Thoughts on the Holy Family
"The Carpenter's Shop" by Edward Stott, 1913
The Feast of the Holy Family makes me pause, makes me remember that Jesus passed the majority of His earthly days not preaching, not healing, not tossing tables—but trudging through the quiet monotony of daily family life, serving in the obscurity of His Nazareth home.
Mary and Joseph served Jesus (and each other), and Jesus served them.
Mary refilled the water pitcher, cleaned off the counters, packed a lunch for Joseph, and threw a load of Jesus' grass-stained laundry in the river to soak...again. Jesus fed the chickens and donkey, did his homework, gathered kindling for the fire. Joseph hammered things out in the shop, went into town to sell and trade, leveled their wobbly kitchen table, helped Jesus pick flowers for Mary. Together they prayed before they ate a simple dinner of bread and salted fish and tomatoes. They shared family group-hugs and sleepy morning snuggles. Maybe they even elbowed each other awake in temple.
And yet, they were not an ordinary family. They were the Holy Family.
Why? Because they were content to live in the quiet, hidden service of family life, and it was exactly what God wanted of them at the time. They served God perfectly by serving each other.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph were each so fixated on doing what was best for each other that they forgot to arrange things to their own preference. They didn't yell, or sulk, or complain. They didn't look to blame, or criticize, or undermine. They didn't neglect their chores, or keep a grudging tally of the big and small, unending sacrifices of family life. They didn't fight or abandon each other. They were fully open and present—mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically—for each other’s benefit.
How different the Holy Family is from our families.
But the love of the Holy Family is the kind of love that every family should strive for. In the family, to love is to serve without complaint. Every time we flee this responsibility, peace and unity unravel, and someone in our family is wounded. In short, the family falls apart.
"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” – St. John Paul II
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us!
Matthew 25:40
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
