Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, we pause to consider how God saw fit to begin his earthly mission within a family. It was within the family that Mary and Joseph demonstrated their great faith, trust, and hope in God. It was in that family that Jesus observed his parents’ humility and obedience before God. It was in that family that Jesus experienced love and affection. And it was in that family that, as he grew and matured, Jesus came to a full understanding of God’s love and mercy.
We are called to imitate the Holy Family. Whether it be in our immediate families, our extended families, our communities, or our world, God asks that we freely offer ourselves into relationship with others, and to reflect God’s love within those relationships. As Saint Paul reminds us in the scripture of today’s Mass, we are called to bring compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and forgiveness to all our relationships (Colossians 3:12-21). We are called to help correct dysfunction and heal divisions whether that be in our own homes or in the larger world we live in. God asks that we help others come to know the love and peace that can be found in God.
In these hectic times, with all our anxieties and pressures, with so many competing priorities and distractions, and with all the ways that we tend to push God to the periphery of our lives, we ask God to help us to always place him at the center of our families and our relationships so that his love can permeate our world, so that his love can bring us all together as one global community, one body, one Holy Family.
Prayer of Pope Francis:
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in your Holy Family we contemplate the splendor of true love. To you we turn with trust. Make us more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family and its beauty in God’s plan. Grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, and authentic schools of the Gospel.”