God acts for us every day. The Almighty does this not only by sustaining, preserving, and directing our world and its history, but also – which often is not enough acknowledged -- through an overwhelming number of interventions and operations intended to help our way to Him. In the Church, He continuously bestows on us innumerous graces if we are only open to receive them. Sometimes, He even breaks through the rules of His ordinary dispositions for this world through extraordinary events, showing us clearly His attention for humanity as a whole.

Only very rarely are these actions detached from the ordinary flow of our daily life, even though these cases are an astonishing affirmation of the Divine power. Certainly, we know of miracles of such magnitude – like the gift of prophecy or the apparitions at Lourdes or Fatima -- that they have somehow superseded the ordinary existence of their protagonists. However, most of the special operations of God, be they noteworthy interior graces, such as conversions or vocations, or exterior miracles of his bounty, such as healings or other instances when God acts outside of the bounds of natural law, these special operations normally begin in the daily life of the individual and most often remain there, hidden and unknown, until the Church publicly announces them as such.

God’s loving interest in the personal, daily, modest life of every individual person is beyond doubt. Miracles, in a large sense, be they small or great, seem to happen every day. Even if they do not always break the natural laws we are familiar with, but remain subtle and often humble in appearance, they are part and parcel of our life, as God’s power and His grace are part of it.

Nothing shows this truth more strikingly than the life of the Holy Family. The Trinitarian God could have chosen any other setting for the unutterable event of the Incarnation. The whole Universe could have been the stage for this turning point in history which, in that case, most probably would have been preceded by cosmic signs like the final coming of the Lord. God decided otherwise. He chose a family, a young couple in Nazareth, as background for the greatest of all Divine operations in this world, which could scarcely have been more humble and hidden.

When the Angel came into the humble room of the Virgin Mary to announce the Incarnation of the second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, this event was certainly of a definite cosmic meaning, but did not appear as such for a long period of time. For thirty years, the enormous graces of the Incarnation would be lived in the Holy Family, shielded from the knowledge of the world. Way before becoming public and obvious for all men of good will, the mystery of Christmas was protected and concealed by a day-to-day family life. The Divine gifts to the Blessed Mother and her chaste spouse must have been innumerable. Mary and Joseph could endure crosses and hardships because their humble faith made them aware of the Divine Presence in their Son.

The Holy Writ does not give us many details about the long life of the Holy Family centered on the Mystery of Christmas. However, what we do know reveals that their life was focused on the Humanity of Christ forever inseparably united to His Divinity. Everything He did and said was revelation to them, as it still is to us, and their lives became constantly directed by His mysterious Presence bestowed on them as parents, guardians and faithful.

Thus, the Almighty wanted to show, as He had done already many times in the Old Covenant, that God does not despise the ordinary, the silent, the humble, the hidden or the small. He can certainly reveal himself as the God of Power, as on Mount Sinai, but his power and glory are too great to halt before the ordinary life. His Presence is everywhere, and especially after the Incarnation, It makes use of all signs, symbols, and details of our ordinary human life.

The Holy Family was the wonderful beginning of this endearing closeness of the Divinity to us. This propinquity continues every day in the life and mysteries of the Church, and, strengthened by the latter, in our own lives. If we think that God is only in the extraordinary, we should again contemplate the Mystery of Christmas. To believe that we have to search God in the uncommon and surprising is a misunderstanding often based on an unconscious pride. To achieve the astonishing and unusual in order to please God may lead us nowhere, because we try to do this with our own forces while overlooking the many small signs of His operating grace in our daily life.

The Holiness of the family of Nazareth, for thirty years, was lived in the Mystery of Divine Incarnation experienced in the simple events of every day life. Thus, Mary, Joseph and the Child revealed the sanctity of God amongst and in themselves. We can do the same. The Incarnation never will end. It is a reality in the life of Holy Mother Church. It can become ever more present in our own lives, if we do not forget about the presence of Divine grace in the human, the small, the humble events and challenges of daily life. To recognize the Mystery of Christmas in our midst is the secret of every “Holy” Family, and also of our own.