COLLECT: “O GOD, WHO WERE PLEASED TO GIVE US THE SHINING EXAMPLE OF THE HOLY FAMILY, GRACIOUSLY GRANT THAT WE MAY IMITATE THEM IN PRACTICING THE VIRTUES OF FAMILY LIFE AND IN THE BONDS OF CHARITY, AND SO, IN THE JOY OF YOUR HOUSE, DELIGHT ONE DAY IN ETERNAL REWARDS. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Sir 3:2-6,12-14; Col 3:12-21 or 3:12-17; Mt 2:13-15,19-23
“GOOD FAMILY RELATIONSHIP ENSURES THE CONTINUITY OF THE FAMILY”.
Today’s feast reminds us that Jesus, the Saviour, was born into a family. This gives inspiration to the family, the basic unit of society, the “Seed” of society/world. Today’s feast also reminds us of how the Child Jesus developed in a family which devoutly observed religious practices.
Our first reading, from the Book of Sirach contains wise counsels (pieces of advice) on how to lead a life, particularly family life, pleasing to God. The portion of today’s reading deals with the relationship between parents and children and the respect and care to be expected from children.
Every family starts with marriage, which is the first vocation (Divine call). It is also an Institution. Like a game with its rules and regulations, marriage can only succeed and the family become a good (holy) one if the rules and regulations are observed, carried out and fulfilled by individual members (the players) of the family, otherwise, the marriage will fail and there will be no family, let alone a good (holy) family.
In the letter to the Colossians, St. Paul gives us some more practical and concrete ways (social virtues) which families can apply, practice and live out, thereby making the family unit a type of Holy Family, which we are celebrating today.
These virtues are about charity towards each other in the family. These include: heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. The rest are: bearing with one another, forgiveness, which is more stressed and love, which should be the overall (the greatest) of all these virtues.
Apart from these virtues, Jesus Christ should reign in the heart of every family member. That means, the family should be a prayerful one, doing everything in the name of Jesus the Lord. Family members should instruct and admonish one another.
Wives should submit themselves to their husbands' pompousness. This does not mean that husbands should dominate and disregard their wives. Rather, there should be mutual love and respect for one is made (woman) out of the other (man). Husbands should equally love their wives and avoid any bitterness toward them. Once again, mutual love, respect and charity (give and take).
Also, do unto others as you want them to do unto you. Children should obey their parents in everything as that is the acceptable way to the Lord, and parents should not nag their children lest they lose heart. This will not please God.
Regarding the above instructions by St. Paul, I always ask the question: parents and children, who owes the other? It is indeed the parents who first owe their children because they want the children and that is why they have given birth to them as the fruits of their love for one another. No child tells their parents to give birth to him/her.
Therefore, if a parent who wants a child gives birth to him/her, that parent has that moral and parental duty to bring that child up to maturity. When this is done, then the child will, in turn, owe the parents and must do whatever little he/she can to support the parents.
There are, however, some children whose parents have done everything for them, the parents have sacrificed a lot to bring them up, and yet some of these children do not honour, respect and regard their parents.
Remember, the only commandment that has a promise attached to it is that of respect and honour for one’s parents. Any child who turns his/her back on the parents who have sacrificed a lot to bring him/her up is a curse before God.
Each person in the Holy Family that we are celebrating today (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) was able to carry out and fulfil his/her duties or responsibilities, particularly their religious responsibilities. Joseph, for instance, carried out and fulfilled his parental role as a foster father of Jesus and as husband of Mary. Joseph and Mary took good care of Jesus and he grew to maturity. Joseph also fulfilled his religious obligation as a foster father by sending the child to Jerusalem every year to worship (spiritual and religious responsibility).
Lots of parents these days are neglectful in their religious duties/responsibilities. That is why a lot of people (children) do not know God nor fear God, thereby becoming misfits and criminals in society. Mary carried out and fulfilled her duties as a mother and wife. She had to carry the child to Jerusalem every year for the religious feasts. When the child “got lost” in Jerusalem, she had to take pains to look for him. She was a woman of deep and great faith. That was why she had to store “up all these things in her heart” when they found the child in the Temple, and Jesus told them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” Mary did not understand the explanation the Christ-child offered her for his disappearance but she “kept all these things in her memory” (Lk 22:49-52).
We have a lot to learn and emulate from the members of the Holy Family we celebrate today if we want our families to grow and sustain. Let us pray today for single parents, orphans, widows/widowers, as well as abandoned children and parents in the world that God may touch the hearts of good people to take care of them. Happy family feast day and may the Good Lord bless our families.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SUNDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORONATION’. (WE PRAY FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
PRAYER: “BRING THOSE YOU REFRESH WITH THIS HEAVENLY SACRAMENT, MOST MERCIFUL FATHER, TO IMITATE CONSTANTLY THE EXAMPLE OF THE HOLY FAMILY, SO THAT, AFTER THE TRIALS OF THIS WORLD, WE MAY SHARE THEIR COMPANY FOR EVER. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!