Let our families be places of love & peace: Feast of the Holy Family
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Year B
Sermon And Christian Act In The Word
Theme: Harmony& Mutual respect! Family Founded on Love and Peace! Let our families be places of love & peace!
Point of Reflection: We all belong to a family: Happy and Blessed Family Day to you all! On this first Sunday after Christmas every year when families are reunited again from their walks of lives, the Church places before us the family founded on love which is the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Families did not come about by accident. The family is part of God’s plan for us. God wants our families to be holy, peaceful and loving. The family is the basic unit of society and the Church; we could say the family is a little church. It is in the family that we first learn to communicate. It is in the family that we learn what love is. It is in the family that we first learn to forgive and to pray. It is in the family that we first learn about God and Jesus and Our Lady. It is in the family that first we learn our values and what is good and bad. The future of humanity depends on the family because it is through families that society continues. The Holy family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph must be the model of our daily Christian family living.
First Reading: Sirach 3:2–6, 12–14
Psalm: Psalm 128:1–5
Second Reading: Colossians 3:12–21
Gospel: Luke 2:22–40
Sermon (Reflection): From the hidden life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, there is much we can learn about remaining faithful to God through the experiences of their family life. In this way we discover peace and joy within the home, and being equipped to share peace and joy with those around us. The first and foremost lesson, we need to learn from the Holy family is faithfulness to God and each family member which is bounded by love and peace. This is the lesson for us today: to remain faithful to our families and God. Nobody chose the family where he or she was born, leave alone the country you were born. We are in the blood families we are in because of love of God and never regret why you were born in such a family. Every family has its own challenges. This can be reflected from the life of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
The Holy Family is a family that knew hardships yet remained steadfast in God. It is for our families to imitate their model if we are to know joy, love and peace in the midst of this life; if we are to attain holiness and salvation for ourselves and for our children.
The feast of the Holy Family, celebrated within the Christmas season, is more than just a sentimental glance at baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in the first days of their life together. This feast conveys a profound lesson on harmony as the foundation for family life, and, in fact, the Christian life itself.
Today’s first reading passage contains instructions on family life. Sirach teaches that sound family life is founded on the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, “honour your father and your mother”, rephrased by the sage as, “those who honour their mother obey the Lord”.
Honouring one’s parents goes beyond simple obedience to their commands and demands. The commandment finds its fullest expression in the attitude of reverent respect. The author states that such reverence for the parents will bring a twofold blessing. First, it will be the blessing of a happy and long life – “those who honour their father will have joy, … those who respect their father will have long life”. Second, respect for parents will bring the spiritual blessing in the form of remission of sins and answered prayers: “those who honour their father atone for sins …and when they pray they will be heard”, and, “kindness to a father will not be forgotten, and will be credited to you against your sins”. As Children of God we need to be honouring our parents all the time so that we can get spiritual blessings all the time, with that, then, we will live a happy family life.
Worthy noticing is that honouring and respecting parents instils harmony in the family. This harmony rests in a certain order of authority, which must be sustained. For this reason, the author begins his exhortations by emphasising that God established this family order by placing “father above his children” and confirming “a mother’s right over her children”. Sirach perceives such order as a guarantee of lasting blessing for both the parents and the children. For this Jewish sage, wise and happy living entails cultivating intergenerational harmony at home.
The second reading of today from Colossians contains a series of exhortations regarding life in the Christian community and in the Christian family. Just as in the first reading, the focus rests on harmony. The author begins by defining believers as “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved”. The author draws directly from Deuteronomy 7:6-8, where the people of Israel, God’s people, are described in that very manner. The new community of God’s people which was established by Christ also welcomes the non-Jews (the Gentiles) into its fold. Its members have been “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1) because they believe in the Risen Lord. Thus included among God’s people, they live a changed life because they stripped off “the old self with its practices” (Col 3:9). Their new identity and status express itself in and through harmonious living. In this community, harmony results from the practice of virtues with which the members “clothe” themselves: “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”.
Above all, harmony results from love – the greatest of virtues (Cf 1 Corinthians 13:13). This harmony is further enhanced through common worship and prayer, which binds the members to one another and to Christ. The practice of virtues and prayer life transforms individual believers into “the one body” – a living organism existing in harmony.
