The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (2025)
There’s an old truism that reminds us that Christmas is a time for family.
Whether we are spending the holidays with our families of origin, religious communities and parish families, or our “chosen families” of those closest friends with whom we share so much, Christmas is a season when we come together with those whom we love to celebrate love, especially God’s love enfleshed in the gift of the One who is Emmanuel—God-with-us.
The Feast of the Holy Family, which we are celebrating today, highlights the importance of families as it directs our attention to the lives and relationships of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
In a way, this feast seems so simple, and yet this Sunday’s celebration is much more than a child’s celebration of an old-school devotion or Christmas card sentimentality. Because, while this feast certainly invites us to reflect on these familial bonds, the Gospel we heard just a few moments also highlights Joseph’s openness and obedience to God’s instructions, when, to save the Child, he willingly leaves behind the familiar life he must have known and, with Mary, journeys to a foreign land. God directed Joseph’s steps and saw to the safety of the infant Jesus.
It was with and within that Holy Family God chose to speak to Joseph, making that Family a sacred space of grace.
Because of this, our faith tradition has long understood that, in and through the love and mutuality, the respect and service Jesus, Mary, and Joseph shared, God blessed the family, transforming “family”—natural, religious, and chosen—into a symbol of Reign of God. This is because within families, we get a glimpse of that peace and joy and love that desires God us to have in all its fullness and which are at the heart of what we are celebrating in these days of Christmas.
And that is how this feast also invites us to go deeper into the Christmas mystery by reminding us that the Incarnation—that the Mystery of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us—isn’t some abstract or theoretical reality.
Instead, the Word of God became flesh in a child who had a family. And that family helped to give shape and context to all that Jesus was and all that he was to become. This is a powerful reminder that families are an indispensable part of God’s plan for our lives.
Just as God revealed God’s self to Joseph and Mary, God also speaks to us in and through the love and nurturing of our families—even with the messy love or brokenness that are also parts of the stories of so many of our families here and now.
But, at their best, our families—in whatever form they might take—also have the potential to become sacred space and it’s our experience of the love that we find there that leads us into ever-deepening relationships with God and one another. This is why the liturgy this Sunday presents to us those words from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Colossians:
“Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another…
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts…
And be thankful.”
And in this feast, we are being asked to offer a “Yes” to a vision of life that is lived with integrity… lived in right relationships… lived in mutuality, respect, and service. What God is asking of us is a “Yes” to the Mystery of Christmas and to God’s vision for our lives and for all of creation.
And, here, I am reminded of a Christmas reflection shared by spiritual writer Henri Nouwen:
Somehow I realized, Nouwen wrote, that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying “yes” to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying “yes” to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right… But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.
Living into these virtues named by Saint Paul in the Second Reading is how we make that “Yes” real in our lives.
Amid the noise, busy-ness and unrest that threaten to drown out the angels’ songs in these Christmas days, this Feast of the Holy Family reminds us of the true vocation of the family: to foster faith and a full life in of each of its members, helping them to offer their own “Yes,” as we seek God and seek to live God’s will in all of our relationships.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give us
the shining example of the Holy Family,
graciously grant that we may imitate them
in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity,
and so, in the joy of your house,
delight one day in eternal rewards.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Homily prepared for the Church of St. Michael in Farmington, Minnesota
