Relatable to All Families
A Reflection of how all 3 Readings connect:
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
On this feast of the Holy Family, we encounter a powerful truth
woven through today's readings: holiness grows in the soil of everyday family
life, especially when love meets sacrifice. In Sirach, we hear the ancient
wisdom that honoring our parents brings blessing and atonement for sins, a
reminder that family relationships aren't just about feelings, but about
faithful commitment that mirrors God's own faithfulness to us. Saint Paul takes
this further in Colossians, painting a portrait of Christian family life
clothed in compassion, kindness, and forgiveness, bound together by love, "which is the bond of perfection." These aren't just beautiful
ideals; they're the very qualities we see lived out in the Holy Family when
Joseph awakens from his dream, gathers his young wife and infant son, and flees
into the darkness toward Egypt. Whether you're in a traditional family with
parents and children, a single parent carrying the weight alone, siblings
who've become each other's primary support, or someone whose deepest family
bonds are with adopted children or friends who became family through faith, this
call to clothe yourself in compassion and kindness speaks directly to your
home, whatever its structure.
Matthew's Gospel today doesn't show us a peaceful nativity scene
but a family in crisis, forced to become refugees to protect the Christ child
from Herod's murderous rage. Joseph must have been terrified, leaving everything
familiar, traveling dangerous roads, not knowing when or if they could return
home. Yet he rises immediately and goes, trusting that God will provide even
when the path forward is uncertain. Mary, still recovering from childbirth,
must carry her baby into foreign lands without complaint. If you're a widow or
widower raising children alone, you understand Mary's later experience of
losing her spouse and carrying on with fierce love for your children. If you've
lost a parent and now navigate life with your siblings as your primary family,
you know what it means to flee into uncertain territory together, holding onto
each other when the familiar is gone. If you're a single parent by circumstance
or choice, Joseph's solitary obedience and midnight decisions resonate deeply; you, too, rise in the darkness to protect, provide, and persevere. The Holy Family
sanctifies every configuration of love and commitment, because holiness isn't
about the structure but about the faithfulness within it.
What makes a family holy isn't perfection or even a particular
makeup, but perseverance in love through whatever comes. The Holy Family
sanctifies every family struggle we face, the single mom working two jobs and
still showing up for bedtime prayers, the siblings caring for aging parents
together, the adoptive parents loving children not born to them as Christ loves
us who were adopted as God's children, the godparents and close friends who
step in as spiritual family when biological family is absent or broken. When
Sirach tells us to be kind to our aging parents even "if their mind
fail," he's speaking to adult children who've become caregivers. When Paul
tells the Colossians to "bear with one another and forgive," he knows
families of all kinds wound each other and must choose reconciliation. You
might be forgiving a difficult parent, a sibling who disappointed you, a child
who's walked away, or a friend-turned-family who let you down. The Holy Family
experienced displacement, uncertainty, and the pain of being misunderstood and
threatened. They understand your particular struggles, whether you're building a family from scratch, rebuilding it after loss, or holding together the family
you have with prayer and sheer determination, because they, too, knew what it
meant to trust God when the path forward was unclear.
The Holy Family eventually returned from Egypt, but not to
Bethlehem; instead, they settled in Nazareth, beginning a hidden life of
ordinary days that would last decades. This is perhaps their greatest gift to
us: the witness that holiness is built in the everyday rhythms of family life,
whatever that looks like for you. It's in the humble obedience of the single
parent doing it all alone, but never truly alone because Christ walks with you.
It's in the honest work of siblings who've become caregivers, shared meals
around tables that look different than those they are used to, and patient love extended
in blended families, foster families, or spiritual families formed in parish
communities. Like Joseph and Mary, we're all called to protect the life of
Christ within our homes, whether that home holds many or few, whether it's the
family we were born into, the one we've created, or the one we've found. We're
called to create spaces where faith can grow, and to trust that God writes the
story of our families even through chapters we wouldn't have chosen ourselves,
in structures we might not have imagined, with people who became our family in
unexpected and grace-filled ways.
Questions to Consider:
How does Joseph's immediate obedience to God's warnings challenge me to
respond more quickly to God's promptings in my own life, especially when they
require sacrifice or discomfort in my particular family situation?
When has my family, whatever its dynamics, faced an "Egypt
moment," a time of uncertainty, displacement, or crisis, and how did we
experience God's protection and providence during that journey together or
alone?
What would it mean for me to "honor" the people in my life with
the same reverence Sirach describes, whether they're parents, children,
siblings, close friends, or spiritual family, seeing these relationships as
sacred spaces where God offers blessing and calls me to grow in holiness?
In what ways am I being called to "clothe myself" with compassion,
kindness, and forgiveness in my family today, and what specific grudge,
disappointment, or hardness of heart toward a family member (biological or
chosen) might God be inviting me to release?
©2025 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
