Holy Family Feast 2012 Theme: Life in a home or Life in a rest-house?
1st Reading Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 Respect to Parents
2nd Reading Col. 3:12-21 Paul’s explains values of Christian family.
Gospel Mt.2:13-15, 19-23 Homeless family.
This is a rare occasion when the first Sunday in Christmas week happens to be the Feast of holy Family.
We know Family holds important place in any society.
Family in Christian life is so important; we associate a family to the Trinity.
The family in Christian faith means it becomes holy because of a Sacrament through the sacrament of Matrimony.
In Christian world family consists of father, mother and children.
Now for the last few years it has shrunk to a miniature family.
This has been advertised to prove that small family is the source of happiness.
People try to justify this idea through ignorance of family value.
To prove this they say that only a small family can be happy.
This is watched every day on TV, Movies, and Serials and news paper articles.
They say there are various means of making the families small.
Now home has turned into rest house, where strangers live.
Love and care, communication and reconciliation and sharing, takes back stage.
To make family small people use, methods which are forbidden by Magisterium.
God who created the human being and so the family, in the modern world, house has become a hotel, where people come and go with out much intimacy.
God has told us to this world where people love and care for each other.
Human life is so important, it has to be preserved.
So God keeps us in existence giving us opportunities to make his vision real.
But we have not kept this in our lives.
Our homes have vanished from being homes but they have become rest houses.
We have to restore God’s plan for us.
We as Christians live in the presence of God.
Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) explains the duties of children towards the parent.
Today’s reading shows the duties of children.
Let us listen carefully to the reading.
Paul in epistle to Colossians explains the virtues each person as a Christian has to practice in the family.
If we pay attention to this reading most of our families will live as happy families.
Divorce will become rare.
People will love and care, respect and support family values
Gospel is a story of pilgrim Jesus with his parents.
Though he came to his own his own did not recognize and respect and allow even to have his own home.
He lived as a pilgrim in this world.
Try to fulfill the will of his father.
A family has to have a family.
Jesus right from his birth lived as an itinerant.
Jesus was born in a manger, had to flee from the King because of being murdered by the king.
Jesus could not go back to his home land because of fear of insecurity and death before his time.
Even when he grew up he went from place to place preaching.
His family was a larger world, where poor destitute, sick lame, blind, lepers and paralyzed accompanied him even sinners and prostitutes were his friends.
He called the people around him, his father, mother sisters and brother.
Jesus claimed those who did the will of his Father were his family members.
We find it difficult to live up to the will of God .
The family has become so disunited, where wife has to work, the husband has to work to make the many needs to become reality, children go to school, there is hardly any one at home.
“The value”, the family that prayed together, ate together lived together is hardly visible.
Life in modern family, is a fast track struggle.
To live up to the ideals of each member they have to struggle daily.
When every one returns every one is busy with their own little world, children are either busy with tuitions, or studies or watching TV
Parents are busy on their own sometimes arguing, fighting etc.
Hardly the family bond is cemented with caring, sharing, communicating dialoging and recreating.
People live as if to fulfill the needs of each other, not realizing what they loose is the sensitive emotional psychological, requirements of each other.
As Catholics we have to rise up to the needs of restoring to the values that were set before us.
Other wise we will multiply old age homes to put our parents in.
The book of Sirach, reminds us of our responsibility towards each other.
Let us try to live in our homes as families where we find real love, where we care for each other share each others concerns, talk to each other lovingly.
Wishing all a happy Holy Family Feast.
Yours ever in the divine word,
Fr. Juze Vaz svd
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