FEAST OF HOLY FAMILY, YR C
Sir 3:2-6,12-14; Ps 128;
Col 3:12-21; Lk 2:41-52
IMITATING THE HOLY FAMILY
The beauty of the liturgical calendar is that it is a product of careful reflection and Divine direction. This feast is celebrated and we bring one calendar year to a close and prepare for the new one. In this context, the church invites us to do retreat and do stocktaking of our lives in the context of the family.
Everyone of us comes from a family and every family is unique. However unique they are, they are the foundation of society. St. John Paul II calls it the “domestic church”.
If we desire to have holy priests and nuns, they are products of family. Do we want responsible parents, great and patriotic citizens and leaders? They come from families. This is why the celebration of Holy Family is very important. They too had their struggles and problems. The Church proposes this family of Jesus as an example to us. What can we learn from them?
GOD
The Holy Family placed God at the centre of their lives. All the members of the Holy Family obeyed God and accepted to live their lives according to his will. Joseph accepted the will of God to take Mary as his wife and be the foster father of Jesus. The Blessed Virgin Mary abandoned her will to the will of God. Jesus recognised that his saving action is the will of the Father. When every member of the family seeks the will of God, everything falls in place. It becomes a truly Holy and Godly family.
TRUST
Trust is very vital to every relationship. If it is low, there will always be misunderstandings but where there is a high level of trust, problems no matter how huge they may be, can be dealt with. The circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus left a lot of room for doubt between Joseph and Mary, but the trust they had for each other made them sail through. Trust includes a clear recognition of personal and family boundaries. Each member of the family should be given the benefit of doubt and should be believed. At the same time, the interest of the family should not be taken for granted by any member of the family. There should be a sincere openness to one another. In the family, we must trust and be trust worthy.
SACRIFICE
We live in a highly individualistic and self-centred world. People are becoming very individualistic even in families at an alarming rate. These days we find people worry only about their personal wellbeing and does not care about other members of the family. But today the holy family gives us an example of an attitude of sacrifice. Each member of the holy family sacrificed for the other persons in the family until they died. The word sacrifice comes from two Latin words which means to make holy. An attitude of sacrifice is to offer our responsibilities with love and find joy in doing so. We must recapture the virtue of sacrifice and concern for others in the family.
FAMILY TIME
One of the greatest expressions of love is to spend time with the person or something you love. The more you love the more time you spend with the person, and the more time you spend together, the more you love the person more. We must learn to spend quality time together with the family. We must guard against anything that robs us of family time.
Today, social media and gadgets have taken a lot of our time and pose grave danger to family time. The Holy family went to Jerusalem together and when Jesus was missing, they noticed it. Sadly for us our addiction to social media and these gadgets do not allow us to notice one another’s absence, sometimes challenges which may be psychological. We must do practical things like putting our phones away when we are with family, at meeting or at table. There should be limited use of these gadgets and social media when we are at home so that the time we spend will be a really beautiful moment to help us grow in love and affection towards each member of the family.
A MAN AND A WOMAN
Family is born out of the marital relationship between a man and a woman. In the midst of all the continues effort to describe what it means to be a man and a woman, celebrating the Holy Family today tells us that marital relationship can only exist between a biological man and woman. Only a man can be a husband and only a woman can be a wife. This is how it has been divinely instituted.
We must pray daily for families especially families in crisis, that God will see them through their difficulties as he did with the Holy Family. We imitate the Holy family not by offering gifts or merely taking their names upon us but imitating them in the virtue of family life.
May the Lord bless all families.
God bless you.
BY Rev. Fr. Delight Arnold Carbonu
