HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH

Readings: 1 Samuel 1.20-22,24-281, John 3.1-2,21-24, Luke 2. 41-52

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We consider them as the ideal family composed of three holiest persons that ever lived and yet they too experienced crisis when Jesus stayed behind in the temple without informing his parents. But there are characteristics that the Holy Family had in order for us to make Jesus, Mary and Joseph as our models of family.

One of them Holy family is areligious family. Joseph and Mary were faithful Jews who practiced their religion wholeheartedly. Even though Nazareth was more than 100kilometers away from Jerusalem . it is a law that people who lived that far were excused from attending the big feasts in the Jerusalem temple. Yet, they still went to attend these feasts.

I remember when I was still a child, every Sunday we have to walk more than five kilometers from our place to the parish church in order to attend Mass since we didn't have a chapel yet and a Bible service at that time. But we enjoyed what we were doing and we found fulfillment when we reached that parish church and attended the Mass. That was our consolation. Mary and Joseph were people with deep conviction who freely gave their love to God. They did not go to the temple because it was an obligation. They worshipped God because they had a living faith and the Lord was the source of their strength.

Does our family observe religious practices faithfully? Are we minimalists who do as little as possible? If so, then we are like students who study only enough to pass the test but do not think of the proficiency they will need in their future. How sacred is our Sunday Mass, our family prayer? The Holy Family had a ready excuse not to go to Jerusalem. The law itself exemjp0ted them because Nazareth was too far. They went anyway, because they loved God. We can easily find excuses to miss our Sunday Mass: wrong timing, inclement weather or some physical discomfort. It is strange, however, how fst these excuses disappear when a friend invites us one hour later for a movie or a birthday party. Every year Joseph and Mary used to go to Jerusalem. In one way or another, Jesus also learned his religiosity from His parents.

Another one is, the holy family teaches family values. The family is the basic unit of the society and so iut should be the origin of change of society. We first learn Christian and moral values in the family. If we cannot find these Christian and moral values of honesty, justice, kindness, charity in our family, then, we cannot expect to find these outside. May God bless our families.