Today's feast helps to tease out the implications of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh, participates in family life and grow up in the context of all the relationships and variables that this aspect of human existence entails. Although the liturgy speaks of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph I think we can also think of Anna and Joachim and the parents of Saint Joseph participating in the life of the family and being there as part of the family group that will gather in Jerusalem on the occasion that Jesus is lost in the Temple at the age of twelve. What can we learn from the Holy Family in 2020-2021? We have already learnt prior to the Nativity of the courage of Our Lady in saying "yes" to the angel Gabriel. We have already heard of Joseph's obedience to the angel in his dreams to take Mary as his wife. We subsequently are given notice of the hardships of the Holy Family as they go into exile in Egypt and eventually return to take up residence in Nazareth. In all this they journey together and grow with Jesus, Son of God, being obedient to his loving parents. let us, too, be courageous, faithful, obedient and prayerful in our families in the coming year.
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