{"id":983,"date":"2015-12-27T08:19:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T06:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/?p=983"},"modified":"2021-12-26T00:07:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T05:07:01","slug":"holy-family-cycle-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/2015\/12\/27\/holy-family-cycle-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Family, Cycle C"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s Gospel, after Mary and Joseph spent days searching for Jesus, only to find him in his \u201cFather\u2019s house\u201d, what they don\u2019t say to each other speaks volumes.\u00a0Mary doesn\u2019t say, \u201cnot another word out of you young man, get on that camel right now.\u201d\u00a0Joseph doesn\u2019t say, \u201cyou are going to be sweeping the wood shop until the broom breaks.\u201d\u00a0Jesus doesn\u2019t say, \u201cI am twelve years old, and I happen to be the Son of God, so you just take care of the house and the wood shop and I\u2019ll save the world, okay?\u201d\u00a0They didn\u2019t understand completely why Jesus did what he did, but they loved and accepted it, and Mary guarded all these things in her heart. Jesus counted on them to understand and accept him, just like every good family does.<\/p>\n

We all take our family for granted. “For granted\u201d doesn’t mean we don\u2019t appreciate them and show gratitude for all they\u2019ve done, and are for us. A family is a gift, and our family is our family no matter what they do or don\u2019t do on our behalf. We feel that all too well when we don\u2019t respond to the love shown us by our family, or when we lose a member of our family unexpectedly and see what a hole that leaves in our life.\u00a0We count on our family, and that reliance on our family reflects the reliance we should have on God. When we can\u2019t count on our family, it\u2019s hard for us to count on anything else, even God. We all know of truly tragic and heart-breaking family situations \u2013 divorce, children lost to drugs, squabbles over inheritances, misunderstandings, even betrayals \u2013 but even in those situations we don\u2019t lose sight of the ideal which Sirach reminds us of in the First Reading: a father and mother set in honor and authority over their children, children revering and praying for their parents, obeying them and caring for them when they grow old, and the blessings God showers on children who do so.\u00a0This model of mutual respect, help, and reliance is meant to be reflected in our society as well, so when it\u2019s not lived in the family it\u2019s no surprise that society suffers as a result.\u00a0Our family is more than what they do or don\u2019t do for us, and more than what they mean or don\u2019t mean to us: they are our family.\u00a0God\u2019s given them to us.<\/p>\n

The family God\u2019s given us as a gift is the bedrock of love on which we build our love. Sunday in the octave of Christmas\u00a0is about the Holy Family. Our Lord is telling us today that family is more than just something to take for granted.\u00a0Our family ties, be they biological or adoptive, are the bedrock for love. They\u2019re more than a simple hereditary or social obligation. We build on them by loving and being loved in return, and sometimes even loving when we\u2019re not loved in return.\u00a0Christ reveals God to us as Father. Not just as his Father, but as wanting to be Our Father as well. When we realize that we are chosen by God the Father as his adopted children, and as his creation, we see how a holy family should be, as St. Paul reminds us in the Second Reading: holy and beloved.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re made holy by sharing in the life of God, through our Baptism, and we are beloved because we have received the gift of life itself, no strings attached.\u00a0We build our love on that bedrock of divine love by bearing with one another and forgiving each other when grievances come, just as the Lord has forgiven us for all those times we haven\u2019t shown him the love he deserved.\u00a0With a spirit of gratitude to God for the gift of life and the gift of his son we serve and love each other in our family, avoiding bitterness and provocations and disobedience.\u00a0\u201cObedience\u201d grates on ears today, in a world that\u2019s so obsessed with autonomy and self-reliance, but in a family it means acknowledging the gift God has given us of someone we can rely on. We show gratitude by obeying, and it reminds us that being someone relied on can be a big sacrifice and responsibility as well.<\/p>\n

Finally, we can’t forgot those who\u2019d categorize their family experiences as more of a trauma than what we\u2019ve considered today.\u00a0God calls our loved ones to love, and sometimes they don\u2019t respond to that call. It\u2019s the mystery of human freedom and sin. He calls us to love as well, and when we consider Christ\u2019s example we know our love can\u2019t be tarnished by a lack of love from others.\u00a0Don\u2019t feel left out in the cold: the Holy Family always has room for you, and the Church is always praying for you.\u00a0The bedrock of love is always there, and forgiveness, even when a loved one doesn\u2019t show it, is the balm that will bring you peace and consolation.\u00a0Don\u2019t be afraid to say \u201cI forgive,\u201d and don\u2019t be afraid to say \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d either. It\u2019s often the trigger for many people rediscovering that the bedrock of love on which their lives are built is not buried that deep after all.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll forget, and many times it doesn\u2019t mean that what happened will hurt any less, but it will give you a peace that the world can\u2019t give.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pray today that families\u00a0be united in love, like the Holy Family, that those separated by misunderstandings and squabbles may find reconciliation, and that\u00a0the whole Christian family may be re-united to God the Father through his son.<\/p>\n

Readings:\u00a0Sirach 3:2\u20136, 12\u201314;\u00a0Psalm 84:2\u20133, 5\u20136, 9\u201310;\u00a0Colossians 3:12\u201321;\u00a0Luke 2:41\u201352.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s Gospel, after Mary and Joseph spent days searching for Jesus, only to find him in his \u201cFather\u2019s house\u201d, what they don\u2019t say to each other speaks volumes.\u00a0Mary doesn\u2019t say, \u201cnot another word out of you young man, get on that camel right now.\u201d\u00a0Joseph doesn\u2019t say, \u201cyou are going to be sweeping the wood … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[132,121,136],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-cycle-c","tag-holy-family"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65qtw-fR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}