Christmas is not only for kids, it is for the entire family. Our Savior came and dwelt among us and like us was born into a family (Luke 2:41-52). The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is our model of communion with God while developing as a community of persons bonded in love.
Family as communion with God
The gospel account is our only glimpse of the years between Jesus’ infancy and His public ministry. The parents of Jesus are depicted as regular in their fulfillment of the religious obligation to observe the feast of the Passover in Jerusalem. The week long celebration in the sacred city is preceded and followed by almost as many days of travel in caravan of pilgrims. The whole narrative, giving us a slice of the life of the Holy Family, is really a portrayal of the growth of Jesus “filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40); indeed, He “advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Luke 2:52). In the Temple of Jerusalem, Jesus makes a striking appearance in the midst of the teachers of the people, for “all who heard Him were astounded at His understanding and answers”—with the astonishment as before some extraordinary, divine manifestation (Luke 4:22).
At the age of 12, the boy Jesus according to Israelite tradition is about to assume the religious responsibilities of an adult. And it is in connection with the paramount religious obligation of the Passover celebration that Jesus makes a deeply personal decision to stay behind in the Temple of Jerusalem as a statement of His conscious duty and commitment to be at His Father’s house, united with and obedient to the Father. This incident of Jesus purposely staying (not lost!) in the Temple is for Saint Luke a way of instilling in us the essential movement of the mystery of Christmas: coming from the eternal communion of love that is the Trinity, Jesus is born among us to lead us back to that communion with God. And the way back to God is symbolized by Jerusalem’s temple of sacrifice that Jesus claims as His Father’s house where the Father’s will is obeyed and fulfilled.
A community of persons in progress
This central affirmation of his own relationship and covenant with God means making the distinction and giving the priority to His heavenly Father, while realizing the importance of His mother Mary and of His legal father Joseph. Jesus remains obedient to them and returns with them to Nazareth as a family, even as He approaches adulthood and begins to assume a public role. Everybody has to make the needed adjustments. From anxiety and astonishment, Joseph and Mary have to move on to parents’ necessary trust and hopeful confidence when their “boy” begins to act as a man on His own. Mary, in particular, learns to keep all these things in her heart, a woman and a mother who believes God’s word spoken to her (Luke 1:45).
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph pictures to us how, in the family as a community of persons, each one is there for the others bonded in the love of God. Joseph and Mary were chosen by God to be there for the incarnate Son, so that He could carry out His mission, which is the salvation of the world. Their constancy to their calling and assigned duties has always been an exemplar to us and is an irreplaceable part of our Christmas lore. Borne of faith, their serenity in poverty and their courage in difficulties are inspiring to all.
Alálaong bagá, Christmas is larger than our own experience or reinvention of it at any given time. It has shaped us and invites us to go ever deeper into its core. In the Holy Family we are given an icon for meditation and imitation: a community of persons faithful to God’s will, together growing in wisdom and in grace. In Jesus early on we see already that radical and total commitment to carry out God’s will.
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