Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph 2021

Published: December 26, 2021

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021.

Bishop Taylor

There is an old Jewish saying that the Rabbi who everybody likes is no Rabbi. We are all pleasers of one sort or another. Some please themselves — we call them selfish. Others try to please others — we call them ingratiating. And still others try to please God — we call them faithful.

Selfish people think happiness comes from getting what they want, usually lots of possessions. They’re mistaken. Ingratiating people think happiness comes from getting people’s approval and so try to impress others.

But whatever acceptance they’re able to manipulate is hollow because it isn’t based on who they really are.

No, the only truly happy people are people of integrity whose number one priority is trying to please God, the source of all happiness. But to please God they will of necessity end up sometimes displeasing others. That’s the price of faithfulness. Jesus displeased others. That’s why they nailed him to that cross.

Today’s feast of the Holy Family teaches us that the only truly happy families are holy families, families of integrity that put God first in everything they do. Selfish families make pleasing themselves their first priority and spend their energy trying to get the things they want.

The problem is that selfish parents produce selfish children, and we all know the misery that produces. Other families spend their energy trying to keep up appearances, thinking happiness comes from social status. The problem is that the home life of such families always falls far short of the impression they try to create. Their children see the discrepancy and we all know the alienation such hypocrisy produces.

No, the only way to be a happy family is to be a holy family, a family of integrity that makes pleasing God our number one priority, which is precisely what Mary and Joseph did. Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of the life of this Holy Family.

Mary and Joseph have lived their faith and passed it successfully on to their Son, who has learned it so well that even as a mere 12 year old lost in the Temple, he astounds all who heard him.

Mary and Joseph’s faith is obvious in the way they accepted and treasured the hard-to-understand ways that God was already working through and in their Son; meanwhile Jesus’ love for them is obvious in the way he humbled himself and obeyed them, even though as God he knew that he knew a lot more than his parents did.

If your family is to be a holy family — meaning also a happy family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph show us that the only way is to put God first in everything you do. For parents this means really living your faith and doing all in your power to nurture the faith of your children, accepting and treasuring even the hard-to-understand ways that God is working through and in them.

And for children this means really opening yourselves up to receive the gift of faith from your parents and others, which will require of you humility and obedience, especially when you think you know more than your parents, which of course, is pretty debatable. Our Gospel says that's how Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man and the same one and only path to happiness and holiness is open to us as well.