Gospel-Homily for Feast of The Holy Family (2024)

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The School of Mary.

When I graduated from Princeton, I showed my mother the diploma. She was not impressed. She retorted, “I hope you do not turn into one of those smart, no-it-all.” Why would my mother say something like that on the day of my graduation? Years before I went to Princeton, I was enrolled in the school of Mary Grover in Norwood, Massachusetts. There were five of us in the program. We learned humility, to be grateful and generous. We learned that conversation and dialogue were opportunities to learn not to spew opinions. We learned never to allow bullies or bad people to rob us of our good nature.

When Jesus was twelve years old, Mary and Joseph found the boy in the Temple. THE TEMPLE. The temple is the house of God the Father, the place of great liturgies and biblical scholars. He was there learning and asking questions. What parent would not want their child to be accepted into the Harvard University of the Ancient World? Yet Mary and Joseph took Jesus back to Nazareth. What is in Nazareth? Answer: The School of Mary. Where did you think Jesus learned to eat dinner with tax collectors and sinners, forgive them, and give them all a second chance in life? He didn’t learn that from the temple theologians. Where did Jesus learn to go to a synagogue during the Sabbath, take a woman who was crippled for over eighteen years, and cure her? He would not learn that in the temple. Where did Jesus learn to take off His outer garment, put a towel around His waist, and wash the feet of His disciples just hours before he died? Not at the temple. Where did Jesus learn to say from the cross: “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” Not at the temple. He learned it in Nazareth at the school of Mary. It was in Nazareth that Jesus grew in wisdom, age, and grace. It was at the school of Mary that he learned the forgiveness, the kindness, and the compassion of God the Father. At Mary’s school, Jesus learned to be a Son of God…a very beloved one.

When Jesus was on the cross, He looked at His Mother and said, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He turned to the beloved disciple and said, “Behold your Mother.” Do you realize what Jesus just did? He just enrolled another student in the school of Mary. On the feast of the Holy Family, we are reminded that we also have been enrolled.