26/12/2010 - HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS MARY JOSEPH - A
1Reading Ecc 3,2-6.12-14 Ps 127 2Reading Col 3,12-21 Gospel Mt 2,13-15.19-23
"He who honors his mother is like one who gathers a treasure. He who honors
his father will take joy in his children and will be heard when he prays. He who
honors his father will have a long life, and who obeys the Lord will be of comfort
to his mother". Precious words and always true. Normally, it seems that the
love for the parents is obvious, but from the news of crime in recent years, one
realizes that it is not so obvious. It's easy to find parents who hate their sons
and daughters, and parents who hurt their children. God wants for us peace, starting
with peace in the family. Listening to His Word and obedience to His commandments
is the tree that truly produces fruit as the true peace in every environment, even
in the family. But it seems that at this time men consider the commandments of God,
an optional rule: as if they are only for those who believe, and who does not believe
is authorized to act as he will: no one is to draw attention. It is a mentality
that has begun to ignore the sixth and ninth commandments, those that give directions
to our sexual behavior, and then it turns to the fifth commandment, to give the
possibility to stop life at the beginning or towards the end. No wonder if this
mentality come to break up family relationships, making parents and children strangers
to each other.
No one is to play with God's commandments. Disobedience to them one day brings consequences,
and some serious consequences. Even if one does not believe in God, his disobedience
is sin, because they inflict great sufferings and hardship of which one is guilty.
Even if one does not know that what he's doing is a sin, the consequences are there.
When one go to pick mushrooms, if one collect and eat poisonous ones, they will
cause death even if one do not know which are poisonous. One may want to say over
and over again that he didn't know, but in the meantime suffer and die. The same
happens with the commandments of God What they prohibit and what they command applies
to all men. Family relationships become a source of life and joy if they live in
the wisdom of God. Who honors his father and mother "live long", says
the commandment!
Today we look at the Holy Family of Nazareth: in it we see the model of life for
couples and for families. Jesus is at the center. For the love of the Son parents
face an arduous and dangerous journey. For him they had already suffered, even before
he was born because he was considered by the people a son, fruit of sin: in fact
no one knew the work of God! Mary and Joseph live for him, and receive honor from
him: his obedience to God is an honor to the parents, more than anything else. For
this reason Saint Paul commands Christians to live the fullness of love in their
own family first. The family is just the privileged place of love, where it is expressed
in all dimensions, spiritual, moral and physical. It's in the family that love finds
time to express itself, because in it, parent or child, spend time. How does love
manifest itself?
Feelings of tenderness, kindness, humility, gentleness and magnanimity, forbearance
and forgiveness: this is necessary in order to say that we love. Sometimes you meet
some convinced person who says he loves his children and his wife simply because
he works and brings home the paycheck. But if he does not give them his time and
a heart to listen, they do not feel loved. And if the wife says that she loves her
family simply because she does the laundry and cook meals, but does not allow the
children to express themselves and her husband to caress her, she won't convince
anyone of her love. "Tenderness, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience,
forbearance and forgiveness, even forgiveness are necessary. No one is without sin,
even in the family. Forgiveness must be offered daily in a family. And St. Paul
continues: "And give thanks!" Children must learn to say thank you to
their parents, and they learn it as much as they see their parents doing it. When
we say thank you we show that there is no pretentions, that no one wants to dominate
the other. Saying thank you is to recognize that the love received is free and is
more than welcome, that the love from another is a gift of God. A great gift of
mutual love in the family is to live this recommendation: "The word of Christ
lives in you in all its richness. With all wisdom, teach and admonish one another
with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts sing to
God". When in the family the presence of Jesus is felt, because his word is
shared with one another, then love in it guarantees it's growth and it's perfection.
Holy is the Family of Jesus, Joseph and Mary: holy is also our family, thanks to
our love through forgiveness.