HOLY FAMILY - YEAR C

SECOND SUNDAY OF NATIVITY – C: FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY (1Sam 1:20-22, 24-28; 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; Luke 2:41-52) Theme: May the love of the Nazareth Family enforce our families Reflection: Holy Family of Nazareth is an Ever Model for all the families of the world - We are placed in front of the family of Nazareth: Crib is the image of Holy Family. We are still in the joy of Christmas. In fact, if ever we could ask ourselves what is the first gift of God made Man into the world, here is an answer? The first gift of the Baby Jesus to the world is His Family. Choosing to born in it he has made the crib itself a family. What a great lesson he gives from the crib to the world: the crib, the stall, the hut, the palace… the place is not the matter, the love amidst the members of the family is all that matters. No walls can contain the love that sprouts and grows in the family relationship. We are still in front of that Crib which has become the tent for the Ever Living Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Church, placing the celebration of this feast in the middle of Nativity Joyful moments, has given us a the Holy Family as the model of our families. The great occasion to empower our family rapport with the force of the Model Family. What could we learn from today’s celebration? Just one thing: the small and holy family of two thousand years is still valid and enforcing for us today. Whatever we call in the daily life – the moments of difficult, the sorrow, the anxiety, the confusion, the fear and also few moments of joy and happiness – are already confronted and lived by that Holy Family long time back. In fact, it teaches us that the life is a beautiful mixer of various events, they be joyful or sorrowful. It encourages us to take what is important and necessary and renounce the what is futile and temporary. Just looking at the crib is enough we get the courage to go forward in life constructing a such a home for ourselves. Father, Mother and the Children resting always together in the small hut but with the large and generous heart to the other. - Mary and Joseph are the models for all the parents: The readings of today propose two tasks that the parents are to do. Enough for the parents of today to look at Mary and Joseph to learn what is their responsibility towards their children. The first reading speaks of Ann who offers her son to God. The gospel speaks of Mary and Joseph taking the boy Jesus to the God’s temple for the celebrations. Once, after the festive days, they did not find Jesus they return to find him. From him two tasks of the parents come out: to guide and to search for the children. o To Guide the Children in Faith: Mary and Joseph has guided the young Jesus in the faith and into God’s house which is the primary responsibility of the Christian parents. Indeed, this is the promise that the parents make during the baptism of their child. The priest would ask: You, Parents, do you take up the task of guiding your child in the faith, in the sacraments and in the word of God? and the parents immediately give their consent saying: yes, we do. Today is the day to recall to our mind the promise they have made few years back and to examine and see how far they have fulfilled it. o To search for the Children in Hope: How much pain and anguish both Mary and Joseph must have undergone when they did not find their son in their return journey. They stopped. They inquired. They returned. They searched. And finally they found. These are the gestures of search and research. They neither gave up their search, nor they gave the pain of return. They continued their search until they found him. Mary could not stop expressing their anxiety and fear: Son, why did you do this? Your father and me, we are searching for you so much with anguish! The words are so humanly that they touch the depths of the love that the parents have for their children. That is the reason why, even the parents of today, use them often. The love of the parents is same either two thousand years back or two thousand years after: they search for their children’s well being – it is not an act of anguish but an act of love. The children of modern times have different roads and confusing life and often they find themselves lost. They are thrown away by the passions of the world. They are torn apart by the attractive but temporary pleasures. They are missing their destiny. They finally reach to the level of questing themselves, their parents and even God: what is my life? How far my parents are loving us? Is there God at all and if he is there why He is allowing all these filth in the world? The bundle of questions make them burdened. Here enters the responsibility of the parents. The parents have to place themselves “walking towards them” with pain and with love to find them and to lead them back to life, just as Mary and Joseph have done. - Jesus is the example and the force for all the children: The Gospel reveals also the responsibility of the children in the figure of young Jesus. They have two attitudes to learn from Jesus: to discern the proper destiny and to obey the parents. At the outset they look very simple and easy achieving but they need lot of commitment and dedication. o To discern the proper vocation and destiny: It is not so easy to know and to discern the destiny in the midst of multiplicity of choices. The world offers some destinies. The parents desire other destinies. The proper consciousness ask for something else. But finally there should be only one destiny chosen and lived. Twelve year old Jesus has done it. He stands as example of the young generation of today. He knows it and he does it immediately without wasting a single moment. He sits with the doctors and the authority of the temple: questions them and replies them. He is on his mission. He is so clear in his vocation and destiny that he answers to his parents: why are you searching for me.. do you not know that I must be for my