Dear People of God,
May the New Born Baby Jesus bless with grace, peace, and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is on 30th December 2022. We celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. We reflect on Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21 and Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23.
Are our families holy?
All of us come from families. Every family has a value and a vacuum in its fabrics. Family is not a substitute, but it is the substance of humanity.
A few characteristics make a family holy just like the tiny family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Unless a family learns to be humane in dealing with its members inside and around, it cannot taste the aroma of holiness.
The evening of life comes to the members of the family whether it is for our grandfather, our grandmother, our mother, our father, or for ourselves. Our respect for the older members of the family is a visible sign of holiness in our family.
We do not exist in our families, but we relate with one another. Emotionality plays a vital role in the family. Valuing the unspoken emotions of the member of the family bring us closer to each other.
Family need not be perfect to be holy. We are not living with angels in our families but human beings and so we need to be aware of the weakness and brokenness of the other. Sensitivity in relating with the vulnerable members makes us come closer to God.
Facing trials, tribulations, sickness, and suffering are part of a bigger picture of God’s own family. Lack of compassion, forgiveness, charity, and mercy is a clear sign of an absence of our connectivity with God.
When God is the partner in the family however weak, broken, fragile and vulnerable our families are yet it qualifies the profound holiness of God.
If families cannot translate the love of God, nothing can make it.
Every family is entrusted with the mission of God to be a church where God lives and loves. The value of families becomes real when there are so many vicious attacks and alternative models proposed trying to replace a family of Father, mother, and children.
Let us be grateful for our families no matter how imperfect and dysfunctional they might look. May the Lord bless our families and those who are still struggling to bear witness to Holy Family in their simply ways and means. God bless you.