Friends, on this feast of the Holy Family, our Gospel shows us Joseph and Mary’s flight into Egypt, pursuing their mission to protect the Christ child. This story prompts me to say something about the Christian family’s mission.

The family is, above all, the forum in which both parents and children are able to discern their missions. It is perfectly good, of course, if deep bonds and rich emotions are cultivated within the family, but those relationships and passions must cede to something that is more spiritually focused.

A biblical prioritization of values helps us to see what typically goes wrong with families. When something other than mission is dominant—a son’s athletic achievement, a daughter’s success at university, etc.—family relationships actually become strained. The paradox is this: precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s call for one another, the family becomes more loving and peaceful.

John Paul II admirably summed up what I’ve been driving at when he spoke of the family as an ecclesiola (a little Church). At its best, he implies, the family is a place where God is worshiped and where the discernment of God’s mission is of paramount importance.