Father’s will. How far the children of today are conscious of their vocation? How far they acknowledge what is the goal of their life? How far they are clear of what they are doing? How far they are aware of the way they travelling in? they are responsible for making right choice and to choose their destiny. Here is the Christian faith helps them to discern their proper vocation. With the power of the faith they can discern well. o To obey the parents in freedom: is it so hard to listen to the parents and accept their plans? Are their ideas so out-fashioned? What and where is the difficulty to understand that the parents desire only their well being? These questions are ever present in time and in history. The confused children always face these questions. They often think and they are taught that liberty is to do what they feel to do and not what their parents impose to do. But basic reality is this: parents never impose anything that their children cannot do and they insist because of their love for their children. Because they insist they do not become bad parents. Because they leave their children for their complete freedom, they do not become good parents. Genuine and true parents do suggest, show, help, and guide the children for the destiny. Obedience is not a contradiction to the freedom. Young Jesus is example for the children of today. The Gospel proclaims that Jesus has returned with them, remained with them and obeyed them. Being God he could have done as he wished but he allowed himself to be under the guidance of the parents. He obeyed them because he has confidence and trust that they teach him the ways of faith and guide him to the destiny. Obedience helps the children to enter into the sphere of the parents. Only here the children can understand the immense love and the continuous sacrifice of the parents. The true freedom of the children is filtered and matured in obedience and subjection to their parents. Not so easy to understand. Not so easy to accept. But it is the fact. Jesus himself manifests it. The children of today are invited to learn this from the young Jesus. Prayer and sacrifice: the virtues of the Holy Family’s Love - Placing God’s will in the prime post: The family of Nazareth, very tiny and infamous, has become the Holy Family because of the priority it has given for the divine design. Each member of this family surrendered totally for the plan of God. They have offered themselves to the fulfillment of divine will. Joseph’s readiness to do the will of God is praise worthy: Joseph is indicated that Mary is conceived with the power of the Holy Spirit and thus to take her without fear, he immediately brought her home. Joseph is told by an angel to take the child and the mother and to escape to Nazareth, he instantly gets up and takes them and does as the Lord commanded him. Mary’s eagerness to embrace divine plan is ever exemplary: the annunciation has come to her and she has accepted it with joy saying – I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word. She silently submitted herself for the God’s plan – with silence she followed Joseph to Nazareth, with silence that she pondered all that she is not able to comprehend immediately leaving the consequence to God’s will. Jesus is the model for the accomplishing of God’s will: today’s gospel is the example for it and Jesus says – I must be doing the things of My Father and there are various reference to prove his ever willingness to obey his Father. As a totally family, Jesus – Mary – Joseph, has put God in the primary post. “God first and the rest next” – is the slogan of the Family of Nazareth and that’s why it has become Holy Family. - Mutual openness and sacrifice: another important virtue that the families of today have to learn from the Holy Family is “openness and offer” of one to the other. This is the highest act of love: to be open to the other and to give oneself for the other. This mutual sacrifice and love makes them an exemplary family for all. Mary has openly and with sacrifice has given everything of her for the establishment of the family: her movement towards Joseph with respect and obedience and her movement towards Jesus with affection and love. Joseph also, being a father of the family, gives himself utterly for the well being of Mary and Jesus and thus safeguards them every moment. Jesus is also open and obedient to his parents and this is why he is grown up in all the aspects – in the intelligence, in the age and in the grace before God and before men. Such openness and sacrifice of one another is needed in today’s families. When this lacks, lacks also the unity and thus origins the division. Each one has to be for the other. Each has to sacrifice their personal circles in order to create a family. It is the unity that keeps the family alive and meaningful. The words “according to me…” has to disappear and “according to us…” has to take its post. Only then, there is togetherness, there is respect, there is growth and there is finally happiness. This is what lacking in the families of modern days: each builds a blocking wall to the other because they need privacy. Very good. Privacy is needed because of the proper nature. Yet, unity cannot be destroyed because it is the nature of the family. In total self-giving of one to the other, the Holy Family becomes a model for us today. Let us learn from it the virtue of being open to the other and to sacrifice of what is personal for the common good of the family. May the Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Fill us with the strength of unity and love! Let me conclude with my song which will bring to our presence the reality of the Holy Family: Song of the Holy Family Family! Great Family! Spiritual Family! Exemplary Family! Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph! A Family, Filled with Joy and Affection! A Family, Ripened with Love and Unity! A Family, Won the Difficulties with the Friendship! A Family, Confronted the Cries with the Patience! Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph!