Homily For the Feast Of The Holy Family Of Jesus, Mary And Joseph Year B.
“MAKE OUR FAMILY LIKE YOURS!”
By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.
· Today the church celebrates the solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. There is an age-long greeting for the society of the Holy Family that greet themselves as “Holy Family”, and they respond, “Make our family like yours”. This response is the theme for our reflection today.
· The family is a very important institution. In civil life, it is referred to as the smallest unit of society. In ecclesiastical life, it is referred to as the domestic church. We do not take for granted the importance of family because when we get the formation of family wrong, we get both the church and society wrong and vice versa.
· The family as a domestic Church is something the church takes seriously and that is why today has been set aside as the feast of the Holy Family. This feast helps us to reflect on how well our families are faring, and to ascertain areas of commendation and reprimand. We ought to model our family after that of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
· The celebration of the feast of the Holy Family is also the promise of fruitfulness in the land. In the first reading (Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1), the Lord God wiped away the tears of barrenness from Abram and Sarah. Mr. and Mrs who were considered barren miraculously conceived a son in their old age.
· Friends in Christ, age is a human creation because in the sight of God a thousand years are like yesterday come and gone (Ps. 90:4). Hence, we must remain trusting and hopeful for a response from God. He fulfills his promises (Ex. 23:24-27). He has done it before, he will do it again in our days.
· Abram and Sarah never gave up on God, they never cried to any human being but instead cried to God who has the power to save them and change their story. Notice that when God blesses you, he changes your name and gives you a proper address.
· The name of Abram was changed to Abraham. The name of Sarai was changed to Sarah to prepare them for their testimony. If your faith is strong enough, the Lord will change your name and your story too. You who were once called “good-for-nothing”, will now be called “good-for-many-things”, we must keep our focus on God and not lose faith.
· There is nothing as reassuring as the fact that God still answers prayers. We must in the new year challenge God by his words and promises; we must stand firm and stand tall in our resolve to worship God till the end.
· The Second reading (Hebrews 11:8-12.17-19), tells us that the prerequisite to enjoy God’s testimonies is to have solid and unshakeable faith in him. It is that faith in God that made Abraham abandon his comfort zone to embark on a journey without a known destination.
· Dearly beloved in Christ, while it is true that our various human experiences may have affected our commitment to the things of God, the faith and consistency of Abraham and Sarah should be the propelling force we need to kindle our faith in God again.
· It is that same faith in God that prompted Abraham to have the courage to want to sacrifice Isaac when a demand was made of him. His trust is, that the one who gave him a child in his old age can still give him more even in the evening of his life. So, giving back to God what he had received from God was not a problem.
· The gospel reading (Luke 2:22-40), which is the story of the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple is also packed full of lessons for us. Joseph and Mary at different points had different revelations about the kind of child they were going to have, these revelations were enough to make them abandon the child Jesus to fate and let God take charge. They nurtured the child and brought him up in the way of the Lord by first presenting him in the temple.
· Friends in Christ, this is also a challenge to us towards responsible parenting. It is not enough to seat and watch and let our children waste away either because we do not want to hurt them or because we want to appear like modern parents. Society becomes the victim of our irresponsibility.
· How can we pray and ask God for children, only to leave them at the mercy of our house helps, nannies, and drivers? Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, this should challenge us to responsible parenting. We must now become interested in what our children do, in what they eat, where they go to and which friends they keep.
· Today we must re-evaluate our different roles in the family. God who has brought us together as a family, brought us together for a purpose. As a father, am I being a good father to my family? As a mother and a wife, am I taking my responsibility seriously as a homemaker and shaping the moral life of my children? As a child, am I obeying and showing love to my parents because it is what is demanded of me (Ex. 20:12).
· Today we must all look inward to see how our action and inaction may have contributed to the societal decay we are currently experiencing. We must seek ways to rewrite that narrative by taking our roles and responsibilities in every Christian family seriously.
· May the good Lord bless his word in our hearts through Christ our Lord, Amen!
· Happy Sunday!!!
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