Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. It is also a day for us to bring all our families to God’s presence in prayer. We pray for them to receive God’s blessings to face courageously the various challenges of our modern-day life. We all come from a family, and we all belong to a family. Our family name shows our identity, often the place we come from and sometimes the values we cherish. Our families join together in creating this Christian family of the faithful as well as the society at large.
It is the presence of Jesus which makes the family of Nazareth a holy family. By his birth into a human family, Jesus sanctifies all our families. The life of Mary and Joseph are centered around the life of Jesus. Mary and Joseph face many challenges in their life. But their primary educational method for their child is their witness of life. We also need to place Jesus at the center of our lives and our families. It is through the family prayer, reading of the Scripture, and prayer before meals that we can make present Jesus there. Parents must take the initiative for their children to grow in the ways of God. Faith is a precious gift to be nurtured in the children by the example of the parents. Just like Jesus, our children have to grow “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man”(Lk. 2:52).
Our Christian community is also an extended family where we celebrate our spiritual life together. Every Sunday we gather in the church as a family to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. One of the important gifts our parents have given us is our faith life. It is the parents who teach the children to pray. Ours might not be a ‘holy family’ since we all have various challenges and struggles. But we should participate in the Eucharist on Sundays and important feast days together as a family. We have learned that respect given to the parents and elders is an extension of our reverence for God. Our families helped us to accomplish our desires and aspirations. We all learn to communicate, learn to love, learn to forgive, and pray in our family.
Our families are the “domestic hurches” where parents have a crucial role to play. We practice our love and share our life as a close-knit community. The Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary lived in a different era and had to face different challenges. But Joseph and Mary took care of Jesus and shared their joys and sorrows with him. Our future depends on our families, and it is through self-giving and sacrifices we need to build good families. While celebrating the Festival of Families in 2015 Pope Francis gave this message: “…the most beautiful thing that God made, the Bible says, was the family. He created man and woman, and He gave them everything. He gave them the world! Grow, multiply, cultivate the earth, make it produce, make it grow. He presented to a family all of the love that He made in this marvelous creation… All of the love that God has in Himself, all of the beauty that God has in Himself, all of the truth that God has in Himself, He gives to the family. And a family is truly a family when it is able to open its arms and receive all of this love.”
Let us renew our commitment to create a loving Christian family. When Jesus is vibrantly present in our family it becomes a holy family. We conform ourselves not to the spirit of the world but to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Family of Nazareth remains our model, inspiration, and also our source of solace and strength. Let us all support each other with our prayers. May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph bless our families with their divine presence!
Rev. Dr. Mathew Charthakuzhiyil