{"id":2761,"date":"2018-12-30T12:29:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T17:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2761"},"modified":"2018-12-30T12:29:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T17:29:41","slug":"the-holy-family-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-holy-family-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph<\/a>
1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
Psalm 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24
Luke 2:41-52
December 30, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as part of our Christmas season\nthat will continue for two more weeks, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy\nFamily of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might seem easy to think of the Holy\nFamily as the \u201cperfect family\u201d without any problems.  Joseph was a \u201crighteous man<\/em>\u201d (Matthew 1:19), Mary was conceived without sin, and\nJesus, well, Jesus was the Son of God.  He\nmust have been the perfect child, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our opening prayer speaks of the \u201cshining\nexample of the Holy Family\u201d and asks God to \u201cgraciously grant that we may\nimitate them.\u201d  If we think of the Holy\nFamily as perfect, it might seem impossible for us to imitate their \u201cshining\nexample.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They didn\u2019t have to deal with conflicting\nsports and music practices along with busy work schedules.  It would be easy to think they always did the\nright thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, we can clearly read in the Bible\nthat the Holy Family was not without its challenges.  You see it in the Christmas story.  Where was Jesus born?  He was born in a stable and laid in a manger,\nhardly what anyone would call the perfect place for a birth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, after the visit of the Magi, Joseph\nwas told by angel to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to escape the wrath of\nHerod who wanted to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:13-15).  Imagine having to move your family to another\ncountry for safety.  Again, hardly a\nperfect situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next thing we hear about in the life\nof the Holy Family comes in today\u2019s gospel. \nOf course, Mary and Joseph raised Jesus following the customs of a good\nJewish family.  That included going to\nJerusalem for the Passover each year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They did this for several years without\nscripture recording anything about their pilgrimages until Jesus was twelve\nyears old.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened then?  Joseph and Mary lost Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine losing the Son of God!  How are they going to explain that one to God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, they found him back in\nJerusalem in his \u201cFather\u2019s house.\u201d  Where\nelse would he be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is that being the Holy Family\nwas not without its challenges.  Yes,\nJesus is fully divine but he is also fully human.  He experienced humanity as we experience\nit.  He faced struggles as we face\nstruggles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, his heavenly Father was always\nwatching over him.  God is also always\nwatching over us for we are all children of God.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when we talk about imitating the \u201cshining\nexample of the Holy Family,\u201d it is not an ideal that is impossible for us to\nfollow that we are talking about.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What might we imitate about the Holy\nFamily?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They listened to God\u2019s direction.  When God told Joseph through the angel in the\ndream to go to Egypt, Joseph did as God directed.  Do we let God direct our lives or do we do it\nour way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holy Family went to Jerusalem \u201caccording to festival custom<\/em>.\u201d  Today\u2019s passage specifically refers to the\nPassover that would be once a year.  We\nmight all know someone who comes to church once or twice a year at Christmas\nand\/or Easter.  However, the Holy Family\ndid not keep just this one custom.  They\nkept all the customs.  They would have\nkept each Sabbath holy.  For us, this\nmeans going to church every week<\/em><\/strong>.  We do this to praise God and give him a\nchance to provide direction in our lives through his Word in scripture and to\nstrengthen us with the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about during the week?  The Holy Family prayed.  Do you pray? \nHannah prayed for the gift of a child. \nDo you pray for your children? \n(Children, do you pray for your parents?)  Do you pray for yourself to fulfill your role\nin your family?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hannah was given the child she asked\nfor, she \u201cpresented him at the temple<\/em>\u201d\nnot just once at a ceremony but offering him in service to God throughout his\nlife.  Do you present your children to\nthe Lord?  Do you present yourself to the\nLord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your life doesn\u2019t go the way you want,\nask yourselves if the way you seek is God\u2019s way or is it your way?  Mary said yes to God.  Joseph did as the Lord directed.  Do you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28Psalm 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-101 John 3:1-2, 21-24Luke 2:41-52December 30, 2018 Today, as part of our Christmas season that will continue for two more weeks, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. It might seem easy to think of the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62,82],"tags":[154,540],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Ix","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2762,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2761\/revisions\/2762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}