The second part of the second reading places Christian family in the spotlight. This passage, known as a “household code”, defines mutual duties and obligations of the members of the Christian household. It must be acknowledged, that this code reflects the social realities of the day which were thoroughly patriarchal. In that world, the husband and father had absolute authority over each member of the household. His authority was unchallenged and absolute. While the father was not accountable to anyone, wives, children, and slaves owed him complete obedience and reverence.
The instructions contained in this household code here are, therefore, quite radical for their time. Their aim was to form a household where life could be lived in harmony and mutual respect between its members, regardless of their unequal social status. It was a place where subjection and fear would be replaced by respect, consideration, and responsibility for one another.
The rich Gospel of today narrates the early episode of Jesus’ life known as the “presentation of the Lord”. The Jewish Law required women to undergo ritual purification after childbirth because of their exposure to blood (Cf Lev 12:2-8). The newly born firstborn children were to be offered to God as the “first fruits” (Cf Exod 13:12.15). Jesus’ pious Jewish parents fulfil these requirements – his family maintains harmony with God through faithful obedience to his laws. Yet, Jesus’ arrival in the Temple has a significance far beyond the fulfilment of the Law. Seeing the child, Simeon and Anna act as prophets publicly disclosing the true identity of this new-born. Simeon declares Jesus is God’s saviour (God’s salvation) for the Gentiles and the Jews alike, while Anna proclaims him as the redeemer of Jerusalem. Salvation and redemption are God’s acts resulting in the restoration of peace and harmony in the human world, and, indeed, in the entire creation. Jesus came to restore that harmony which was dramatically disrupted by the events described in Genesis chapter 3. However, before embarking on his salvific and redemptive mission, Jesus would grow and thrive in the atmosphere of harmony which his parents maintained at home, allowing him to become “strong, filled with wisdom”.
Christian Act in Word of God “Harmony! Let our families be places of love, joy and peace”
Today’s feast calls our attention to the importance of the family as the cradle of life and, often, faith. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, began his earthly life in an ordinary human family. Like us today, he was nurtured and raised in a family, surrounded by other family members. Like us today, his family gave him his identity, at least in part. One must wonder about how much his parents, pious Jews, influenced him in those early days, and how much that human formation bore on his future mission as God’s Messiah.
The three readings of this feast identify the sound foundations for all families, namely harmony and mutual respect. The first reading bears a message to youth by evoking the fourth commandment: honour your father and mother to ensure harmony in the family. Nowadays, a principle of children’s unrestricted independence has often been proposed as a new way of raising children. However, this seemingly “better way” has resulted in a great number of young people becoming rapidly disconnected from the authority of their parents, with an unintended effect of becoming lost in life. In pride, and rejection of parental authority and guidance, youthful rebellion often leads to all kinds of harmful and destructive behaviours.
Let our families and communities be united in gratitude to God for the gift we are to one another. “A family that prays together stays together.”
As mothers and fathers, we need to ask ourselves:
- Do we teach our children to pray, do we pray with them, both in and outside the home?
- Do we show them the love of God by our own love and affection for one another and our concern and care for all those in need through our works of mercy?
- Do we teach them about the suffering Jesus bore for them when they are sick and hurting?
As children, we need to ask ourselves:
- As stated in our first reading and second reading of today, do we bring harmony in our families? Do we honour our parents? Let us pray today that we should be Christians to bring harmony to our families.
Let us pray to Jesus our God, asking the intercession of St. Joseph and Our Blessed Mother, that like these two greatest of God’s saints, we will place Christ at the centre of our homes in our families with love and peace.
Action: I will implore harmony, love and peace in the family I belong to and to the world.
Prayer: Our Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. As your children, we entrust our families to your care and protection. Bless each member of our families and we may bring harmony in our families. Help us to love, listen to, and support and accept one another in the families we live in. Encourage us to challenge one another to be compassionate, merciful and forgiving as we struggle with the difficulties of our lives. May this world be a family of love and peace, we ask this through Your Son Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, Amen.
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