Gospel: On the Feast of the #HolyFamily, remember that in many respects, Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived the life that most families do: earning a living, keeping the home, cooking, cleaning, etc. They also faced misunderstandings: Mary and Joseph both fret when the Boy Jesus is...

...."lost in the Temple" (Lk 2); and when Jesus begins his public ministry his family thinks he is "out of his mind" (Mk 3) and they try to "restrain him." They also went through difficult times (Joseph seems to have died before Jesus's public ministry began, for example)...

Also remember that three of them were, for a time, refugees and exiles (during the "Flight into Egypt" (Mt 2) So they faced many different kinds of hardships and challenges, like families today...

We also have to remember that while Jesus is the Son of God, Mary was conceived without sin and Joseph was a saint, the rest of their extended family in Galilee (aunts and uncles, cousins, and distant relatives) were probably just ordinary, flawed people, like you and me....

In his series "A Marginal Jew," on the "Historical Jesus," Fr. John Meier asks why there is so little written in the Gospels about Jesus's boyhood and adolescence. One answer is that Jesus's "hidden life" was, at least by outward appearances, "insufferably ordinary."

While the life of the Holy Family may seem far removed from yours, remember how much Jesus, Mary and Joseph share with families across the world, and with your own holy family.

Image: Martin Erspamer, OSB.