BUILDING OF HOLY FAMILIES

 

THE HOLY FAMILY, CHRISTMAS OCTAVE

Eccl 3:2-6,12-14; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12-17; Mt 2:13-15,19-23

Family as the Place of Love and Sanctification

Our Christian homes or families are cradles of heavenly love and joy. We realise this to the extent that we believe the word of God we hear or receive every day and put it into practice. Our vocation as Christians is to receive and carry the Good News, which we are required to witness through our thoughts, words, and deeds daily. Although we receive the word of God in the Church, when we come together to celebrate and commune with the Lord as part of the big family of God, the family is nevertheless a unit of the Church where God requires us to practice what we have heard, seen, and received in the Church. The efficacy of the graces we receive in the Sacraments of the Church is tested in family life. The family interactions reveal how well we have listened to the word of God and attended to the presence of God in the Liturgical celebration of the Church. Attentive, regular, and good celebration of the Sacrament of Penance helps us resolve issues that arise in the family, causing division and partisan spirit. The forgiveness we joyfully receive in the Confession or Penance, we happily share with our spouses and children. Similarly, our attentive and regular celebrations of the Eucharist reinforce the unity of the family; spouses learn from the Lord, who offers himself in the Eucharist, to give themselves to each other and to their children in sincere and devotional love. Saint Paul’s message to the Colossians contains these lessons.

Subsequently, the attention of the spouses at the liturgical celebration of the Church translates into a faithful, lively, and spiritual family life. The right conditions for the conception and rearing of children as heavenly gifts of God are provided through the loving devotion of the spouses to God. A spouse would lack the personal, moral, social, and spiritual foundations to support a good Christian family if he or she did not receive these in his or her native family. Nobody gives what he has not. The reading from Ecclesiasticus instructs us on how these foundations proceed from God to the children. “The Lord honours the father in his children and upholds the rights of a mother over her sons. Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins, he who honours his mother is like someone amassing a fortune. Whoever respects his father will be happy with children of his own, he shall be heard on the day when he prays.” These are solemn words which many of us have left unattended. We destroy many families when we fail to pay attention to the word of God in the liturgical celebrations of the Church, for that is where the graces come from to support us in our works and life in the family. If the Word and Sacraments, which are sources of graces, are not well celebrated, graces will not be received, and the necessary personal, moral, social, and spiritual structures will not be established. Hence, many families rest on a shaky foundation or on quicksand.

If we honour the Lord with our devotional attention at the Church’s liturgical celebrations of the Word and Sacraments, he will give us graces that will help us to instil these necessary foundations in our children, who will honour and delight us by their good behaviour and character as they grow. The seed we sow in them must germinate for good or evil, depending on the type of seed. “O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! By the labour of your hands, you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper.” If we attend to God, his words, and his things in a cursory manner, we will lack the necessary means to build a solid house for God. The Christian spouses have received a project of building a house/home for God through the Sacrament of Matrimony. The Church and all her structures are available to the spouses for this all-important project. Christian families have the duty of making the mysteries we celebrate in the Church concrete in their daily living and interactions.

The successful execution of the project God has given each of us in the marital or religious vocation depends on how deeply we understand and attend to the mysteries of Jesus Christ that we celebrate in the Church daily. Saint Paul testifies to the need to make these mysteries present in ourselves and families. “Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you. Teach each other, and advise each other, in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God; and never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Parents are to help their children in this regard; we must ground them deeply in these mysteries by the practice of our Christian faith. They listen more to what we do than to what we say. Hence, to pass on the Christian tradition and its culture of life: forgiveness, gentleness, peace, generosity, kindness, love, etc., we must attend to the word of God and to God in the Sacraments of the Church, liturgical celebrations, and prayers daily.

There would be challenges and hurdles in family life. How do we resolve our challenges as individuals, parents, and families? These occasions present wonderful teachable moments for the parents. The Gospel narrates how Saint Joseph resolved the challenge the Holy Family faced when Herod planned to kill the Infant Jesus. The upright Joseph got a revelation and a directive from God on what to do. “The Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So, Jospeh got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead.” The family project belongs to God; we must, therefore, receive regular directives from God on how to build our families. Joseph paid attention and forestalled the destruction of salvation for a multitude of families and souls. Our lack of attention to the Lord is causing the destruction of many families and souls. We pray for the grace of God for ourselves and for families, that we may be attentive to the word of God and fulfil our vocations for the praise of God and the salvation of souls.

Let us pray: O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practising the virtues of family life and in the bond 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.