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Feast of the Holy Family, December 28, 2025

This Holy Family weekend’s Gospel story paints a stark picture of the early dangers surrounding Jesus’ life. An angel warns Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt with Mary and the child, escaping King Herod’s paranoid rage. Herod, feeling threatened by the newborn “king of the Jews,” orders the massacre of all boys under two in Bethlehem—a heartbreaking act of cruelty that echoes Pharaoh’s slaughter described in the Old Testament book of Exodus, and fulfills Jeremiah’s prophecy of “Rachel weeping for her children” (Matt. 2:18).
Yet amid this tragedy, God’s fatherly concern shines through. Jesus, like Israel in Hosea 11:1 (“Out of Egypt I called my son”), is called back, along with Joseph and Mary, after Herod’s death, settling in Nazareth to fulfill the prophesy, “He will be called a Nazorean.” This passage reveals the cost of Christ’s coming: even today many worldly powers oppose Him violently; innocent people suffer because of their loyalty to Him, and His followers endure exile and uncertainty. Joseph’s quiet obedience is a model of faithful trust in God’s fatherly concern in the midst of persecution.
Ultimately, it reminds us that even today, as it was two thousand years ago, Jesus entered a broken world not as a triumphant conqueror at first, but as a vulnerable child protected by God. His survival foreshadows the greater victory over evil through the cross—hope rising from sorrow, light piercing darkness. In our own times of fear or loss, 2026, this story invites us to trust God’s sovereign care, even when the path leads through hardship and uncertainty. -Msgr. Greg