Place of Love & Peace: Holy Family Sunday
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Year C
Sermon and Christian Act in The Word
Theme: 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, the Church places before us the family founded on love which is the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Any family we belong to 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, 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: 1 Samuel 1:20–28
Psalm: Psalm 84:2–3, 5–11
Second Reading: 1 John 3:1–2.21-24
Gospel: Luke 2:41–52
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 are 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, let alone the country you were born. We are in the blood families we are in because of the love of God and never regret why you were born in such a family. Every family has its own challenges. This can be reflected in 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 Gospel tells us that after Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple, He returned with them to Nazareth and remained obedient to them growing in wisdom and age and favour before God and man. The Gospel passage of today portrays to us one of the worst scenarios in the life of the Holy Family. How can a child tell his mother and his foster father, that you did not know that I am supposed to be in my Father’s house? How did Mary and Joseph feel? Mary and Joseph suffered the awful experience of losing Jesus for three days when he was twelve years old and the only satisfaction they got from him was that he had to be about his Father’s business. This number three is very symbolic, how many days did it take for Jesus to rise again after being crucified? Three days! Jesus himself said you can destroy this temple and I will build it in three days! The Trinity is three in ONE.
Nevertheless, for thirty of His thirty-three years, Jesus lived a humble and obedient life within His family before embarking on His public ministry. In this way, He allowed Himself to be taught experientially by His mother and foster-father, in their words and deeds, in acts both extraordinary and ordinary.
Notably, the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph are put before us by the Church this weekend as a model for our families. We call them “The Holy Family” but that does not mean that they did not have problems. Just as every family has to face problems and overcome them, or to put it another way, has to carry a cross, so also The Holy Family had to carry crosses. Their many crosses come to mind as we read the Scriptures. Then the family had to flee to Egypt as refugees because Jesus’ life was in danger due to Herod, in much the same way as refugees from war-torn countries are now entering many western countries. There was also the pain caused by the rhyme made up about Jesus: “Behold a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners” (Cf. Luke 7:34).
And there was growing hostility to Jesus by the Jewish authorities that must have caused huge pain to both Mary and Jesus, especially as it became increasingly obvious that Jesus would have to pay for his mission by dying. The saddest moment of all came when Mary watched her son die on the cross.
We do not hear of Joseph any more so we presume that before Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee Joseph had died. The Holy Family suffers the greatest pain of all families, the pain of bereavement and separation through death.
Jesus’ public ministry must have taken its toll on Mary. Simeon had predicted in the Temple that a sword of sorrow would pierce Mary’s soul. We can imagine one such occasion as we read in Mark 3:21 that when Jesus returned to Nazareth one day his relatives came to take him by force convinced that he was out of his mind. Not a very pleasant experience for any family, no matter how holy.
What kept The Holy Family together and sane throughout all of these trials and crosses? The answer is ‘Love for each other and God’. Hence, Family is founded on love. Jesus’ love for Mary and Mary’s love for Jesus, and the love of both of them for God the Father. We can see Jesus’ love for his mother when he was dying on the cross and was worried about leaving her behind so he asked his close friend and disciple John to look after her, saying to Mary, ‘Woman behold your son’, and to John ‘behold your mother’ (Cf. John 19:26-27). What holds our families together also in times of difficulty is love and forgiveness. It is love which triumphs in the end, even if for a while love may have to take the form of some honest talking. When discipline needs to be given, if it is not given in love it is reduced to abuse. If ever our families fail in any way, it is because of a lack of love on someone’s part. Whenever our families are successful, it is because they are places of love and peace, let us fill our families with peace and love.
Christian Act in Word of God “Let our families be places of love, joy and peace”
Jesus sanctified and elevated the family, set apart for a noble and holy purpose. Just as the holy family survived all its crises through love for each other and faith in God, let us pray during this Mass that our families will conquer all difficulties through love for each other and faith in God.
The family is the Domestic Church. It is within the family that our children are first introduced to the faith and where they first encounter the Risen Lord, experience His love and come to believe.
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?
- Like Hannah in Chapter 1 of First Samuel, do we dedicate our children to the Lord? Do we diligently prepare them for the sacraments and invoke the angels and saints, especially Mary and Joseph to assist them and us?
And children, you also need to ask, “Do I humbly follow the example of Jesus, who loves me so much, by honouring and obeying my parents as He honoured and obeyed Joseph and Mary?” let us love each other in our families as our families are founded on love and peace.
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 love and peace in the family I belong 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. 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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