The  Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; 12-28-2025

Sir 3:2-6.  Ps 128.  Col 3:12-21.  Mt 2:13-15, 19-21

Deacon Jim McFadden

       On this first Sunday after Christmas, the Liturgy invites us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth.  We are very accustomed that every nativity scene shows the infant Jesus together with his mother, Our Blessed Lady, and his step-father St Joseph in the grotto of Bethlehem.  God wanted to be born into a human family: he wanted to have a mother and father just like us.  Indeed, the family is the bedrock of a healthy society and is considered to be the domestic Church as it is meant to be unitive and generative, mirroring the eternal dynamic of the Holy Trinity. 

         Today’s Gospel presents the Holy Family as being under duress because the angel of the Lord informed them that the disordered and paranoid Herod “was going to search for the child to destroy him” (Mt 2:13d).  So, they were told to leave their homeland and flee to a foreign land, namely Egypt.

What Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are experiencing is the tragic fate of so many refugees today.  According to the UN Refugee Agency there are 42.5 million refugees and another 73.5 million internally displaced  people.  Their lives are marked by fear, uncertainty, and unease not knowing what is going to happen to them and their families.  Millions of families today can identify with the sad reality that the Holy Family was facing.  If we pay attention to reliable news sources, refugees are fleeing their homes because of hunger, war, climate change and other grave dangers in search for what we all want: a dignified life for themselves and their families.

         When refugees arrive in distant lands and find work, they do not always find true welcome, respect,  and appreciation for the values they bring to their new homeland.  Their legitimate expectations of creating a better life for their families collide with complex and difficult situations which we see being played out In the media.  Their problems almost seem insurmountable as they face rejection, objectification by demeaning their humanity, exploitation as they are often the victims of human trafficking and modern slave labor. 

         Let us remember that Jesus belonged to a family who also experienced  similar hardships.  When refugees reflect upon the Holy Family, they should feel that they are included in the loving closeness of God.  The flight to Egypt was caused by Herod’s murderous intentions and that shows us that God is present where human beings are under threat and suffering, where they’re fleeing, where they experience vilification and abandonment.  But like Joseph, God is also present in people’s dreams, where they hope to return in freedom to their original homeland and choose life for their family and dignity  for themselves and their family. 

         Our Holy Father, Pope Leo has weighed into our current immigrant and refugee situation calling the treatment of immigrants in the U.S. as being “extremely disrespectful”. Meeting reporters outside of his villa in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo encouraged Americans to read the USCCB’s recent proclamation on our current immigration situation in which the American bishops said that “ We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.  We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.  We lament that some immigrants in the U.S. have arbitrarily lost their legal status.” 

         The bishops went on to say that “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people and they prayed “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”

The Pope did say that “No one has said that the United States should have open borders.”  To the contrary, he  thinks  that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.” 

But, at the same time, he challenges us that in enforcing immigrant policy, “we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”

         People of God, when we strive to process our challenging immigrant and refugee situation let us do so from the perspective of the Holy Family who experienced what our brothers and sisters are undergoing today.  Let us fervently call upon Mary Most Holy, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, and St Joseph her chaste spouse.  Let us call upon them to enlighten, comfort and guide every family in the world, so that they may fulfil with dignity and peace the mission which God has entrusted to them.  Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you strive to process our current immigration situation from the perspective of the Holy Family, who were also refugees?
2. The U.S. bishops challenge us to “ look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.” What would that look like practically in terms of policy?
3. The Holy Family is a model for the domestic Church.  How is that being realized in your own family?