Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph | USCCB

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, and we hear in today’s gospel of the strength and love Joseph had for Mary and for Jesus. Further we hear of the obedience Joseph had in doing the Holy Will of God. Throughout the New Testament we do not hear Joseph utter one word, but instead, we see how, after receiving a message from God in a dream, he would just get up and do what was asked of him by God. He is what I would call the Strong and Silent type, or a “Man of Action.” He received instructions from God, but he never questioned the reason why God would ask him to do such difficult things. He just gets up and does as the Lord tells him to do in his dreams.

Further, the feast of the Holy Family encourages us to imagine the setting in which Jesus spent His childhood. Once the Holy Family returned to Nazareth, Jesus would grow and learn how to pray and how to worship God. The Gospels tell us of only one episode from those early years of Jesus, when, at the age of twelve, he remained behind in Jerusalem, after the family finished celebrating the Feast of Passover. When they realized he was missing, they backtracked to Jerusalem, and spent three days in search of him. Eventually Mary and Joseph found him in the synagogue with the teachers of the law. Once the anxious parents found him, all Jesus would say was, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He then returned home, and scripture tells us that he “was obedient to them. (Luke 2:51)

All throughout his young life, before embarking on his ministry, he was at home, being obedient to Mary and Joseph, learning how to be a carpenter, and was studying scripture to be ready to complete his call to bring salvation to the world. The Holy Family is an example of what it means to be a God centered family. They prayed weekly in the synagogue, and they worked in order to support themselves financially.

Let us live out our lives like the Holy Family: loving each one in our family as God loves them; praying always, remembering that God is always present to us, and to work towards making a society a better place to live with God as our loving Father.