We celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jesus came into the world and was born into a human family where he was nurtured, grew and learned wisdom from his parents. In the human family he learned how love is incarnated each day in family living, in the mutual respect that members of a family show to one another. The human family is a sacred space in which we first encounter God and learn who we are, what our gifts are and what we are called to do with our lives. It is in the family that Jesus grew before “God and man” and it is in every human family that we are called to learn how to live both “in God” and “in the world”. Jesus today speaks to Mary and Joseph of how he has come to recognize that he “must be in my Father’s house”. The house that Jesus speaks of is the Temple but also represents the “house of David” or the messianic mission that has been entrusted to him. In our human family we learn through love and through our own human process of growth what it is that we “must” do in our lives. The “must” that we see written in our hearts is not something that is thrust upon us from someone outside of ourselves but rather something that we discover from within us when we come to know and discover who we truly are. When we come to know ourselves and the gifts that we have been given then we come to discover what we “must” be and do with our lives.
In our gospel we see how the adolescent Jesus has come to discover his unique mission in God the Father and in the world that he has come to know. Jesus assumes that Mary and Joseph would recognize this because it is they who have helped him to discover it through the life of love that they have lived in the family. Mary chronicles these things in her heart for her mission will be to always be by Jesus’ side to support him in his mission as the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of humankind. It will always be her mission to point others to her son Jesus and to help them to understand the unique gifts and role that he has for all people.
As Jesus comes to know himself as the Son of God and to have a mission that he “must” accomplish in the Father’s will, through his living the scriptures and worshipping in Church, so do all children come to know themselves as the children of God, who are loved by the Father and who have a unique mission to accomplish. All of us, like Jesus, must dwell in the Father’s house as well as in our own homes. We are raised most perfectly in both our family homes and in the family home of the Church. Each “home” complements the other and extends our human and divine growth and understanding.
May God bless all of our family homes on this beautiful feast of the Holy Family and help all mothers and fathers to understand that their children “must” live in both the family home and the home of the Church and that their children have a mission that they “must” accomplish in their lives.