Daily Gospel Reflection for December 26, 2021

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Feast of the Holy Family - Luke 2:41-52

It would be easy, as parents ourselves, to get caught up in Mary and Joseph’s mistake. How could they have misplaced their son so completely? How could they have gone three days without noticing His absence?

But this story is actually about the beauty of vocation: living up to the call God has set before each of us. Let us reflect, instead, on what each member of the Holy Family did well, how they lived out their vocations with faithfulness through a time of trial.

When the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph realized Jesus was missing, they immediately set out to search for Him. Notice her words: “Your father and I have been looking for you.” Your father and I. In this moment of frantic confusion, Mary and Joseph remained steadfast in their commitment, refusing to turn on each other. They searched as a team, and greeted Jesus as a single united front. They found refuge in the graces of their marriage.

Jesus was doing exactly what He should have been doing, according to the Father’s will for Him. But after He explained this, He returned to Nazareth with his parents in obedience. In these two acts, He fulfills His vocation in two kinds of sonship, both as the Son of God and as the son of Mary.

Finally, after the Holy Family returns to Nazareth, Mary “kept all these things in her heart.” In continuing to reflect and learn from these events, Mary honors her vocation as a mother to Jesus -- a mother to the person He actually is, not the person she might wish He would be.

May the Holy Family be a model that, even amid confusion and misunderstanding, clinging to our vocations will always bring us back to each other and another step closer to heaven.

Ponder:

How has a commitment to your familial vocation helped you to endure a time of suffering?

Pray:

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, encourage our own family in our vocations to each other as spouses, parents, children, and siblings. Give us the grace to live out Your call to us not only in the world, but within the very heart of our families.