Holy Family
This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and it is a good time to stop and reflect on the meaning of the Christian Family. We commemorate a family in deep distress because their Son is seen as a threat to a jealous king: Joseph and Mary are running for their lives from Herod the Great. Tradition says that after three years in exile, another angel informs Joseph that Herod the Great is dead. The Holy Family returns to their homeland, not to Bethlehem, since the new king who reigns in his father’s place is also a cruel and barbaric ruler. Joseph brings Mary and Jesus to his native town of Nazareth in Galilee. There, they lived a simple ordinary life, Joseph as a carpenter, and Mary as his wife and mother of Jesus. Jesus grew in holiness and in knowledge of God’s will in the same ordinary ways that families do in our day. We also remember the care that Mary and Joseph gave to Jesus.
We recognise the sacrifice they made for Jesus, in the same way as we recognize the sacrifices our parents made for us and many more parents are making for their children today in our I want I get world. The feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth is a reminder of all that the Holy Family has meant to us, and all that it continues to mean to us. It also represents what Family means for us as people of faith, in the guidance protection, the goodness and kindness, and the love and support, of our parents! In the friendship of other family members and of many other significant people in our lives! And in things that have happened to us good and not so good! In this Sundays Gospel reading Simeon makes his prophecy about Christ’s destiny and as it says, ‘the child’s father and mother stood there wondering about him. Every parent wonders about their children.
Every parent is full of hope for their children. Over a period of time this might turn in to fear and anxiety, but the fundamental feeling of hope is still there. We hope that everything will turn out well for them; we hope that they will make a success of life; we hope that they will be safe and keep out of trouble; we hope that they will be happy. As we think about family we pray that the Holy Family will inspire us to recommit ourselves to our families and what they mean to all of us in our ever changing world.
Fullerton T 