A New Family
Today we continue our celebration of the Christmas season with the feast of the Holy Family. The gospel reading today is the story of finding the twelve year old Jesus in the temple with the teachers. He was listening to them and asking them questions. Jesus speaks the famous line to Mary and Joseph: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Here we begin to see a dynamic interplay between the two natures of Jesus — his humanity and his divinity. Jesus is the son of Mary and the Son of his heavenly Father. It is not a matter of one or the other. Both are the mysterious reality in this Christ. Through his identity and his mission Jesus builds a new family to live in the Father’s house. You and I are part of this family.