Posted on January 3, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
Merry Christmas!
It is still Christmas Day! Christmas is such a glorious day in the Church calendar that we celebrate it for an octave (8 days). When I was younger I wondered if my birthday could go on for eight days with presents and cake each day. But alas, it did not come to pass for me. But for Jesus Christ, we are blessed to be able to celebrate this day for a little more than a week.
In the readings for today, we hear mixed types of events. First we can hear about the relationship of children to their parents. How they are called to honor them, to care for them, and that children are living gifts of the love that God has for parents. In the second reading we hear how love needs to be the foundation of the relationship between the husband and wife. But then in the Gospel we see chaos. A parent’s worst fear – Jesus is lost in the Temple! For three days they looked for him amongst relatives and friends, but he was nowhere to be found. Poor Mary. This was the mission that was given to her by the Angel Gabriel. What would God say if she lost his son…?
Thankfully they found him in the temple area sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:46) Mary and Joseph were astonished and asked Jesus why he did that? He responded “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. (Luke 2:49-50)
As we celebrate this Feast Day of the Holy Family in the Octave of Christmas, I would say that we are invited to ponder two things. First we are called to ponder the great gift that God gave us when he sent his Son Jesus Christ as our Messiah to be the one who would pay for our sinfulness and restore all things the right order. God wants us to be part of his family. He does through the gift of Baptism and ultimately makes us his brothers and sisters. In this great act of grace, through the Incarnation of Jesus as a man entrusted to the care of Mary and Joseph, he shows how we are called to love and care for each other.
Yet also in that moment inside the temple, Jesus points out that we are all called to dwell in our Father’s home. That is: heaven. If we learn anything during this Christmas octave, let it be that we learn how to love as God loves us. Let us take to heart the words of St. Paul when he exhorts us to “put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … and over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection.” (Col. 3:12-14)
