The Best School for Sanctity: Feast of the Holy Family, by Gayle Somers

This Sunday, the Church gives us an episode from Jesus’ early family life to ponder.  Why?

Gospel (Read Lk 2:41-52)

After the profusion of Scriptures describing Jesus’ Nativity in this liturgical season of Christmas, we might be tempted to think we now know enough about His birth into a special family.  However, today the Church reminds us of something most of us spend little time thinking about:  Jesus wasn’t simply born into a human family; He grew up and lived the bulk of His life in that family.  As the Catechism tells us, “During the greater part of His life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings:  a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor” (531).  What was that life like?  Our Gospel reading gives us some clues.

St. Luke describes what must have been a pivotal event in Jesus’ family life.  He and His extended family, like all Jews, made a yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, as required by the Law of Moses.  This trip was like all the others that had preceded it until it ended. ….