Readings: Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 3:2-6, 12-14; Psalm 128; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
Grace and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family. This feast is customarily celebrated on the first Sunday after Christmas.
It invites us to pause, to give thanks, to pray, and to reflect on our own families in the light of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
The essence of today is simple but profound: thanksgiving, prayer, and reflection.
A. THANKSGIVING
Today we give thanks for the gift of our family. What we have may be imperfect, wounded, damaged, or difficult, yet it remains a gift. Family life is rarely ideal, but it is always sacred.
We thank God not only for our biological family, but also for our wider family – those who through Baptism and faith in Jesus have become our brothers and sisters in Christ, our family of faith, those whom God has placed in our lives to support and sustain us, our family of providence, the angels and saints in heaven who intercede for us, our family of grace and of course, our deceased relatives who now rest in God and pray for us, our celestial family. For all these families, visible and invisible, we say thank you Lord.
B. PRAYER
Today is also a day of prayer for our families, a day to bring before the Lord the tensions, challenges, wounds, disappointments, and struggles within our homes, a day to place our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, into the loving hands of God.
C. REFLECTION
For this year’s celebration of the Holy Family, I want to keep the reflection simple and direct.
Reflecting on the First Reading from Sirach, I want to say thank you today to three categories of people.
I. Grandchildren who look after their grandparents with love, respect, and patience, especially grandparents who are frail, unwell, or demanding. Scripture says, “Whoever honours their parents makes amends for sins” (Sirach 3:3). You are planting seeds of favour for your future. God will not forget your labour of love. You will never miss your reward.
II. Men and women who did not receive proper love or care from their parents, those who experienced the pain of absent fatherhood or motherhood, those who in justice might have withdrawn, yet in mercy and compassion now care for the very people who once abandoned or hurt them. You are walking the road that leads to heaven.
Parents who neglect, who fail to sow love and care, who are emotionally absent today, are unknowingly preparing for a difficult future. The time may come when their wellbeing lies in the hands of the very people they neglected.
III. Parents who had a difficult upbringing but are giving their children the life, stability, opportunities, and love they never had. Parents, who had every excuse to repeat a painful pattern, yet chose instead to build a home they themselves never experienced. God sees you, even when your children do not yet understand or appreciate it.
Four messages for all of us on this special feast.
I take the first two from a funeral I attended recently. At the funeral, the son of the deceased said, “My father was my hero, my mentor. He was not just my father, but also my friend. He inspired and encouraged us. He taught us by word and by example what it meant to be a Christian.”
I. This speaks especially to fathers, and indeed to all parents. Can our children say the same about us? Our world is suffering from a crisis of fatherhood and parenthood. Each of us must ask honestly: am I part of the problem or part of the solution?
The wife of the deceased said, “Even though we did not have much, our house was rich in faith, love, respect, and peace.”
II. What are we rich in at home?
Are our families’ rich in love, truth, forgiveness, faith, respect, kindness, and prayer?
III. In today’s Gospel, Joseph is warned to take Mary and the child Jesus and flee, because Herod wants to destroy the child. Dear friends, we must remain awake, proactive, and vigilant. There are many Herods today seeking to destroy our children. Herod includes the misuse of phones, addiction to screens, and the emotional distance they create. It includes social media that pollutes young minds, bad influences, false teachings, distorted values, and even our own poor example. These can all become Herodic forces, dangers to the emotional and spiritual well-being of our children. What are we doing to guide and guard our children from these Herodic dangers?
IV. Finally, the Gospel shows us that God guided the Holy Family at every step. Their obedience preserved them from danger and led them into God’s will and the fulfillment of prophecy.
Dear friends, do we allow God to direct the affairs of our families?
Our decisions, desires, ambitions, relationships, plans, and future?
Do we seek God’s will, or do we leave no room for God and rely only on our own wisdom, emotions, and methods?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (Proverbs 3:5).
We are encouraged today to allow God to direct our lives. That is the path that leads to God’s glory, true blessing, lasting fulfillment, and life.
Happy feast of the Holy Family to us all.
Let us conclude with a prayer together.
Lord God, we place our families into your loving hands. Heal what is wounded, strengthen what is weak, and bless what is good. Make our homes places of faith, love, forgiveness and peace. Guide our families in your will, today and always. Amen.
Sermon preached by Fr Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on December 28, 2025