Joke: A woman pulled her car over to the side of the road when she heard the police car’s siren. “How long have you been driving without a taillight,” demanded the officer? “Oh, no!” screamed the woman. She jumped out and ran to the back of the car. “Just calm down,” said the officer. “It’s not that serious.” “But wait ‘til my husband finds out!” “Where is he?” “He’s in the trailer that was hitched to the car!”

Just as the hitch that connected the car with the trailer, love is that hitch that connected all the members of the Holy Family to become the Holy Family Saint Paul, reported in today’s second reading, puts it beautifully in his writing, “love, that is, the bond of perfection” (Col 3:14). Why does the Church celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph during this octave of Christmas, even before the feast of the Epiphany? Perhaps, it emphasizes more the meaning of the perfect love that God has for his human beings. This perfect love cannot be fully understood without the context of the mystery of the Incarnation, Christmas. God truly entrusts his only beloved Son to humanity to take care of and love what makes the family of human and divine becomes the Holy Family. How does it come about? In all of today’s readings, the Church helps us to answer this question.

The Church puts together all of today’s readings to describe the criteria to become the Holy Family in our own family. When a family becomes a Holy Family, it comes with a mission. In the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what is the mission of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph?

In today’s first reading, God promised Abram that his children would be numbered, but he was still childless at an old age. Wasn’t it because of his lack of faith that he said to the Lord, “See, you have given me no offspring, and so one of my servants will be my heir?” His thought was not God’s thought, so God told Abram, “No, that one shall not be your heir; your own issue shall be your heir.” Interesting. Have you ever thought in this short sentence of a short conversation that God had with Abram that God said your own issue shall be your heir? What did it mean “your own issue shall be your heir”? What was Abram’s issue if it’s not the lack of faith? Through this issue of Faith when he accepted in faith, he did not only become the child of God, but the father in faith to all nations just as God had promised him. The moment that Abram accepted God in faith, his name was changed to Abraham. This name change came with a mission, a mission to be the father of faith.

This father of faith that in today’s second reading, St. Paul beautifully emphasizes saying, “By faith Abraham obeyed … By faith he received power to generate, … and by faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac.” This faith that demonstrated so well by Joseph and Mary who also obeyed God completely. This faith also allowed Mary to conceive and bear the Son of God, and both Mary and Joseph named him Jesus. This faith also helped them to offer their Son courageously on the Cross for the sake of the salvation of the whole human race. By faith, Abraham now was not Abram, who was childless any more, but he was Abraham, father in faith of all nations. Blessed Virgin Mary, the moment she was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God, her name was changed to “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you.” At the moment of acceptance to be the Mother of God, Mary’s name change entailed a mission that was to conceive and bear the Son of God. Simon, the moment the Lord Jesus chose him to be the head of the apostles and the Church, his name was changed to Peter, the Rock. Saul, the moment he was chosen to be the preacher to the Gentiles, his name was changed to Paul. What was the mission of the holy family of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary if it’s not the love and the care they had for one another in the family that they were called the Holy Family?

Pope Pius XII once said that a Holy Family is a family in that when the father only knows to take care of his wife and his children; the wife always focuses on taking care of her husband and the children; and the children only know to take care of their parents. This family is then called a Holy Family. When each member of the family focuses on taking care of one another members in that family, they form a holy family here on earth. Therefore, the mission of the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is to take care of one another, in good times and in bad times.

In today’s Gospel, Luke carefully describes how Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus, take care of the boy Jesus by fulfilling the requirement of the laws when they present him to the Lord in the temple. Saint Luke said, “According to the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” In the words of Simeon, both Joseph and Mary are amazed that Luke describes, “The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him [Jesus].” “When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” There, they lived and cared for one another.

As the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph becomes the Holy Family when they care for one another in their family, we are invited to care for one another in our own family and our community. Just as Mary and Joseph are searching for their child in the Temple, we are invited to look out for our children, not because we are single parents or we are busy working parents who somehow neglect to take care of our children. Just as Mary and Joseph open up themselves to accept the invitation of the Lord to be the parents of the Son of God, even though it’s not all about joy, peace, and happiness to be the parents of the Son of God, but rather it’s blended with hard work, struggling, and even sorrow, we are invited to have the courage to accept the challenges and difficulties that this current society brings into our lives. We are also reminded to journey with our children and with one another. Above all, just as we learn from the Holy Family united in God’s love and the love they have for one another, we, families, are invited to base our family’s values on love, the love we share with one another in our family. The decision is yours.