A homily for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, December 28, 2025
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14, Colossians 3:12-17, Mt 2:13-15, 19-23
When we were little, we were told, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names — or words — will never hurt me.” And as well-meaning as the saying was, we all know it was wrong, because names and words have power.
Our feast today in this Season of Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, involves some incredibly powerful names and words, so let’s take a minute or two to think about them. And how they guide our lives.
First, there’s “holy.”
Cathedrals and museums full of Renaissance paintings would lead us to believe we need halos and perfect complexions and pretty feet and maybe the ability to heal lepers to be considered holy, let alone saintlike. And because of that, maybe we regular people who are trying our best to do the right thing most of the time start to think we’re coming up short in the holiness department.
But when we do what we do in our everyday lives in the hopes of leaving the Earth and all the creatures of God a little better than we found them, then we’re on the right path, even when we imperfect humans stumble sometimes. We’re on the path to holiness. The path illuminated by the Light of Christ. The path toward a deeper and stronger relationship with almighty and loving God.
And holiness is all about building and maintaining that relationship.
Which brings us to “family.” A familiar kind of relationship.
Is there a more beautiful, more complicated, more puzzling, more frustrating, more annoying, more joyous word than family?
It’s probably easier to define 6-7 than it is to completely define “family.” And that’s a good thing.
Family…
The immediate biological families we’re born into. The extended versions of those families.
The families and homes we create with the people we love.
The families we create by bringing people into our lives: our children; those friends who become sisters and brothers to us; those complete strangers who become friends.
Our work families. Our parish family.
Our mind-bogglingly massive and beautifully diverse human family. Our billions of cousins worldwide.
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, our perfect example.
Three amazing people. Three people whose names create clear images in our minds. Three people whose names have power.
Joseph had no idea what he was getting into when we proposed to Mary. What was supposed to be a nice little life with a beautiful wife and the children God would send them was an unprecedented load, a challenge from the Almighty that a lesser man would have run away from, screaming.
The census in Bethlehem. Fleeing to Egypt. Setting up a home and business and supporting his family according to Jewish rules and some special regulations sent to him directly from Heaven. Joseph did it all, and more, with a smile. And probably without a lot of thanks.
Could we?
Mary said yes to God and God’s will in countless ways. To be the mother of Emmanuel. To nearly lose him in the temple as he approached religious manhood. To recall again and again that her loving heart would be pierced. To see her son, whom she once wrapped in swaddling clothes, be humiliated, tortured and executed for suggesting that every person has value, that every person deserves respect, security, dignity and some measure of happiness, that every person is a child of God.
Mary gave Joseph and Jesus the kind of kosher home that made it possible for them to fulfill their destinies. Mary put her family first, those people within arm’s length around her and then the whole world, all the people who ever lived or ever would live and who recognize her as their spiritual mother.
Do we always say yes to God?
Jesus, fully divine and fully human, was fully obedient to his heavenly Father as well as fully obedient to his earthly parents. What he learned in the home in Nazareth empowered him to succeed in his mission on Earth.
The four Gospels and all of the New Testament testify to that. We know those stories. We know those truths. We cherish those truths. We embrace those truths and weave them into our lives.
We can be holy, as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were and are and always will be. We can be one family with all our sisters and brothers, regardless of their language, their complexion, their personalities, their smells.
We already have a relationship with each of them and with all of them, because we share the same Creator, our generous, loving God. And we have the Holy Family’s example to show us how to strengthen and deepen that relationship.
With God’s help, we can. We must.
