Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Sunday, December 28, 2025

When I was growing up, my mom, with my father’s support, made sure our family went to Mass, went to confession, and prayed the Rosary among other prayers. She was serious about holiness.

And, yet, like every family, ours was far from perfect. There were divisions, frictions, and real pain.


One of the most impactful moments in our family life was my parents’ divorce.


We’ve all heard the saying, “The family that prays together stays together.”


We had prayed together. We had gone to Church together. And, still, that happened.


That shows us something important: Prayer isn’t magic, nor is prayer about controlling outcomes.


Rather, prayer is about trusting God within every situation.


…In the second reading, Saint Paul lists a series of virtues precisely because they are difficult.


The virtue of obedience is not worth praising unless we are obedient when it’s difficult.


Forgiveness is another one. If we refuse to forgive, Saint Paul, and Jesus Himself, tell us not to expect forgiveness in return.


And the virtue of honoring our parents becomes a virtue only when it costs us something.

 

…The first reading from Sirach tells us to honor our parents even when their minds fail…That is not easy, especially when parents may have hurt us.


To be clear: Honoring does not mean pretending nothing happened.
It does not mean placing ourselves back into harm. But it does mean refusing to let resentment harden our hearts, so that, if someone is ready to change, we are still capable of honoring them.


That kind of costly faithfulness is what Scripture is encouraging us toward, and it is what we see lived out in the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.


Today, we honor the Holy Family not because their life was perfectly smooth, but because they were faithful in difficult and uncertain times:


Mary faced an unexpected pregnancy. Joseph came close to walking away.
They had to flee the violence of Herod. They lost Jesus as a child. At one point, even Jesus’ own family thought he was out of his mind when he began preaching.


Holiness did not prevent suffering in the Holy Family. Rather, it shaped how they remained faithful within that suffering.


…This past Christmas Eve, I had the privilege of hosting my mother, my sister, her husband, and his parents. As we were gathered together, my sister’s father-in-law made a toast.


He spoke about how grateful to God he was simply to be alive to witness that moment: His son married; our families joined together. And he shared that he was especially grateful because he had survived cancer twice and knew how possible it could have been the other way around.


…And that is the hope for our families as well: Hearts that remain open to God, despite uncertainties; despite difficulties. 

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