The Christmas of Hope - December 30, 2024
1 John 2: 12-17; Luke 2: 36-40
We are still in the Christmas Octave and we celebrated the Holy Family yesterday. The Word today continues to present to us the model of the Holy Family and invites us to reflect on our Christian Vocation, founded on the family. John points to a key learning that we can have from the Holy Family - the observance of the will of God. John explains this, speaking to us of the two attitudes that should be our chararcteristic mark within the family - one of the parents and the other of the children; one of the elders and the other of the younger generation; one of those who consider themselves already experienced and the other of those who consider themselves still beginners; one that is of the ongoing formation (or in-service training) and the other of initial formation.
Knowledge and Wisdom marks the first category, and it has to be considered the grace of the experience, out of which one needs to find the necessary light to continue the life's journey. Passion and Enthusiasm marks the other category, which could be the fueling energy that can take, not just the individual person but the entire community around, forwards towards the horizons of new meaning and fresh dynamism. Both of these, which are necessary, should be mindful of one single objective that we have: doing the will of God forever.
The Holy Family - with Mary and Joseph in the prior category and Jesus in the latter category - reminds us of this, in their encounter with Anna the prophetess - with that knowledge and wisdom, passion and enthusiasm, all fused together in one single project - that of doing the will of God. The message is to fix our eyes on the will of God, knowing and doing what the Lord wants from us. That is how we shall measure up to the identity given to us: as people of God.