Jesus was born in difficult times. Being such a special child his life was in danger from the beginning. Herod was after him. Many of the Kings of ancient times lived in fear that their thrones would be taken from them. I remember when we went on our parish tour to Spain we visited the Alhambra. This was the royal palace of the Moorish Kings, the home of the Sultans of Granada. We were told that 21 Sultans ruled from this place. Every one of them was assassinated in turn by an assassin’s knife. Herod had reason to be afraid of the baby Jesus. Very quickly after his birth Joseph had to get moving in order to keep his little family safe. They headed for the relative safety of Egypt. I think of those young families today in places like Syria and Afghanistan where there is danger everywhere. People are running to the frontier to spend years languishing in refugee camps until it is safe to go home. Today we are asked as a faith community to consider the Holy Family. What about the idea that ours is a Holy Family. Like everything today I wonder if we take our families for granted. We don’t spend the time to appreciate what family means. This is our unit, our safe place where we can be ourselves. How important for our children that home and family becomes their safe place. We want our children to flourish in safety. Paul says some lovely words today that we could attribute to a holy family. Here are some of the things he says: “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts. And, be thankful.” Maybe instead of getting a poster of Justin Bieber to be put on the walls how about getting some of St. Paul’s words printed and put them on the wall instead. Let these words be a constant reminder of what a Christian family looks like. Within the safe place called our family let us make sure that everyone is included, everyone is honored, everyone has their place. For many people family and childhood are something to be endured never cherished. We long for it to end so that we can burst out and go away to live our life as we want as far away from them as possible. Please God our house feels like home. Please God our family is a warm place. Please God we will always stay connected. I hope you enjoyed Christmas instead of enduring it. I hope you created some lovely family memories. I hope that you have many more of them.