Our long-awaited Saviour has arrived! But no sooner do we hear of His arrival, than we hear about His parents losing Him for three days! Of course, Jesus does not remain lost\u2014nor is He truly lost\u2014but why has the Church chosen this story to commemorate the Feast of the Holy Family? There are no doubt many reasons, but there are two that might be especially helpful to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, the story is a reminder to us not to take Jesus\u2019 presence for granted. It is very easy, amidst all the business of Christmas, to only temporarily remember what all the Christmas activities are celebrating and to forget to put Christ in the centre. When we listen to this gospel passage, we should be reminded to keep our eyes fixed on the child Jesus throughout the Christmas season. If we should forget Him, it encourages us to seek Him diligently where He may be found: in the inner temple of our heart, in the tabernacle in our local \u201ctemples,\u201d or in those around us, whether the poor or our own friends and family. In these places, Jesus is waiting for us to encounter Him anew and join Him in doing His Father\u2019s will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, this Sunday\u2019s gospel is an encouragement to journey with Mary and Joseph in deepening our understanding of who Jesus is. When Mary asks Jesus why He remained behind and caused them such worry, His reply perplexes them. The gospel says that \u201cthey did not understand the saying which he spoke to them\u201d (Lk 2:50). Even Mary and Joseph failed to fully comprehend the mystery before them. Jesus is utterly and completely unique. No other person is both God and man. There is always more to discover when it comes to learning about Christ and about the meaning of His two natures. Christmas is the perfect time for contemplating this, because it is the season when we commemorate the Incarnation. We can never fully understand who Jesus is, at least not in this life, but this gospel passage allows us to join Mary and Joseph in pondering what it means for Jesus to be both God and man, and especially, what it means for us<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us then take some time throughout the Christmas season to be with the Lord. And let us invite the entire Holy Family\u2014Jesus, Mary, and Joseph\u2014to accompany us and deepen our understanding of the mysteries we celebrate during this special season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Sheedy <\/strong>\u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Debby Hudson\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feast of the Holy Family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n