We Christians lay claim to Jesus and, I guess, rightly so. But, in laying claim to Jesus, I think we often forget that Jesus Himself was never a Christian. Jesus was born a Jew. He was reared as a Jew. He lived and died as a Jew. You know, Jesus never read the Gospels, never read the letters of Paul. His Scriptures were what we call the Old Testament. His roots were in His Jewish family, and He was shaped by that Jewish family. Gospels tell us that He was brought up in Nazareth by Mary and Joseph, lived under their authority, learned from their wisdom. They were the ones who first loved Him, listened to His problems, and encouraged Him in what He was doing. He was also embraced by a great extended family. Before going out to preach the Word of God in a completely new way, He had heard that Word of God in His own family, in His own local synagogue. And He celebrated that Word of God in the great Jewish festivals. He grew up living and breathing the traditions of His family, of His own Jewish people.

As we are all aware, very much, when children grow up they very naturally branch out on their own. And so it's no longer sufficient to follow a tradition. It's now important to create a tradition. And sometimes parents, and perhaps some of you, sometimes parents are stunned and deeply hurt by the direction that a child takes in life. Those parents have to learn that children are not born to be miniatures of them, but that they are, in their own right, individuals and persons with their own life to live and to create their own future.

It was the same with Jesus. He had all these traditions handed to Him, but He grew up, developing His own values, His own vision of the world, His own vision of what a relationship between God and Himself should be. And we know that this brought Him into conflict with His religious tradition and with His own family. The Gospels tell us that His relatives thought He was crazy. He was a real embarrassment to them, and they tried to kind of hustle Him out of the way and hide Him from people. In other words, Jesus had to face a conflict between two loyalties, loyalty to His family and loyalty to His Heavenly Father. His family wants Him to go one way. His Heavenly Father wants Him to go in a very different direction.

And I think all of this is foreshadowed in the little incident that we have related in the Gospel today, as it is referred to, "the Loss of the Child in the Temple." We find Mary complaining and very, very strongly, complaining that He has brought grief to His family. Well, and Jesus is saying that He is sorry to have done so, but, you know, He really thought that they would understand that He had to opt for what His Heavenly Father wanted of Him. And Mary and Joseph have no idea of what He's talking about. It's a classic, classic case of misunderstanding, mis-communication between parent and child. Luke kind of softens it a little bit by saying that "...Then Jesus went down to Nazareth and was obedient to them." But I think it is very, very clear from this incident that this is, what you might say, the beginning of the conviction that Jesus had that the Heavenly Father was the most important Person in His life, and that His relationship to His Heavenly Father was what gave direction to His life, gave support to Him in His life, gave support to Him in His conflicts with His tradition, with His family, gave support to Him, above all, in His passion and in His death.

You will, I'm sure, recall that, later in His life, Jesus came to the point of describing His family, not in terms of blood ties, but in terms of accepting the Word of God and living by it. "My parents, my brothers and sisters are those who hear the Word of God and keep it." So we see that, as He grew, His concept of family also grew. It went beyond His immediate blood family, His immediate tribal family, to embrace all those who accept God's Word as the guiding principle of their lives and really try to shape and form their lives according to God's Word.

So, I would suggest to you that, in this celebration of this Feast of the Holy Family, we are not only celebrating the relationship between Jesus and Mary and Joseph. We are not only witnessing in the Gospel some of the tensions that existed in His family and how they were resolved. But we are seeing the broadening vision of Jesus, a vision that would ultimately see us, you and me, as members of this Holy Family. So, I think that today's feast is a reason for all of us to really, really rejoice. We embrace that vision of Jesus as all of us, hearing the Word of God and accepting it, all of us as members of His Holy Family. We recognize the tie that binds us, a tie that is stronger than blood, the accepting of God's Word in our life. This is the tie that enables us, in our turn, to face the problems of life, to face the conflicts of life, to face the conflicts that will exist right here in this family that we call "Church."

Well, I've a little bit of bad news for you today. And that is this, that, like every other family, we're stuck with one another. So, I'd like you just for a moment, to look around, look around and say "Hi" to your family!