Holy Family 2025 - Example and Virtues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

 Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, sixty years ago, in order to continue the spirit of engagement of the Church in the Modern World, Pope Paul VI established what is called the Synod of Bishops. The Pope wanted Bishops from around the world to continue to meet periodically to discuss and provide him counsel regarding questions and important matters facing the Church.

Prior to his passing, Pope Francis called for a Synod on Synodailty. Kind of abstract, but he wanted the bishops to help him reflect upon what it means for the Church to be constantly examining her mission in light of the new challenges and changes in society.

10 years ago, Pope Francis called another synod discuss an issue deeply important to the Church: the pastoral care and promotion of marriage and families.  

It wasn’t the first synod on the family. Pope St. John Paul II called a synod on the family back in 1980, after which he issued his great post-synodal apostolic exhortation called, Familiaris Consortio. Listen to the Pope’s insightful words:

“The family in the modern world”, wrote Pope John Paul, “as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life.”

In other words, from the Pope’s perspective, there are those families who understand to build their families on the teachings of Jesus,  like so many of you. Then, there are those who are confused about what that means. And, then there are those who are clueless about the importance of building one’s family on Christ. And the Church has a mission to each of these types of families—to all families, and each of us should consider how we are called to help each of these types of families. 

Fast forward to 2015. Pope Francis calls another synod on the family, he listens to bishops, and not just to bishops but he also gathers a number of ordinary families, like yours gain insight about their struggles, and he compiled all of these thoughts, plus his own, into the post-synodal apostolic exhortation called Amoris Laetitia. And in this document, Pope Francis enumerated a number of challenges facing families today. 

He mentioned materialism. Materialism, the love of stuff, seeking meaning and purpose in stuff, keeps families from fulfilling their mission, loving God, loving each other and spreading the Gospel as they should. He mentioned narcissism. “Narcissism”, he said, “makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs.” Narcissism within families can be a tremendous source of dysfunction. 

He spoke of the cultural ideologies that devalue marriage and family and the fear that some young people have of entering into such a commitment. He mentioned the false notion of overpopulation fueled by world politics which leads to a mentality against having children. He spoke of “spread of pornography and the commercialization of the body, fostered also by a misuse of the internet,” and of course, “the weakening of faith and religious practice” which has had disastrous consequences for society. 

Today is the Christmas Feast of the Holy Family, a feast instituted only in the 1920s, but a feast vital for our time, in which we ask God to help us amidst all of these cultural and interpersonal challenges to imitate the example and virtues of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the Gospel today we read of Joseph listening to the voice of an angel guiding him to protect his family from the evils of his time: the murderous plot of King Herod. So, meditating on their example and virtues of the Holy Family is so vital in helping us to act rightly amidst the evils of our own day. 

The first evil Pope Francis mentioned was materialism. Where society values materialism, we see the Holy Family practicing holy poverty. The Christ child was born in the straw poverty of the Bethlehem stable. At his presentation, the family could only offer the oblation of the poor—two turtle doves. When Joseph received word from the Angel regarding the murderous intent of King Herod, the poor family took refuge in the foreign land of Egypt. 

They were poor, but they humbly trusted in God and treasured the things of God. Together, they embodied the first of the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” placing their trust and confidence in God rather than trusting material possessions and earthly power to bring them happiness. 

Secondly, where society values narcissism, we see the Holy Family practicing selflessness. Scripture portrays their sweet and Holy Charity. We read of Our Lady going in haste to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth, and Our Lady at the wedding at Cana shows holy attentiveness to the needs of the newly married couple. St. Joseph looks to the needs of Mary and Jesus, as the great guardian of the holy family, protecting them from Herod’s murderous plots, providing for them through years of labor and sweat. Charity towards each other and toward their neighbor filled their lives, so too must it be for us.

Thirdly, the purity, chastity and self-control of the Holy Family stands in contrast to the perversion, indulgence, decadence, and other habits of instant gratification of our modern society. In their purity and chastity, the Holy Family fulfilled another one of the Lord’s Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” They remind us of the need to guard our eyes and our minds from those evils which keep us from seeing God. 

Fourthly, we see in many countries, including our own, a sharp decline in religious practice and fulfillment of religious obligations among families. The Holy Family shows us the importance of fulling our religious duties. The Holy Family was accustomed to making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. And even though it required sacrifice and effort to make that pilgrimage, they were faithful. And their fulfillment of this obligation was not without drama, as it is for many families. But they were faithful. They remind us to be faithful, too.

