Readings for Dec. 28-29, The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
By Fr. Jack Treloar, SJ | For On Mission
One problem with so many pictorial images of the Holy Family comes about when the picture looks like one of the photographs taken around the holiday season by families in our own time.
Every person in the photo is dressed in their Sunday best. Every person has a radiant smile. This, however, is not the reality of family life. The reality would portray the family in their everyday clothes, maybe some would look tired, others might have mussed up hair or maybe a bandage. We do not live our lives as a posed photograph.
This situation is no less true of the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph led day-to-day lives. Mary was a mother and a housewife who cooked, did laundry and managed the family home. Joseph was a tradesman, a carpenter, who supported his family by running his shop and business. Jesus was an intelligent little child, interested in everything around him, with friends in the neighborhood.
The Gospel for this feast of the Holy Family helps us capture the everydayness of their lives. They were an observant Jewish family and the practice of their religion was an important part of their existence. They made a necessary trip to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish feast days.
As they started home, the child stayed back. Joseph and Mary realized this only later and that required that they return to look for him. He was missing for three days. Imagine losing a child to a large city and especially that child. When they discover him, Mary expresses her agony and frustration toward him. And then, he responds like any 12-year-old, making an excuse to override her concern.
The last several lines of the Gospel are probably the most significant in the whole passage for showing the Holy Family’s day-to-day life. “He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them: and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”
The key elements are “obedience,” “Mary kept all these things in her heart” and the way that Jesus grew up advancing in wisdom, age and favor before God and man. In simpler words, the Holy Family returned to Nazareth and continued to live their everyday lives.
This very brief passage shows us how Jesus matured under the guidance of Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph were not mere bystanders as Jesus grew and became an adult man. They helped form him while he matured. He was obedient. He grew in favor. He acquired wisdom. He matured. He gained favor.
Even though he was the Messiah he needed help from his parents as he prepared to bring the kingdom of God to his people and to all of us. It is in the everyday that we truly find the presence of God.
Fr. Treloar is an assistant director at Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh and has served as a professor, lecturer, author and academic administrator.
The readings for Sunday, Dec. 29, can be found at Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph | USCCB.