The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, & Joseph
- Dec 28, 2025
- 5 min read
As we listened to Saint Matthew’s Gospel, we are told that Joseph … warned by an angel in a dream … takes Mary and Jesus down to Egypt until Herod’s death. We can imagine that they lived as migrants there for a year or two. And so, consider this. Were they able to travel safely? How were they received once they arrived? Were they welcomed or looked upon with suspicion? Was there gainful employment for Joseph? Did he meet with resentment for taking work away from Egyptian carpenters? Could they count on being treated fairly by the authorities? Fast forward to today … to here and now. How do we welcome and treat the strangers who are living among us?
Entrance Antiphon: Lk 2:16 – “The shepherds went in haste and found Mary and Joseph and the Infant lying in a manger.”
First Reading: Sir 2:2-6, 12-14 – “Those who fear the Lord honor their parents.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 – “Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in His ways.”
Second Reading: Col 3:12-21 – “Family life in the Lord.”
Alleluia: Col 3:15a, 16a – “Alleluia, alleluia. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Alleluia, alleluia.”
Gospel: Mt 2:13-15, 19-23 – “Take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt.”
Communion Antiphon: Bar 3:38 – “Our God has appeared on the earth and lived among us.”
Jesus was human in every way that we are. Like each of us, He needed food to nourish His body. He needed a good night’s sleep for His work as a carpenter. He needed tunics to clothe His body and a roof to cover His head. Like all human beings, Jesus sought out other people to be His friends. He knew the joy of playing games with other boys and felt the pain of being left out, ridiculed, or bullied.
And, like all of us, Jesus needed a family. God chose Mary and Joseph to be Jesus’ mother and father. He gave them the responsibility of teaching Jesus how to speak, how to read the Scriptures, and how to pray. They fed, nurtured, and cared for Him. At Joseph’s side, He learned the carpenter’s trade and how to be a man.
Though the Gospels do not tell us anything about them, we can imagine that Jesus had a larger family of grandparents who spoiled Him and cousins who came over to play with Him. On holidays, we can imagine Jesus, Mary, and Joseph getting together with their family to eat, share stories, and play games.
Under the care and supervision of this family, Jesus was able to grow in wisdom, strength, and grace … And except that their son happened to be the Messiah and the Son of God, the Holy Family of Nazareth was just like any other family. Like all families, the Holy Family of Nazareth faced many trials and difficulties. Despite traditional images of them, they did not always lead a tranquil life. Jesus was born homeless and into poverty. Shortly after His birth, they had to flee their country under the threat of execution to live as refugees in Egypt. It was a family born into tremendous pressures from the outside world.
Families today know those pressures as well. For economic reasons, both parents frequently have to work outside of the home, making meals together on a regular basis difficult. The price of real estate makes longer commutes necessary, further limiting time with the family. And those are just some of the pressures on traditional, two-parent families. I haven’t mentioned single parent family homes where these pressures are often doubled.
And then there are “blended” families where stepparents and stepchildren are constantly testing the boundaries of their relationship … adding to the tension within the home.
The status of the family today causes a lot of worries, especially in the Church. There are fewer and fewer traditional families. We are right as Christians and as good citizens to promote the welfare of the traditional, two-parent family. Children born into such families are no doubt better off economically and psychologically. The family is the cornerstone of the Church and of society. Our world is only as strong as the families that make it up. At the same time, we must recognize that in today’s society when bodies mature more rapidly and adolescence lasts well into the twenties, people are sometimes going to make mistakes.
A wise spiritual director once said that God is not found in the “ideal,” but in the “real.” The traditional family is an important ideal. However, God is not found in ideal families or in ideal people, but in real families and in real people. As painful as our past may have been and as much as we may wish we could go back and fix our mistakes, God does not give us the option of turning back the clock. Rather, He is spending His grace on us in our real lives and in our real families as we find ourselves today. God’s grace is offered to families that are “blended” as well as those that need to be mended.
Once we realize that families … as long as they are made of human beings … can never be perfect, then it has important implications for our lives as individuals and as a church.
First, as individuals, each of us can look back on our lives and find fault with our parents. It could be that they were never around or that they were never supportive. It could be that they were abusive in some way. Those scars can stay with us a long time. We know how resentments and grudges can ruin families. Perhaps it would be good to give the following questions some thought.
Can each of us today bring our hearts before the Lord and ask for the grace to forgive our parents or any other family member who ever hurt us? Can we leave our resentments at the foot of the altar and ask God to relieve us of that burden? Can we recognize that our parents were probably doing the best they could and let go of the anger we might have been shouldering all these years?
Once we are able to do that, then we can live together in “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” as Saint Paul calls us to.
Families are never perfect, even when they are the ideal, traditional family. They are all marked by joy and pain, mistakes and good choices. The Holy Family ... Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ... knew the pressures of family life. The difference was that they experienced God’s presence even in those difficulties. Even with all the challenges of daily life in today’s society, we can experience God’s presence with us and teach our children to recognize Him as well. When we have done those things … then we have fulfilled our mission as a family … no matter what our family may look like. May God bless you.
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