Profile Picture of the Holy Family.

Looking closely at the way Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived, we can find striking patterns and parallel lines of self-sacrifice, of self-giving. Mary opened herself to the far greater plan of God, instead of pursuing her own dream of settling down with Joseph in marriage. She did this though she must have been scared of the uncertainty of being an unmarried mother. Joseph wanted to divorce Mary quietly after finding himself in that uncomfortable truth about her. And yet he made a difficult decision to marry her, if only to protect her and her child from whatever harm that could befall them. Jesus carried out the will of the Father to become one like us, setting aside the dignity of his divine origin, living the life of a humble human being, and finally embracing the fearful and gruesome death with the words: “Not my will but yours be done, Father”– and all these for the sake of bringing us salvation!

This is what brought the Holy Family together; and it is the profile picture of both parents and the child who are identified with one sterling quality of being a person given to the other, to others. Life for them – at least the early part – must have been anything but a continuously idyllic and tranquil family life. They had to deal with great challenges. But how do you think Mary and Joseph managed to address the physical demands of traveling to Bethlehem while Mary was pregnant? How did she give birth to Jesus in an animal stable as her makeshift delivery room? And how could they have bravely gone through the dark night of that tremendous threat to the life of their child, ending up in a foreign land, and having to relocate again afterwards to Nazareth? How did they go through all these heroically, if not for that willingness to give themselves to a higher cause, for the sake of something far greater than themselves?

At a time when many families are breaking up and breaking down, the Holy Family presents itself as our source of great hope and consolation. There is perhaps no other way to keep each family intact and moving onwards except through the virtue of sheer self-sacrifice and self-giving for each other in the family.

May the Holy Family intercede for all families that they may remain one and united in the years ahead!