Homily

On this Sunday which immediately follows Christmas, the angel, without taking too much time, says to us as to Joseph: "Take the child and his mother with you." Yes! We must take the baby with us right away and welcome him into our hearts, our lives, our thoughts. Christmas is precisely this: to take the child with us. It is not a moral exhortation to be a little better at Christmas. Christmas is a question of life or death. In fact, there are people who want to kill the child. The Gospel speaks of Herod, who certainly was an actual person, the first of several Herods who lived during Jesus’ life and also in the time of the first Christian community of the Acts of the Apostles. Herod, we might say, is not finished: this is seen in the strategies of evil which continue to operate in the world, which continue to consume weak and innocent victims. How numerous are the children wounded because of battles! And how numerous are the victims of countless other forms of violence! Threats of death are found not only in the Gospel’s account of the massacre of the innocents, but also in massacres that the Herods of this world continue to cause.
It is for this reason that the Gospel of Christmas repeats with ever greater force, "Take the child and his mother." Jesus is still threatened - he is threatened in the lives of the most weak. And he is also threatened by our own hearts. It is easy to exclude him from our hearts, to keep him at a distance from our own concerns. It is easy to forget about this child. And yet in him is our salvation.
Today the liturgy presents us with the Holy Family of Nazareth to remind us that children - the little ones, the defenceless ones - need a family in order to be saved. We think of children in our families and of so many abandoned children in our own country and around the world. Without a family, little ones cannot grow up with healthy bodies or hearts. And sometimes not even a family is enough. This is true especially when it is lacking in love. And so, Christmas returns to tell everyone, all families, to welcome Jesus - that is, love. We can say that today’s Gospel message is like the angel who speaks to Joseph to tell him to take the child and the mother with him. This is an invitation addressed to us, too. Yes! We must take the child with us and welcome him into our hearts, our lives, our thoughts. This is Christmas: to take the child and his mother with us. The Church’s liturgy has us contemplate Mary and Joseph with Jesus today. This is the family of Nazareth. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus needed a family; yes, a family was necessary even for him.
But Mary and Joseph also needed Jesus. And without him, this family would not even have begun - it would have been broken from the start. Jesus is the true treasure of the family of Nazareth, the reason behind the life of Mary and Joseph. In this sense they are both an example for Christian families. Parents are called to imitate Mary and Joseph’s obedience to the word of the angel - that is, the word of God - and so be mothers and fathers who follow the Gospel. Christian parents must have this same concern to follow Jesus, to not lose him, and to always seek him. And children, in turn, can look to the love of Jesus for Joseph and Mary. How can we forget the words of Jesus on the cross, when he entrusted his elderly mother to the young disciple? Jesus remains the centre of the family, and he is the master of love. Without Jesus - that is, without love - the family of Nazareth would have been broken from the start. But Joseph obeyed the angel, and took Mary and the child with him, and so became part of God’s grand plan.
Let us take Jesus with us, and we will be saved. Let us take Jesus with us, and we will know how to live together - in families, and with one another. Let us listen to the word of the angel, to the Gospel, and we will know how to walk the paths of life, how to avoid dangers, and also how to find our Egypt - our refuge - even if it requires sacrifice and pain. If we know how to look at that vulnerable baby and take him with us, we will know, as Sirach writes, how to honour an elderly father and mother, so that even if they lose their senses, we will have compassion for them and not despise them.
The child of Bethlehem teaches us to love and care for children, ours and others; and in doing so, parents will be more able to love one another. Whoever takes Jesus along will learn to love; the one who, on the other hand, takes only himself or herself along remains closed up in egocentrism and becomes a wicked person. The Gospel of Christmas returns so that each of us can be re-clothed in the sentiments of Jesus. The apostle Paul reminds us: "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other." As we draw near to the end of this year and are about to begin another, let us seek to put our going and coming before the face of the Lord. The apostle Paul exhorts us: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."