Places of Love and Peace: The Holy Family
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – The Holy Family Of Jesus, Mary And Joseph – Year A
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 life, 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, Jesus and Our Lady. It is in the family that 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: Mt 2:19–15.19-23
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 bound 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 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 honour 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 themselves 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 the 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.
Today’s Gospel describes how Joseph and Mary protected the Child Jesus from the sword of King Herod by escaping with Him to Egypt. The flight into Egypt also echoes the story of the earlier Joseph, whose going into Egypt laid the foundation for the birth of the Israelite nation and the Exodus (Cf. Genesis 37-50). That first Joseph was a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. God also appears to this new Joseph in dreams (1:20; 2:13, 19, 22). The places cited in this lesson are equally important. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the city of David. His journey to Egypt is like that of Jacob’s family, who went to Egypt to escape famine. Jesus is driven to Egypt by a famine of justice. It was not unusual for Israelites to seek refuge in Egypt when life became difficult elsewhere, and Egypt had a substantial Jewish population. Joseph and his family would not have had to live in isolation. The events of this lesson show how Jesus happened to grow up in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem. In Galilee, he would grow up rubbing shoulders with Gentiles, which is appropriate to a Gospel that concludes with a mission to “all nations” (28:19). Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. The angel, who had been silent for some period of time, put God’s plan back in motion. As noted above, the angel’s words echo God’s call to Moses (Ex 4:19). Joseph obeyed without complaint or comment. This is a lesson to us as Christians to always listen to the Lord, not always complaining.
In adulthood, Jesus was called not just “Joseph’s son,” but “the carpenter’s son.” Joseph was skilled in a trade that was highly regarded in his day, and he trained Jesus in the same craft. Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, is presented as a man of unwavering obedience, eager to consult God in fervent prayer and to learn His will through “dreams”. Joseph obeys without complaint, and his prompt obedience is crucial to God’s plan. He knows nothing except the next step of the journey, but he takes that step. So also is our obedience crucial to God’s plan. We cannot see the fullness of God’s plan for our lives or our families any better than Joseph could see it for his life, but we can be assured that our faithfulness will also lead, one step at a time, to great things.
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.
By celebrating the Sunday following Christmas as the Feast of the Holy Family, the Church encourages us to look to the Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph for inspiration, example and encouragement. They were a model family in which both parents worked hard, helped each other, understood and accepted each other, and took good care of their Child so that He might grow up not only in human knowledge but also as a Child of God. Jesus brought holiness to the family of Joseph and Mary as Jesus brings us holiness by embracing us in His family.
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, and 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 of Jesus borne for them when they are sick and hurting?
As Children, we need to ask ourselves:
- As stated in our first reading and second readings today, do we bring harmony in our families? Do we honour our parents? Let us pray today that we should be Christians of bringing harmony in 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 in 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 to our families. Help us to love, listen to, 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 for ever and ever, Amen.
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