In the holy family we see the remedy for many of the evils that beset us, but also we see the power of holy families. God chose to enter the world as Savior, through a family. So too God wants to use the holy families of our Church NOW. The world needs holy families—the holy families of our parish—to be open to being used by God in so many ways, but primarily to lead others to heaven, to Christ. Holy families are a powerful evangelical instrument God uses to draw souls to Himself.

As we continue this Christmas season, allow the Holy Family to help your family love and trust God in all of your family activities, to value the things of heaven over the things of earth by imitating their poverty, to practice purity and chastity, to show the world the importance of right religion by seeking first the kingdom of God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Family 2023 - Icon of the Domestic Church

 Of the four Evangelists, it is Matthew and Luke who provide the most details surrounding the family of our Blessed Lord.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ family tree going all the way back to Abraham, through King David, and the Kings of Israel, to Joseph, husband of Mary. Matthew, then narrates how the angel appeared to Joseph, and explains God’s plan to him regarding the mysterious pregnancy of his betrothed. Matthew then relates the good news of the Lord’s birth in Bethlehem and how the Holy Family was forced to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous design of King Herod.

St. Luke’s Gospel begins not with the Lord’s family tree, but God’s intervention in the life of Jesus’ extended family. Zechariah, of the priestly class, is visited by an angel who foretells the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth. 

Luke then transitions from the Lord’s extended family to the Lord’s conception in the womb of his virgin mother overshadowed by the Holy Spirit in the house Nazareth. Out of concern for her kinswoman Elizabeth, Mary goes in haste out to the hill country—the Lord’s cousin John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. Mary and Joseph then journey to Bethlehem—Joseph’s ancestral home, where the Christ was born. 

So in those first few chapters, Luke portrays Mary and Joseph as a couple steeped in the tradition and religiosity of their people—people of strong faith with strong ties to their extended family. 

Why do Matthew and Luke spend so much time describing Jesus’ family? Why did they consider Jesus’ family important? Why don’t these Gospels just begin with Jesus’ public ministry—with his miracles and teachings? Many non-Catholics, after all, think that we Catholics are strange, or even idolatrous, for focusing so much on the Holy Family. But they are right there in the Gospels for a reason. 

The evangelists devote precious ink to these people because God wants us to know about Jesus’ family. God wants us to consider their faith, their traditions, their virtues, their love for each other. We come to meet and know and understand Jesus by meeting, knowing, and understanding his family. 

Jesus was born to a family of real humans, with real struggles, who found strength and support in their family bonds, just like we do. 

They also grappled to understand the mysterious workings of God in their life. Both Mary and Joseph had to come to grips with God doing unprecedented things in their lives. When they began their betrothal, little did they know that life would not proceed as they had planned. But they trusted God’s plan. They were faithful. They obeyed God’s plan. They surrendered to God’s plan.

And just because they were chosen by God for this unique role in salvation history, they still had to deal with real problems. Mary had to give birth in a filthy stable. But Joseph and Mary did their best despite their circumstances. Scripture does not record them complaining, making excuses, cursing God, berating the poor innkeeper for not having a room for them. Their focus on God’s will, their trust in God providence pierces through the real mess they were in. 

Talk about unideal…next week, on the feast of the epiphany, we’ll hear how Mary and Joseph receive word from the magi that King Herod wants their newborn son dead. And would be going to great lengths to murder him. And what do Mary and Joseph do? They go to the temple and offer thanksgiving to God for the gift of Jesus’ life. They fulfill and major religious obligation before going off to Egypt to keep their son safe.

In the Gospel today we hear how in the temple Mary and Joseph receive a prophecy about even more mysterious happenings yet to come. Simeon foretells how Mary’s heart will be pierced with a sword of sorrow. This child is going to move the heavens and the earth, but there will be sorrow, tremendous sorrow. But they accept even sorrow from God, trusting God, hoping in God’s promises. 

These are people of such tremendous faith, and we really can’t reflect enough upon the example of the holy family. Listen again to the Collect prayer for this Christmas Octave Feast of the Holy Family which calls us to look to them and imitate them—we prayed : “O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards.”

