The other day, I joked in my Christmas homily about adding Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” to my personal banned list. This sparked an amusing conversation with friends about our least favorite Christmas songs. We traded nominations: “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” (which I had happily forgotten until that moment – that kid needs both a reality check about hippo ownership and an attitude adjustment about gift expectations), and “Dominic the Donkey” (which doesn’t do us Italians any favors, with my Irish friends asking if we had pet donkeys growing up). One friend, a father of four, nominated “Little Drummer Boy.” His reasoning? “The last thing new parents want is some kid with a drum waking their newborn.”
Merry Christmas and thanks so much for stopping by to read this homily for THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY- (Sunday within the octave of Christmas) December 29, 2024. I appreciate your sharing this on your social media posts and your feedback and comments… I’m also grateful for all those who’ve asked for the audio version and share them as well at SOUNDCLOUD click HERE or from ITUNES as a podcast HERE. May the Lord be glorified in your reading and sharing- Father Jim –
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But the most interesting discussion centered on “Mary, Did You Know?” One friend did his best – and worst – impression of the song, while another chimed in that it sounds like a Law and Order episode with detectives interrogating the Blessed Mother. “Mary, did you know this? Mary, did you know that?” As if the Mother of God were on trial. The song builds to its dramatic question: “Mary, did you know that your baby boy was God?” As my friend observed, “Uh yeah – that was the whole point of that Angel of the Lord coming and asking her if she would be the Mother of Jesus in what we call the Annunciation.”
This conversation lingered in my mind as I reflected on today’s Gospel for the Feast of the Holy Family. Perhaps the songwriters were onto something, just asking the wrong question. The real question might be: “Mary and Joseph, did you know how challenging it would be to be God’s parents?”
Think about it: Jesus is God, so He’s never wrong. Mary was conceived without original sin, and Joseph was righteous – but they were still human. Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of these challenges. Jesus, at twelve years old, stays behind in Jerusalem after Passover without telling his parents. Mary and Joseph, traveling with their extended family, don’t realize He’s missing until they’re a day into their journey home. It’s a startlingly human moment: even the holiest family in history could lose track of Jesus.
I can almost hear the conversation: “Did you tell your cousin to watch Him?” “I thought He was with your sister’s kids!” These are the most revered saints in our tradition, yet here they are, having what must have been the most anxiety-inducing parental moment imaginable – they’ve lost the Son of God. This story speaks to us because we all lose sight of Jesus sometimes. We pledge to be more peaceful and loving, then forget Jesus’ teachings the moment someone cuts us off in traffic. We yearn for a deeper relationship with God, then let our inbox notifications drown out our prayer time. We don’t consciously choose to lose sight of Him – it just happens in the blur of daily life.
But Mary and Joseph show us what to do next. They don’t shrug it off or wait for Jesus to find them. They drop everything. They leave their traveling companions. They turn around and search with single-minded purpose. For three grueling days, they search Jerusalem until they find Him in the Temple, engaged in discussion with the teachers. Mary’s reaction is beautifully human: “Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety!” Even the Blessed Mother, who knew exactly who her Son was, had moments when her humanity, her motherhood needed to express itself.
How comforting is that? It reminds us that it’s okay to bring our raw emotions to God, to ask “Why?” when we’re hurting or confused. Jesus’ response is equally significant: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” At twelve, the age when Jewish boys begin their journey to manhood, Jesus articulates His unique identity and mission. Yet the Gospel tells us He then returns to Nazareth and remains obedient to His parents, showing us that divine sonship and family life aren’t mutually exclusive.
This feast asks us to examine our own families. Where is Jesus in our daily lives? Have we relegated Him to the margins, lost in the chaos of schedules and responsibilities? If so, Mary and Joseph show us the way: stop everything and search for Him. They knew who Jesus was – their precious Son, born in circumstances they could never forget. They teach us that being part of God’s family requires keeping Jesus at the center of our lives, not as an afterthought.
In our own families, no matter what challenges, trials, and struggles we encounter, we are reminded that the path to holiness isn’t about being perfect. It’s about what we do when we realize we’ve lost sight of Jesus. Do we keep walking, or do we turn around and search until we find Him? The Holy Family wasn’t holy because they never faced challenges. They were holy because they always found their way back to Jesus. May we have the wisdom to do the same.
