Feast of The Holy Family - If a child of ours is lost for three days. How would we feel during that time? And what would we do if he replied like Jesus when asked what had happened? Mary asked Him why He had done that to them. And He said: Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? What would be our reaction to this answer?

The Gospel does not say anything bad about Joseph’s and Mary’s reaction. And here we have something to learn from them. And we can begin to learn from Mary’s question. She does not yell or scream. She just said: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” We can learn how important is to be at peace. It is so important to try to control ourselves if we want to understand and not immediately judge our neighbor.

Jesus’ response is not understood by Joseph and Mary: “But they did not understand what he said to them.” The Gospel does not say that they complained, it seems that they simply accepted the situation. Why so? Because they did not forget who Jesus was. This family is holy because of the presence of Jesus in it. It is holy because of the presence of God in this family. Therefore, Joseph and Mary know this and according to it they accepted what had happened. All of this teaches us something else: The importance of God’s presence in our families.

And how can we achieve this? When a man and a woman fall in love and make the decision to share their lives and have a family, God is present in this beautiful project as they unite their life through the sacrament of marriage. Then, they have children and have them baptized. Later, the children grow and they receive other sacraments like reconciliation and Eucharist. All of these are ways through which God makes himself present in a family. But there is more to it, God is present every time a family prays together, when the family says the grace before every meal and when they call a priest to bless our home.

The Gospel also says that “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” On this day, feast of the Holy Family we can also realize that the all powerful God, the creator of heaven and earth was obedient to Joseph and Mary. If He was able to do that, why can’t we do the same? How important it is to live the virtue of obedience.

On this Christmas season, when we celebrate and meditate on the incarnation of God, we remember that He had a family like us. And because of that He sanctifies our families. So, it is possible for our families to be similar to the family of Nazareth. For a while, Let us pray for this intention.