The liturgy of the feast of the Holy Family reflects on the values of family life. The first two readings speak to us of respect for parents, relationship between spouses and care of children. Jesus, Mary and Joseph exemplify the ideals of a loving family. They were very ordinary Jews, who were faithful to the Law, and who participated in ceremonies such as the Circumcision (Luke 2:21) and the Presentation in the Temple (Lk 2:22-40), and who went up to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old (Lk 2:41-52). This story particularly depicts a mother and father who seemed unaware of the identity of their child.
The gospel reading of today, however, has a much deeper theological meaning as well. Herod was a cruel man, who murdered members of his own family and would have no problem in getting rid of infants. Bethlehem only had about 1,000 inhabitants at the time of Jesus, so there were probably only a few boy babies under two years of age. Matthew, who is the only evangelist to record the event, was actually trying to show that the Messiah would be persecuted from the very start of his life. The imagery of Herod setting out to destroy the child who was a threat to his regime was a foreshadowing of the opposition that the adult Jesus would encounter from the Pharisees, Saducees and priests, the leaders of the Jewish society. The Magi, who visited Jesus, only had a partial revelation and had to enquire from the Jewish authorities where King of the Jews was to be found, yet they became believers as the gentiles would do later on. The infancy stories are an attempt by the two evangelists to give a picture in miniature of the Messiah, who they will proclaim in more detail as an adult.