came into a family, the new family of Mary and Joseph. As we contemplate his birth during this Christmas Octave, we are encouraged on this, the Feast of the Holy Family, to reflect on our lives as part of our families. What can we learn from these holy people? How might we imitate them? One of the many attributes that makes this parish so special is the love and dedication so many of you demonstrate to your marriage and family life. You have generously accepted God’s call to marry and have children so that more of God’s children may come to experience his love in your families. And, the lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph offer us all wonderful models of faithfulness, love and trust in God’s will.
Although we know very little about Jesus’ life between his birth and the beginning of his public ministry at the age of 30, what we do know is very telling and helpful. We know that he was born in the obscure town of Bethlehem a few miles south of Jerusalem. Since he was the first-born son – we believe the only child – of Mary and Joseph, the Gospel of Luke reports that he was brought to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord shortly after his birth as was required by Jewish law. From the beginning of his life among us, Jesus received strong spiritual nourishment from his mother, Mary, and Joseph, her husband.
Soon, his young life was threatened and his family was called to put their trust in God as they fled to Egypt. You will recall that King Herod plotted to kill Jesus because Herod had heard the prophecy from Micah about a child born in Bethlehem who would become king of the Jews. Herod, taking this prophecy literally, wanted to ensure that it did not come to pass. After all, he had purchased the title “King of the Jews” and wasn’t going to give it up. Trusting in God, Joseph uprooted his little family and moved to Egypt, hiding there until the threat had passed. Eventually, the Holy Family returned from their exile and settled in Nazareth, a hidden town 75 miles north of Jerusalem where they would be safe. We can easily imagine Jesus growing up in a simple household with Mary, his loving Mother, and Saint Joseph, his protective guardian. We can picture him in Mary’s lap or learning the carpenter’s trade at Joseph’s side. As we will hear from the gospel accounts of his public ministry, Jesus was well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures so he must have been taught by a local rabbi. And, the gospels are also filled with Jesus’ parables that witness his very astute observation of the ways of his fellow Jews who were shepherds and farmers who experienced the natural rhythms of planting and harvest, sickness and health, life and death, and were constantly in conflict with the oppressive Romans.
As we hear at the end of today’s gospel passage, Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man during these early years of his life.
The beginning of today’s Gospel states that Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem annually for the feast of Passover; at a certain age, Jesus accompanied them. On one such occasion, when Jesus was 12, he remained at the temple while his parents began their trip home.
Not finding him among his relatives and acquaintances, his parents looked for him frantically. All of you parents here can relate to their heart-stopping fear and anxiety as you recall losing one of your children in a grocery store or at the beach. Finally, after three days, they found him in the temple discussing Scriptures with the rabbis. They did not understand the explanation that he gave them but his mother, Mary, “kept all these things in her heart,” trusting in God, once again.
So, what do we learn from all of this that we can apply to our family lives? First of all, we discover that God is present everywhere and is most often experienced among those who put their trust in him. We learn that we can live in peace even when our lives are disrupted and our plans are thwarted if we place our trust in God – as the Holy Family did so often. Additionally, their regular visits to the Jewish temple provide us with a number of lessons. The temple in Jerusalem was believed to be God’s dwelling place. The temple was a house of prayer, where sacrifices were offered and God’s praises were sung. At the temple and in the local synagogues and in his home, a young Jesus would have heard the Word of God in the Hebrew Scriptures and learned the prayers and hymns of his faith. We need to do the same for ourselves and our entire family to grow in our faith: come to church where God dwells in the tabernacle, where we hear the Word of God, receive him in his life-giving Body and Blood in Holy Communion and sing his praises in prayer and song. And finally, we learn that we can find God and his plan for us simply by being attentive to his presence and action in our everyday lives and the world around us, if only we give ourselves time regularly for prayer and reflection. So many of you do that regularly and I commend you.
Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we are part of a holy family; every family is called to be holy, that is, set apart and dedicated to God. By being attentive to God’s word and by keeping his commandments, we, too, will grow in wisdom and grace and favor, no matter how young or old we may be.