Day 13: Family

Editor’s note: Erin Brown, DCSC volunteer in ministry with the Father McKenna Center, discusses the Holy Family in all their extraordinary qualities and more-relatably ordinary ways. 

As Catholics, Joseph and Mary and Jesus are the family we look up to. Although they are the extraordinary Holy Family, they were also just an ordinary family. In preparing for this blog, I read Luke 2. The Birth of Jesus story starts very simply: Joseph and Mary simply fulfilling their duties as parents. They show dedication and commitment to each other as well as their newborn baby. As parents, Mary and Joseph demonstrate faith to Jesus and God’s greater plan. But they were not perfect.

A few verses after the Birth of Jesus is one of my favorite stories in the bible, The Boy Jesus at the Temple. In this story, Mary and Joseph lose track of Jesus in a big crowd and spend 3 days looking for him (which reminded me a bit of Home Alone this time). Mary expresses her concern for Jesus. He knows that he is loved and cared for by them. But he was also with his family within the Temple; he was with his Eternal Father. We can find comfort within our family and with our eternal family in heaven.

Yet again, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus exemplify the extraordinary in the ordinary. They are an example for us to follow God’s will in God’s way and that it is okay for us to make mistakes along the way.

Family is foundation. When we are feeling lost, we can always return to our family. Family is a place and an environment where we belong. A sense of belonging provides comfort, especially in uncertainty. We know that we are always welcome in our family home. And we know that we are always welcome with God.