What Does It Mean to Be a Holy Family?
Dec. 29, 2024
The Sunday between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, on Jan. 1, is always celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Family. We are asked to reflect on Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the life that they lived together.
What always strikes me about the Holy Family is that they are anything but the perfect family. We begin with a pre-marital pregnancy, in which Joseph is not the father. He was preparing to divorce her before receiving the message from the angel. When the child is born, the family is away from home, with the child born in a stable, surrounded by animals and visited by shepherds. Herod, the King of the Jews, seeks to destroy the child, because he sees Him as a threat. They then become refugees, fleeing murder in their homeland and spending some years raising the child in Egypt.
At 12, Jesus gets separated from Mary and Joseph for three days, and they find him at the temple. Mary rebukes Him, but He seemingly does not take her concerns seriously. At some point, Joseph passes away. He is nowhere in sight when Jesus begins his adult life and ministry.
The people of Nazareth, their hometown, drag Jesus out and prepare to throw him off a cliff, they are so offended by Him. He will be hated and despised by the religious leaders of His time, everywhere He goes. Jesus will be arrested, put on trial before the Sanhedrin (the religious leaders), King Herod, and Pontius Pilate, who will condemn Him to death. He will be scourged, forced to carry His cross, and crucified. After His death, He will be taken down and placed into the arms of His grieving mother.
This is no perfect family, no ideal family. None of us would change places with them for even a moment. So, if they are not the perfect or ideal family, what do we mean by calling them the Holy Family?
We are told that Joseph was a “righteous man.” That means that he was a faithful Jew, who lived his faith actively. He would have been at the synagogue every Sabbath, as was Mary, and later Jesus. We see the Holy Family traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and are told that they did that annually. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, making Him part of the covenant that God entered into with Abraham.
He would have been taught the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament. At about 13, He would have been Bar Mitzvahed, making Him a full adult member of Israel. We see Him going out to deserted places in order to spend the entire night in prayer. And He spent 40 days and nights praying in the desert.
The Holy Family was holy. Their lives were consecrated to God, and they lived lives of active prayer and practice of their Jewish faith. God was the center of their lives, and as Mary declared to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” they sought to be obedient to God in all things.
Holiness means to seek to do God’s will in every moment of our lives. None of us have fully achieved that goal, but hopefully, we are on our way.
May all our families be holy families.
—Fr. Mike Comer
The Sunday between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, on Jan. 1, is always celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Family. We are asked to reflect on Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the life that they lived together.
What always strikes me about the Holy Family is that they are anything but the perfect family. We begin with a pre-marital pregnancy, in which Joseph is not the father. He was preparing to divorce her before receiving the message from the angel. When the child is born, the family is away from home, with the child born in a stable, surrounded by animals and visited by shepherds. Herod, the King of the Jews, seeks to destroy the child, because he sees Him as a threat. They then become refugees, fleeing murder in their homeland and spending some years raising the child in Egypt.
At 12, Jesus gets separated from Mary and Joseph for three days, and they find him at the temple. Mary rebukes Him, but He seemingly does not take her concerns seriously. At some point, Joseph passes away. He is nowhere in sight when Jesus begins his adult life and ministry.
The people of Nazareth, their hometown, drag Jesus out and prepare to throw him off a cliff, they are so offended by Him. He will be hated and despised by the religious leaders of His time, everywhere He goes. Jesus will be arrested, put on trial before the Sanhedrin (the religious leaders), King Herod, and Pontius Pilate, who will condemn Him to death. He will be scourged, forced to carry His cross, and crucified. After His death, He will be taken down and placed into the arms of His grieving mother.
This is no perfect family, no ideal family. None of us would change places with them for even a moment. So, if they are not the perfect or ideal family, what do we mean by calling them the Holy Family?
We are told that Joseph was a “righteous man.” That means that he was a faithful Jew, who lived his faith actively. He would have been at the synagogue every Sabbath, as was Mary, and later Jesus. We see the Holy Family traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and are told that they did that annually. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, making Him part of the covenant that God entered into with Abraham.
He would have been taught the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament. At about 13, He would have been Bar Mitzvahed, making Him a full adult member of Israel. We see Him going out to deserted places in order to spend the entire night in prayer. And He spent 40 days and nights praying in the desert.
The Holy Family was holy. Their lives were consecrated to God, and they lived lives of active prayer and practice of their Jewish faith. God was the center of their lives, and as Mary declared to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” they sought to be obedient to God in all things.
Holiness means to seek to do God’s will in every moment of our lives. None of us have fully achieved that goal, but hopefully, we are on our way.
May all our families be holy families.
—Fr. Mike Comer
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