HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH YEAR C.

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1Samuel 1:20-22.24-28; Psalm 84:2-3. 5-7. 9-10. R/ v.5; 1John 3:1-2. 21-24; Luke 2:41-52.

“THE FAMILY AND SALVATION”

           By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.

·       We are still in the Christmas season, so it would not be surprising that many may even forget that today is Sunday, and we are expected to keep our obligations as Catholics, which is to attend mass and keep the Sabbath day holy.

·       Today is not like every other Sunday, it is the feast of the number one family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph), the ideal family put forward for us by the church for our emulation on our struggle to salvation.

·       The family for us is a domestic church, the seedbed of moral and spiritual values, because if we have a good family system intent upon God then our society will be better for it.

·      Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  This is the Holy Family.  It is an unusual group and has even more unusual relationships within the family.  Over the centuries we have come to recognize that all families are unique, even when they share much in common.  This family group - Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - is unusual and yet completely normal.  We hear practically nothing about this normal family until Jesus begins His public ministry.

·      The First Book of Samuel, from which our first reading today is taken, gives us another most unusual family, that of Samuel.  How can we imagine a mother, who has longed for a child all her life, then giving that child away to the service of the temple?  Incredible!  These are stories of faith.  We don’t always like them, but they are given to us to show how faith can impact our life.  A true family, in the Scriptural sense, keeps working at living from faith and building the family relationships in faith.

·      The second reading from the First Letter of Saint John, speaks about how we are all children of God.  This can remind us of that Gospel passage where Jesus tells us that his mother and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and practice it.  In this sense, we are all part of the Holy Family because we are brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers of the Lord Jesus.  It can humble us to think this way, but we can recognize there are no perfect families.  What moves us toward a perfect family is listening to the Word and striving to live it with faith and love.

·      Luke’s Gospel today is the account of Jesus staying in Jerusalem and teaching in the temple when he was twelve years old!  We can imagine the anxiety of his parents when they discover he is not with them.  Yet Jesus does not apologize.  Instead, he states a simple truth:  I must be about my father’s business.

·      We’ve got a few things to learn from the Holy Family today. The first is allegiance to God’s will, even when we think we know all the answers. When Mary was told that she was going to be the mother of the Redeemer, she did not fully understand but only prayed that the Lord’s will be done in her life. Likewise, when the angel warned Joseph in a dream not to divorce Mary on account of her mysterious pregnancy, he listened accordingly. The Holy Family was very devoted to God and divine worship, as exemplified by their pilgrimage to Jerusalem in today’s Gospel. This point is also evident in Jesus’ prayer life and knowledge of Scripture, which would have been part of the family tradition. Furthermore, we learn from the Holy Family that no one is immune from the worries and difficulties of family life. Soon after Jesus was born, his family had to flee to Egypt to escape.

·      For all of us this day, the deepest and most loving way of celebrating the Holy Family is to live as Jesus did:  doing the will of the Father with love.  Let us become truly the Holy Family of Jesus here on earth.

·      May God continue to protect and preserve the family institution, and keep it holy according to His divine will, and make it a veritable part of salvation for us all, Amen.

·      Happy Sunday!!!

 

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