What virtues—what virtues of the Holy Family—does your family need to practice this year. Spouses, you should discuss that. What virtue do we need to practice as a family this upcoming year? What behaviors do we need to keep an eye on? How are we being called to be more like Mary, more like Joseph. What do they teach us about growing closer in love towards one another? 

If that’s not the sort of conversation you are used to having as a family, start there. I can guarantee Mary and Joseph and Jesus discussed God’s will, and how God had worked in their family history. You can guarantee that they prayed with one another.

Dear departed Pope Benedict XVI wrote about the importance of Christians families looking to and modeling their family life after the Holy Family. He wrote, “the Holy Family is the icon of the domestic Church, called to pray together. The family is the domestic Church and must be the first school of prayer. It is in the family that children, from the tenderest age, can learn to perceive the meaning of God, also thanks to the teaching and example of their parents: to live in an atmosphere marked by God’s presence.”

What it means that every Christian family is the domestic church means that non-believers should be able to learn what it means to be Christian—what it means to be a member of the Church—by looking at your family life. Look at how they pray together, look at how they forgive one another, look at how they are patient with one another, look at how they pass on the faith to the younger generation and seek together to understand the faith. Oh, THAT’s what it means to be Christian. That’s your vocation, dear families: to be icons of the Church. 

May the Holy Family aid all of our Christian families to live up to their vocation and help us all to be faithful to God amidst all of our trials for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph 2021

 Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, fifty-six years ago, in order to continue the spirit of engagement of the Church in the Modern World, Pope Paul VI established what is called the Synod of Bishops: Bishops from around the world would meet periodically at the request of the Holy Father, to provide him counsel regarding important questions facing the Church.

You may have heard that Pope Francis recently has asked the Bishops to prepare for a Synod on Synods. It seems kind of abstract, but he wants the bishops to help him reflect upon what it means for the church to be constantly examining her mission in light of the new challenges and changes in society.

Well, there was a synod, just six years ago, which met at the request of Holy Father Pope Francis. Bishops from around the world met with him to discuss an issue, perpetually and continually deeply important to the Church: the pastoral care and promotion of marriage and families.  

The last time a Synod of Bishops discussed marriage and family was back in 1980, at the request of Pope John Paul II. And afterwards St. John Paul issued a post-synodal apostolic exhortation called, Familiaris Consortio. He listened to all the issues the Bishops brought up about the challenges of families, and issued this beautiful document, Familiaris Consortio, how the Church is at the service of families. Definitely worth the read, if you are into papal documents.

“The family in the modern world”, wrote Pope John Paul, “as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life.”

In other words, from the Pope’s perspective, there are those families who are trying to be faithful to Jesus’ teaching, like so many of you. Then, there are those who are confused about what it means to be faithful. And, then there are those who have no idea about Jesus’ teachings. And he wrote that 41 years ago. And that was 40 years ago.

Fast forward to 2015. Pope Francis calls another synod on the family, he listens to bishops, and he listens to families about their struggles, and he compiles all of these thoughts, plus his own, of course…he’s pope, into a post-synodal apostolic exhortation called Amoris Laetitia. And in this document, Holy Father Pope Francis enumerated a number of challenges for families, especially in their calling to love one another.

He mentioned materialism. Materialism, the love of stuff, keeps us from loving out family as we should.

He mentioned narcissism. “Narcissism”, he says, makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs.

He spoke of the cultural ideologies that devalue marriage and family, the fear that some young people have of entering into such a commitment, this false notion of overpopulation fueled by world politics which leads to a mentality against having children, the perversion of “spread of pornography and the  commercialization of the body, fostered also by a misuse of the internet,” and of course, “the weakening of faith and religious practice” which over all has disastrous consequences for society. If God is absent in the life of families, how will families fulfill their God given vocation?

What got me thinking about all of these synods on the family, of course, is that today, we celebrate the great Christmas feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

The Holy Family is the great example for Christian family life, and their virtues are the remedy for the ills and errors which undermine Christian family life.

Where society values materialism, we see the Holy Family practicing holy poverty. Not only was the Christ child born in the straw poverty of the Bethlehem stable, but the Holy Family was not among the rich and influential of their time. When the Holy Family journeyed to the Temple in Jerusalem to participate in the Jewish ritual of purification for a new mother, Joseph couldn’t even afford to purchase a lamb for a burnt offering as was prescribed. He could only offer a poor man’s oblation—two turtledoves or young pigeons.

