"I know that the church emphasizes the feast of the Holy Family. But Jesus does not seem to be .much of a "family" person. The instances in Scripture when Jesus was a child show Him ignoring, or even rejecting, Mary and Joseph."

It becomes increasingly clear, as Jesus grows in age and wisdom, that he has not come to build up his own little family, but rather to bring into being a worldwide family of disciples.

This family would claim God as the father of everyone in the family, with Jesus and all others as brothers and sisters in the family. All who followed him would be as dear to Jesus as his mother or his foster father. As Jesus said: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you" (In 15:9).

Mary's and Joseph's roles in this new family of Jesus were not only to be his earth-bound parents but also, and more importantly, to be examples of how to follow God's purpose in our lives.

Both Mary and Joseph accepted God's path for them, even though they didn't know where that path would take them. Mary calls herself the handmaid of the Lord, and Joseph follows God's instruction and marries Mary, even though is was contrary to all sense of reason and surely caused him scandal.

In the new family of God, we are a people who seek out and follow God's purpose as we see and understand the unfolding of our lives. We are to say "Yes" with Mary; we are to imitate Joseph in follow God's direction, even though our actions may be counter-cultural or even seem scandalous.

Jesus said this quite plainly: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother" (Mk 3:31-35). The will of god becomes the cornerstone of Jesus' new and universal family of humankind. Every Christian family, then, has a double task in raising their children: teaching and inspiring them to love their blood family, but also, and more importantly, teaching and inspiring them to love and believe in Jesus and to seek out always the will of God.