The Feast of the Holy Family was long celebrated in the Coptic Church. Egypt, of course, was a Christian country from apostolic times long before it was overrun by the Mohammedans and tragically arabised, something that happened to my own ancestral land of Lebanon. Some day, the Lord and Our Lady and St. Joseph who will free this suffering people in gratitude for the refuge they gave the Holy Family. A cult had been established in Quebec and a Confraternity established by Saint François de Laval, One could say that this feast is a contribution of Quebec and Canada to the universal calendar. In the Roman Church, it is a relatively new Feast from the 1920's and was appointed to the First Sunday after Epiphany whose Mass already contained the Gospel of the Child Jesus in the Temple and the beautiful communion antiphon. The remaining Proper was changed and the historical Mass of the First Sunday after Epiphany is now celebrated on the next ferial day. The liturgical wreckers of the Novus Ordo changed the date to the Sunday within the Octave, this we have Jesus as 12 before he is circumcised and named on the 8th day. Whatever, the liturgy is not intended to always be chronological, except; it is an "Octave" when liturgical time stops and a Feast is prolonged, but what did the liturgical wreckers care about these liturgical nuances.
Those wreckers can only be topped by Jorge Bergoglio's latest fantasy. I say "Bergoglio" because as I wrote previously, when he is in accord with tradition he is Pope Francis, when he breaks into one of his off the cuffs or insults or theological nuttiness, he is Jorge Bergoglio.
Before considering what he said, let us consider this.
Mary and Joseph knew exactly who their Son was. They knew he was God come into the world in the Flesh. Mary understood this from the very beginning and it was made clear to Joseph. There is much that we do not know that the angel told St. Joseph, we know he was told not to "be afraid." There was no doubt, much, much more.
Consider this. How do we know what the Gospel of Luke tells us about the Child Jesus in the Temple? Luke was not there, he may not even have been born. We know because Mary told him. The only living witness of these events was the mother of Jesus. She told Luke what happened in his early life. She told Matthew, Mark and John and the other Apostles of the important events in their lives. She was the "eyewitness." There was probably much more that she told them but for whatever reason.
We have no place to assume what is not there in Scripture. Even if we are Pope! Nowhere, in history or homilies of the great Saints have I ever read the ingenious theological conclusion of Jorge Bergoglio as in this missive launched in last Sunday's homily.
I'm surprised he didn't follow the Rosica philosophy that along with Jesus begging forgiveness, the Holy Family was also, irregular. Here is an excerpt of the homily given at St. Peter's on the Feast of the Holy Family:
At the end of that pilgrimage, Jesus returned to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents (cf. Lk 2:51). This image also contains a beautiful teaching about our families. A pilgrimage does not end when we arrive at our destination, but when we return home and resume our everyday lives, putting into practice the spiritual fruits of our experience. We know what Jesus did on that occasion. Instead of returning home with his family, he stayed in Jerusalem, in the Temple, causing great distress to Mary and Joseph who were unable to find him. For this little “escapade”, Jesus probably had to beg forgiveness of his parents. The Gospel doesn’t say this, but I believe that we can presume it.Mary’s question, moreover, contains a certain reproach, revealing the concern and anguish which she and Joseph felt. Returning home, Jesus surely remained close to them, as a sign of his complete affection and obedience. Moments like these become part of the pilgrimage of each family; the Lord transforms the moments into opportunities to grow, to ask for and to receive forgiveness, to show love and obedience.He may be Pope, but he cannot be allowed to get away with this kind of non-magisterial theological and historical nuttiness that someone will believe and promote because he said it.