Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Church invites us to consider the Holy Family as an exemplar of family life and to imitate them in our own familial relationships. And yet the Holy Family is a very bizarre family: Mary is a young virgin who miraculously gives birth to Jesus, the Word made flesh and Son of God, while Joseph is asked to serve as husband and foster father to them. What does it mean to imitate such a family?
These three are not family because they are “normal” – they are family because of their great love for one another. Some of us are blessed with wonderful biological families, and some of us are blessed with wonderful adoptive parents, step-siblings, foster children, and so on. In all of these cases, what makes a family is the bond of love that mirrors the love of the Holy Family, and ultimately mirrors the Holy Trinity. This is why Jesus is able to claim that his family is whoever does the will of his Father in heaven. If we learn to love as God wants us to love, then we will be family to everyone we meet. The Holy Family knew this well, and for this reason they serve as the perfect example of a family, as wonderfully strange as that family may be. Today, let us pray for the grace to imitate their familial love in our own families and beyond.