Moreso, the Holy Family embodied the first of the beatitudes the Lord would enumerate in his Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.” The holy family places their trust and confidence in God rather than material possessions and worldly power. 

Where society values narcissism, we see the Holy Family practicing such sweet and holy charity towards others. On the 4th Sunday of advent, we read of Our Lady going in haste to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth. Our Lady in the Gospel is attentive to the needs of the couple at the wedding at Cana. St. Joseph looks to the needs of Mary and Jesus, as the great guardian of the holy family, protecting them from Herod’s murderous plots, providing for them through years of labor and sweat.

Where society continues to allow perversion to erode respect for human persons, both Mary and Joseph exemplify our call to purity and chastity and self-control, and remind us to become the people God made us to be. In their purity and chastity, they fulfilled another one of the Lord’s Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” They teach us to guard our eyes and our minds from those evils which keeps us from seeing God. 

Where we see in many countries, including our own, a sharp decline in religious practice and fulfillment of religious obligations among families, the Holy Family shows us that that great strength and wisdom is found in our religious duties. As we see in the Gospel today, the Holy Family was accustomed to making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. And even though it required sacrifice and effort to make that pilgrimage, they were faithful. And their fulfillment of this obligation was not without drama, as it is for many families. How often, when it’s time to go to church, are the children missing. But the effort is made, and families are stronger for it.

In the holy family we see the remedy, for the evils that beset us, and the challenges of the Church in the modern world. We need your families to imitate the holy family. The Church, the mission of the church given to us by Christ, needs you and your family to imitate his holy family.

Listen to this beautiful Prayer composed by Pope Francis invoking the Holy Family.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love, to you we turn with trust. Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic Churches. Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division: may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing.  Holy Family of Nazareth…make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God's plan. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, graciously hear our prayer.”

As we continue this Christmas season, allow the Holy Family to help your family love and trust God, value the things of heaven over the things of earth, to practice purity and chastity, and bring about healing of division, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Family 2019 - Families centered on Jesus

I recently came across an article from the Telegraph, a british periodical, which reported on a study of what 2000 children put on their wish-list for Christmas.  A “pet horse” was the third most popular choice.  Many children asked for ipads and ipods.  Some quirky kids asked for a “time machine”, “a donkey”, “an elephant”, or a “real live reindeer”.

Yet, atop this list of toys and treats, at the number one spot, was…can you guess? It was the request for a new baby brother or sister.  The days of large families have come to an end, especially in Europe, whose population is in decline because the birth rate is so low.  Our nation, as well, has tipped into negative population growth for a number of reasons including the breakdown of marriages, divorce, gross materialism, and the explosion in use of artificial contraception. Families are having less children, in fact, we are even seeing a decline in families in general—less marriages means less children.

And so this request for a new baby brother or sister is very telling—children are yearning, not for toys and electronics, but for real human experience, real family experiences. 

Another item on this Christmas wish list is also very telling.  In the number 10 spot, children asked..again not for electronic devices or material possessions, but for a dad.  ‘A Dad’—‘a father’—is not something children should not have to put on their Christmas list.  Children know that ‘a dad’ should not be missing from their life.

This is not to say that single-parents are not courageous and trying their hardest to provide for a healthy, loving, holy upbringing for their children.  But as Catholics we acknowledge the Creator’s design for the family as being very important for the emotional and psychological and spiritual health of children.

Statistics show many of the consequences of fatherless households.  Boys whose parents are divorced or never married are two to three times more likely to end up in jail as adults. Children whose parents get and stay married are healthier and also much less likely to suffer mental illness, including depression and teen suicide.

Many of us today may have more formal education, money and opportunities than our ancestors.  Yet family life and marriage is also crumbling like never before.  The fact that a sibling and a dad ranked so high on these Christmas wish-lists is very disturbing.  But it is also a sign of hope.  These children who long for a father, who long for a healthy family, seem to know that families should be healthier than they are, and we hope they will commit to starting and maintaining holy families when their time comes…which makes today’s feast so important, we turn our attention to what makes a Holy Family?

The Feast of the Holy Family is a relatively new feast to the liturgical calendar, it was added after Vatican II. Already in the 1960s the Council fathers detected the breakdown of families. They sought to the brace the Church for the upcoming cultural revolutions which would have even greater devastating effects, and to turn our attention to what will sustain us, guide us, and inspire us.

The Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Joseph is the story of a family who trusts in God amidst quite difficult circumstances: a teenage mother conceiving a child before the wedding, a foster father grappling with God’s plan, even considering ending his betrothal, a poor couple forced to flee their homeland to a foreign soil because of a hostile government threatened their child. They lived as immigrants in the land that once held their ancestors as slaves.

But, despite their challenges, this family practiced absolute fidelity to God. The Holy Family stands beside all who worry, who struggle, who search, who pray.  For they gave themselves fully to God, and made their family life a prayer and sacrifice for God.

The disintegration of the family I spoke about earlier is no doubt proportional to culture’s growing disregard for God and God’s plans. Unlike Mary and Joseph in the Gospel today who search desperately for the Lord when he became lost, searching for Jesus, making God the center of their lives, is often the last concern for modern families.

Last year, on the Feast of the Holy Family, Pope Francis commented on the need to follow Mary and Joseph’s example of searching for Jesus, he said, “That anguish [Mary and Joseph] felt in the three days of the loss of Jesus should also be our anguish when we are far from Him, when we are far from Jesus. We should feel anguish when we forget about Jesus for more than three days, without praying, without reading the Gospel, without feeling the need for his presence and his consoling friendship,” he said.

“Mary and Joseph looked for him and found him in the temple while he was teaching: for us too,  it is above all in the house of God that we can meet the divine Master and welcome his message of salvation.” The Holy Father speaks about the importance of praying together and worshiping together as a family, particularly in the house of God, at Sunday Mass. Families that pray together stay together.  Families, too, who are involved in some sort of volunteer work together, radiate with the light of God. But that key word is “together”. Praying together, worshiping together, serving together.

Separate televisions in separate rooms, separate meals at separate times, separate this and separate that, can perpetuate real and unhealthy spiritual and familial separateness if we are not vigilant. So, families need to nurture togetherness, spiritual and religious togetherness especially in a culture that is driving families apart. And really, all of us, single, married, celibate, widowed, grandparents and godparents need to be at the service of families, helping them to be holy and whole.

Today the Church calls our attention to not three separate people, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, but a unity of persons, bound together by their love for each other and God. By imitating the love and virtues of the Holy Family may all of the woundedness and divisions in our own families be healed, as we like them, seek to place Jesus at the center of everything we do and everything we are.

Pope Francis said, “The family of Nazareth is holy: because it was centered on Jesus.” May all of the families of our parish and in our neighborhood grow in holiness by the same means, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy family 2018 - 3 Holy Family Lessons

The Solemnity of Holy Family gives us the opportunity to reflect on God’s plan for the family.  We could spend time today considering advice about making your family psychologically healthier, more functional, happier, etc.  In fact, our first reading from the book of Sirach gives a fair amount of advice on this topic: “he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother; take care of your father when he is old even if his mind fails, be considerate of him.” Sirach is filled with such good practical bits of advice, and all of us would do very well to sit down with this wonderful book and consider how its advice could be applied to the concrete details of our life. 

St. Paul, too, in the second reading, gives some wonderful advice: Put on, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” Again, good advice for families, especially that last part.  Sometimes family members are the hardest to love; we come face to face with each other’s faults and vices; but when we fail to forgive one another and be patient with one another, our families fall apart.

These readings offer, sound advice; if you are a Christian or not, a member of Christ’s faithful or a person of no faith, you would be hard-up to disagree with any of that advice. 

But today, on this Holy Family Sunday, we need to go a little deeper than psychological advice. We need to consider what it means for the family to be holy, to be a place where family members can grow in sanctity.  So let’s look to the Gospel to the members of the Holy Family to learn how our families may become holy like theirs.

First, it’s easy to forget, that the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, was a real family. We have all seen paintings and holy cards that depict them in a super-pious, unrealistic way. But they were real human beings, just like us, and they lived in the real world, the fallen world, just like us. The fact that Mary and Jesus were unaffected by original sin and that Joseph was a saint doesn't change the reality of their family life and their struggles.

In today's Gospel, we hear how Mary and Joseph were filled with “great anxiety”—they were worried sick—over the loss of Jesus.   We have all experienced “great anxiety” in relation to our families and relationships.  So being holy doesn’t mean we don’t have anxiety, challenges, struggles, or trials. 

