Some remember this feast as being celebrated during the Octave of the Epiphany – then in 60’s, when the liturgical calendar was revised, it was moved to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas as we have it today.
So, what exactly is a family? By definition:
- A family is most commonly understood as a group of people who are related to each other, especially parents and their children.
- Sometimes when people talk about a family, they mean children. They decided to start a family.
- Or sometimes when people talk about their family, they mean their relatives and ancestors.
- Then there is that general group meanings, when we say a family of animals or plants is a group of related species and so on.
Today we are celebrating the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At first glance this is a familiar family image – husband, wife and a son – but the reality of this family is profoundly more than what it appears to be. What then is the significant difference about this family? – We have a husband, a mother, and a son living together as a family – what is different, what makes this family Holy is who they are and the way they are brought together – they come together as a family by God’s divine intervention;
- It is God who brings Joseph together with Mary as husband and wife when the Law would forbid their marriage after Mary is found to be pregnant.
- Mary conceives Jesus in her womb and becomes Jesus real mother, but not by Joseph’s seed.
- Jesus’ Father is God, Jesus is God’s Son, sharing the very life and divinity of God the Father.
- Joseph will be a father-gardian to Jesus, caring for all his needs to grow healthy and strong.
These are profound mysteries that make this the Holy Family – and herein is to be found a new plan, a new dimension to the natural family as we know it. God wants to make every family a holy family – by uniting them to His Holy Family. Not only is the family to be God’s plan for the continuation of the whole human race – but that the human race is to be formed into one single heavenly family.
Now it is here that we must bring into focus the realization that there is an enemy against God’s plans for the family; attacking the family is priority number one for this enemy. We see the beginning of war on the family already in the Christmas story with the murderous undertaking of king Herod to murder Jesus by murdering the holy Innocence children – the feast just celebrated this past Friday. The shield the family is given to employ in its defense is love – husband and wife – parents and children – first revealed in the commandments, then St. Paul lays out God's plan for the Christian family in Ephesians 5&6.
The family is the womb of love and the school of love wherein we learn that life itself is dependent on mutual caring, one for another. This priority of mutual caring carries over into the whole of society, making it healthy and strong. Our generation is experiencing a toxic atmosphere for true family life, a climate of selfish, self interest. “Me first and only as long as I like it”. This mentality is proving to be lethal to the family. That makes today’s feast all the more important for us to commemorate.
Here are three way we may do this:
- To gather as families of faith in worship and prayer, thanking God for the gift of his Spirit who fills our hearts with divine love and teaches us how to love one another.
- Filled with that love flowing from the Holy Family, let us be instruments of compassion and healing, in our families and others, where the absence of love has wounded and divided.
- To be both sign and advocate in our society for all that strengthens and advances authentic family life as modeled in the Holy Family.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment