I certainly have enjoyed spending time with my family over the past week, first on Nativity Eve, then Nativity Day. Yesterday, it was such a delight to visit with my six-month-old cousin Ava, and her wonderful parents. I'm sure many other families have delighted in getting together to celebrate.
It only seems appropriate that the Feast of the Holy Family comes during the Christmas liturgical season. On the Feast of the Nativity, we celebrate how God came to Earth as a baby, in human flesh and blood. Coming as a human, it would only make sense that He would put Himself into family life, with Mary His mother and Joseph His father.
And in so doing, He was able to demonstrate how to live godly in the context of the family, in the midst of good times, and in challenging times, like when the Holy Family had to flee to escape those who endangered the child.
In some ways, this represents what it means to live life as a Christian. Jesus was God, in need of nothing from anyone, but came to Earth so that Mary and Joseph could live godly lives by caring for Him. We serve God, not because He needs it, but we need to perform deeds that honor God as a way for us to live the life that pleases Him.
That is where Church comes in. I've heard it said often on this occasion that the family is a smaller unit of Church, a domestic Church, as much as the assembled Church is a family.
In the gathered assembly at Church week after week, we hear God's Word telling us how to live godly lives in relationship with others, and receive nourishment for doing so. Then we go out of the Church to live out what we have learned and experienced, within our relationships, in the home, and with others with whom we regularly interact.
Living in the ways laid out in the passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians is part of the process of living a life that pleases God, as we journey toward Eternal Life in Heaven. Perhaps this is what is alluded to in the reading from Sirach, that honoring parents is a way to atone for sins.
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