FAMILY, A CRIB OF HOLINESS.

December 30, 2022.
Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

(When a Sunday does not occur between December 25 and January 1, this feast is celebrated on December 30 with only one reading before the Gospel.)

Readings: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14; or Col 3:12-21; Ps 128:1-2, 3,4-5; Mt 2:13-15, 19-23.

“Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” Mt 2:20

An Albanian proverb says: “Home is the father's kingdom, the children's paradise, the mother's world.” And a Traditional proverb adds: “A healthy family is a sacred territory.”

Family is where everything starts, love, life, growth, and virtues. It is the basic cell of life. God coming to save mankind chose to incarnate himself in a family and share its life. From that very moment, the human family became the crib of holiness.

The Catechism says: "The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life: The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us... A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character... A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work... To conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern their brother who is God." CCC 533

This article of the Catechism lay the ground for us to meditate on the Holy Family of Nazareth, but also to meditate on the family in general. Holy Family as a school to understand Jesus: There everything began for him through the loving care of his parents. There he learned to be a human being, first in the womb and then in the hands of Mary projected and provided for by Joseph. There also, he learned the beauty of silent meditation, humility, simplicity, and perfect joy that springs from concern for others.

Holy Family has a lesson for our families today. This springs from the communion of love that united the members of the Family of Nazareth. Nazareth teaches us about family life that must be nourished on love, communion, contentment, mutual understanding, support, and above all protection of the little ones and the weak.

Lastly, Holy Family is a working place. A great lesson about Nazareth's family and work. Jesus learned from Joseph the value of work. He did not become a beggar because Joseph taught him to earn his daily bread. He also learned from there, how to help feed the less fortunate.

While celebrating today the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the entrance antiphon and the readings not only tell us where we can find Jesus, the newborn but also teach us the values of family. We are given, through the Hoy Family, an example to imitate, and a school of virtues.

In the first reading, the accent is on the virtues children should cultivate. The Wiseman Sirach exhorts on the relationship children should entertain with their parents. All take roots in the 4th commandment of the Mosaic Law: "Honor your father and your mother." With this commandment, the Lord revealed the importance and great dignity of family life. It is a commandment that strengthens the family. It draws an image of the family as an icon of the Trinity. The relation of love and communion between the three persons of the Godhead is what the members of the family are called to reproduce. When children honor their parents, they become an incarnation of the Son of God in their family. For, they pattern their lives on the obedience of Christ to the Father. Sirach says: "Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins, he who honors his mother is like someone amassing a fortune." Obedience to the parents is like an act of obedience to God. The saying goes that our parents are our first gods on earth. Therefore, we owe them respect, honor, and love. Let's never forget the fourth commandment. It is the only prescription of the Law that comes with a consequence: “...that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Ex 20:12, Dt 5:16).

We owe our respect and honor to our parents because they are God’s representatives to provide for us shelter, food, clothing, and education. When we miss faithfulness to this commandment, we expose ourselves to divine punishment. The happenings in our society today and in the world could help us evaluate if yes or no we have been observant of God's law regarding our parents.

Paul, in the second reading, speaks about family life in the Lord. He presents the obligations of each member vis-a-vis vis to the others. Relation between wife and husband, and parents with children. The Apostle mentions that the basis of all family life and relationships is love, after the image of Christ's love.

The family life, in the Lord, should be built after the image of Christ's love for us. Like Jesus, every family should develop the virtues of "heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another..." A family without these human and spiritual virtues is just a constellation of individuals without sincere concern for each other, so a consecration of selfishness and indifference. In the Holy Family, they were no selfishness, indifference, or egoism. Instead, all the members embarked on selfless love and a greater sense of sacrifice for others. Mary sacrificed her life in obedience to God who was to become her son. She gave up all her personal dreams to say "Fiat voluntas Tua" to God's will, even with all the risks of rejection. Joseph as well gave up his personal will and projects, to embark on God's greater plan which was a mystery to him. And as we read in the Gospel, he will do everything for the fulfillment of God's plan, even becoming a migrant in Egypt to protect the newborn child. And Jesus, the Son of God himself came to give a new meaning to the human family. He made it a crib of love and all divine virtues.

Let's close our meditation with this exhortation of the Catechism: “The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.” CCC 2205. May all families, after the image of the family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, become a place of evangelization, a true school of relationships, love, education, sacrifice, communion, and happiness.

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