The Presence, the Plan & the Patron
The Solemnity of the Holy Family - December 29, 2024
1 Samuel 1: 20-22, 24-28; 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24; Luke 2: 41-52
We
celebrate today the feast of the Holy Family... a reminder to every Christian
family about the universal call that we have towards Godliness. Yes, we are
called to be people of God, in families.
The
People of God were always called as families - the people of Judah, the people
of Israel... are some ways in which the people are referred to. And when people
referred to God they used titles such as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob...these were not just persons, but households, families!
Hence, it is not only that we are families and in families we belong to God,
but we have a God who identifies with these families. Christmas is a very
special celebration that reminds us of this reality and helps us relate to this
facet of our calling. Looking at the Holy Family, we are inspired to think
about three prominent constituents of any family... parents, children and the
Almighty!
Parents
are the presence of God in the family! When
the Lord wills to create a family, God chooses a man and a woman to form that
family... and deigns to give them a new identity and form them into parents!
This has three implications to pay attention to: being parents is a call, a
God-given mission; being parents is a responsibility; and being parents is a
course of maturity. The call is to participate in the salvific mission of God;
the responsibility is to make God present and discern God's will in the daily
events of the family; and it is a journey of growth and maturity that the
parents are called to!
The
parents have a very crucial role in introducing the children to God – just as
we see Elkanah and Hannah do in the first reading, and Joseph and Mary do in
the Gospel of today. How many parents today fail in this duty, and how many in
the previous generation have failed that we have a generation today that is so
faith-less! Where has this element of the presence of God gone in the family?
Children
are the plan of God in the family! Children are gifts
and tasks; they are the dreams and the designs; they are the plans that God has
for the future of a society. The children are gifts and tasks - as they are
given as gifts to the family and as the family has the task of bringing them up
as the fulcrums of sustenance of the family. The children are the dreams and
designs - as every child born is a sign that God still loves the world and that
God has a design for the salvation of the whole humankind. The children are the
plans that God has for humanity, as God sends every child into this world with
a purpose and a project - if the particular person does not accomplish it, it
is left undone and it affects the entire humanity!
Not
just the father and the mother in the particular unit of the family, but the
entire society has a bounden responsibility to care for the education of the
younger generation – cultivating them, protecting them and empowering them. How
responsible has the society made itself for the younger generation and how many
trap holes have been created to lure the future generation into ruin? It is
indeed a point of great concern.!
God
our Father and Mother, is the patron of every family on earth!
God needs to be given the rightful place in our homes; the parents learn from
the Lord and exercise the authority that God gives; the children see the Lord
in the parents and love the Lord in return for all the good! God remains the
patron of every family as the parents offer their children back to God and the
children heed to their parents as the representatives of God! God has a loving
plan for every family, from which the family shall flourish, in as much as it
kneels together before the Lord in discernment and decision making. Raising a
question as to who is important in the family - the husband or the wife, the
father or the mother, the parents or the children - is an anomaly, as God
Almighty is the most important axial point in the family. A family that prays
together, stays together, grows together, and experiences God together.
While
in the present conditions of the family, we find that there is no proper space
given to each other – television sets, mobile phones and headsets have occupied
such a large space in homes nowadays! If so, we can imagine the predicament of
the space due to God! That is a pathetic situation and we find it as a real
trouble that seeks our utmost attention!
Now let us turn to the Holy Family of Nazareth. Can we not observe these three qualities in the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph, the parents become the immediate presence of God for Jesus; Jesus, the child of the family, becomes the core plan of God for the salvation of humanity; and God remains undoubtedly the patron of that family, directing them, guiding them and animating them in every way! They did nothing, they took no step without a direction from God and they continued to contemplate on the ways of the Lord, as they were proceeding in their life’s journey.
May our families take after this splendid model, and learn at the School of Nazareth, to become really the people of God in families, amidst the difficult world of today!