Here’s the first lesson we can learn from the Holy family—HOW they endured their anxiety.  Mary and Joseph were filled with anxiety over the losing Jesus, but they did not lose faith or curse God.  Notice how Mary and Joseph don’t stand around blaming each other for losing Jesus.  They endured the anxiety together, and they went to look for the Christ, together. 

Husbands and wives, families, the lesson is clear isn’t it: in times of anxiety, fear, anger, uncertainty, sadness, frustration, helplessness, stick together and don’t lose faith.

In a way, God used their anxiety over losing Jesus for three days in Jerusalem in order to prepare them for a bigger trial.  About 20 years after this incident, Mary would have to undergo a greater trial of faith, she would have to witness her Son undergoing his Passion and Death. 
So again, A mark of holiness is the ability to undergo suffering with faith.  God allows sufferings to cross our paths, not because he likes torturing us, but because he wants to purify us, to help us grow in wisdom, to strengthen us for greater trials to come, to draw us closer and closer to his own suffering heart. A priest friend of mine often says, “everything prepares us for something else.” The suffering of yesterday and the suffering of today prepares us for the greater inevitable suffering of tomorrow. 
A second lesson. Notice, how Jesus responded to Mary.  He doesn't apologize for having gone off on his own without telling them. Instead, he simply says that they should have known that they could find him in the Temple, which he calls "his Father's house."
Jesus was not guilty of breaking the Fourth Commandment to honor your father and mother by going to His Father’s House.  Jesus was twelve-years-old, the age of adulthood in the Jewish Community.  And he made a choice to seek out His Heavenly Father’s House to attend to his heavenly Father’s business.
The second mark of holiness Jesus shows us is that our primary responsibility in life, our primary mission, is to find and follow God's call. Nothing, not even the strong, deep ties of family affection and loyalty, should interfere with doing God’s will. We sometimes experience a tug-of-war for our loyalty—God or family, God or country, God or place of employment.  Our primary loyalty is to God.

Prioritizing faith over worldly concerns is rarely easy. During the holidays, we know how easy it is to become overly concerned with the secular dimensions of Christmas, and the struggle of keeping Christ at the center of our celebrations. And throughout the year, there is the struggle of putting faith first. Sometimes the kids or one’s spouse aren’t always enthusiastic about coming to Mass or praying together throughout the week.  Sometimes one’s spouse might pressure you to disobey Church teaching concerning the use of artificial contraception.  But remaining faithful to our Heavenly Father is of the greatest importance.  In a sense, we are each members of two families, aren’t we? Born as children to biological families and born in baptism as children of God.  I know this is hard, but our greatest loyalty is to God. 

I’ve known several priests whose parents kicked them out of the house for entering seminary. Recall the story of St. Francis of Assis.  His father wished him to take over the family business.  Francis’ father publically disowned his son for turning away from the family business in order to follow God’s call. Sometimes children face tremendous pressure from parents wanting their children to be successful in the eyes of the world instead of the eyes of God.  But, Christian parents have as their vocation not just ensuring their children become psychologically well-adjusted, athletically competitive, or financially successful, but that their children know and follow Jesus Christ.

Finally, after discovering Jesus in the temple, St. Luke tells us that Mary “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She examined the events of her life, the trials of her family, her experience of anxiety, her fervent searching for Christ, and pondered them in her heart.

Here a third mark of holiness: Meditating on God’s will, examining our life in the light of Scripture and the teachings of the Church.  Even the pagan philosopher Socrates knew that the unexamined life is not worth living.  We like Mary are to examine how God is working in our life.

Every day, we do well, to set aside time for this sort of prayerful reflection.  Without this sort of reflection and meditation we will never achieve the emotional or spiritual growth God wants for us. Without prayerful reflection we miss the life lessons God wants for us, and we fail to appreciate and give thanks for the blessings of God and seek forgiveness for our failings. You might consider in the new year to begin a spiritual journal, in which you reflect on your life in light of the Scriptures or the life of the saints. A family does well too, to discuss scripture throughout the week.

On this Holy Family Sunday let us commit to making our families holy by assisting each other in discerning and following God’s will for our lives, in bearing our anxieties, trials, and sufferings with faith, and encouraging each other in engaging in those life-giving practices of mind and soul for the glory of God and salvation of souls.