Christmas
is usually a special time for families to get together. The first
Christmas, however, was not a holiday for the family of Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph. It was many a perilous journey. Today, the Gospel recounts
to us how the Holy Family was a family always on the move! Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph made three kinds of journey during the first Christmas season. The first journey was as subjects of a colonial ruler.

The
second was as fugitives of an insane king. The third was as returnees
from an exile. Theirs were journeys we never want to make. The first
Christmas season was not a holiday. It was a holy day instead. The
humility, the faith, and the obedience of the Holy Family made the
first Christmas season a holy day. The Christmas season is a holiday
because it is a holy day. This is both a gift and a mandate to us.

Christmas is holiday for us because Jesus, Mary, and Joseph made it a holy
day by their humility to obey despite knowing their exalted status, by
their faith in God who protects those who trust in Him, and by their
obedience to God who instructed them to return to Nazareth where Jesus
grew up and came to be known as the Nazorean.

Christmas is our mandate as well. Knowing how Christmas
became a holiday should motivate us to make the spirit of the season
overflow to all the days of the year. We are called to make every day a
holy day. Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph let us exercise humility, faith,
and obedience. Christmas can then be our gift to every man and woman we meet as well. The Feast of the Holy Family teaches us that Christmas
is both a gift and a mandate. And as a gift and a mandate, it is the
love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for God and for one another that united
these two dimensions of the Christmas season. Without love, Christmas
can never be both a gift and a mandate. Without love, humility, faith,
and obedience are not possible. Only with
love can we make each day a holiday. It is love that makes our reunions
during this season and at anytime of the year truly worth the journey. Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Christmas is both a gift and a mandate.

Eternal
God, You are our Loving Father and the source of every family on earth.
Help us to live like the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Teach
us humility. Grant us faith. Help us to obey. Amen.

Blessed John Alcober, martyr, pray for us.