First Reading – Sirach 3, 2 – 6, 12 – 14; (1 Sam 1, 20 – 28)
Second Reading – 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; (C0l 3, 12 – 21)
Gospel – Luke 2:41-52
On the last Sunday of the year, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. On this day we offer our own families and all the members of our community on the altar to seek blessing from the Holy Family. The feast of the Holy Family reminds us that as the basic unit of the universal Church, each family is called to holiness. The Holy Family tells us about the Divine Son of God Jesus, his mother Mary, and his foster-father Joseph. We know very little about the life of the Holy Family through the Scriptures. They speak of the early years of the Holy Family, including the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, the finding of Jesus in the temple, and their life at Nazareth. Mary and Joseph experience the awakening in their child Jesus his life’s direction. Already now Jesus assumes the responsibility God has placed onto him. Even though they do not fully grasp its implication they go back with him to Nazareth and we have the example of the Holy Family.
Every human family is in God´s plan. From the time of creation, God did not want a man to be alone but he created the human race as a family. He intended that the Son of God, who is like us “in all things but sin” was born into a human family. This communion of persons on earth is a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, is the human institution that best reflects the life of the Holy Trinity. The Son of God had emptied himself to assume the condition of a powerless and totally dependent infant to be like us in every way. He came into the world which is his own creation but his own people ignored him. The family constitutes in fact the privileged and protective environment into which God wills all of his children to be born and to grow. His plan for his only-begotten Son was no different.
In our First Reading from the Book of Sirach tells us about the obligation of parents towards their children. It reminds us of the first parents who were created in the image and likeness of God. The reading reflects the close bond that exists between God and man and must reflect in the esteem children shows towards their parents. The young ought to learn from the precepts received from God. If the parents give their children the example of a life of obedience to the Law of God of their country, the children in turn will carry out their duties to God, to their parents and to their fellow human beings. There have been and will be exceptions but the majority carry out the prescription laid down to them by their parents.
The Second Reading of today reminds us of the centrality of love. Because God loves us, we are the children of God. In addition to our own family, we also belong to God’s family: we are all brothers and sisters to each other because of our common Father and we share his life. There is then an obligation for all of us to care for each other. Married couples and parents should not be left on their own. St John tells us of our relationship with God which is a total commitment to Jesus Christ and his Way, and at the same time a call to love one another. These things are precious and irreplaceable. We are called the children of God and hence members of one family. We were reminded of the great love that the Father has given us.
Luke in the gospel intends to show us that Mary and Joseph was a typical pious Jewish couple, who went about their business doing all that was required and expected of good observant Jews. The Gospel of today tells us how Jesus is lost in the Temple during their obligatory visit. Only parents who have had a child go missing in a big and strange city can really appreciate the agony the parents of this only child must have experienced. And it was three whole days before they eventually found him again. For parents in such a situation that must have seemed like an eternity. Jerusalem was full of strangers and there were undoubtedly people around who could be dangerous. This narrative tells us of the close bond of the family and at the same time the underlying mission of Jesus. What was important for Mary and Joseph was to find the child that was lost. For Mary, the words of Simeon were still fresh in her heart reminding her of the sword. The child Jesus had enemies trying to kill him and she had the task of protecting him. This pictures the very human side of the Holy Family.
The Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general. Our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the “domestic church” or the “church in miniature.” St. John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a “family church,” and in doing so, we sanctify the family unit. The best way is by making Christ and his Church the centre of family and individual life. St. Paul gives us some advice on family life in Colossians, Chapter 3: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love.
The feast of the Holy Family is a good time to remember the family unit and pray for our human and spiritual families. We also take this feast to reflect on the value and sanctity of the family unit and to evaluate our own family life. Finally, we can use this feast to ask ourselves what we are doing to promote the family within our own cultures, neighbourhoods, and communities.
Pope Francis said that as a child, he heard a story of a family with a mother, father, many children, and a grandfather. The grandfather, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, would drop food on the dining table, drop and break bowls, and smear food all over his face when he ate. His son considered it disgusting. Hence, one day he bought a small table, a wooden bowl and spoon and set it off to the side of the dining room so the grandfather could eat, make a mess and not disturb the rest of the family. One day, the Pope said, the grandfather’s son came home and found one of his sons playing with a piece of wood. “What are you making?” he asked his son. “A bowl,” the son replies. “Why?” the father asks. “It’s for you, Dad. When you get old like Grandpa, I am going to give you this bowl.” After that day, the grandfather was given a prominent seat at the dining table and all the help he needed in eating by his son and daughter-in-law. “This story has done me such good throughout my life,” said the Pope, who celebrated his 88th birthday on December 17, 2021. “Grandparents are a treasure,” he said. “Often old age isn’t pretty, right? There is sickness and all that, but the wisdom our grandparents have is something we must welcome as an inheritance.” A society or community that does not value, respect and care for its elderly members “doesn’t have a future because it has no memory, it has lost its memory,” Pope Francis added.