Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we celebrate together the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Our Lord, with His blessed mother Mary and His foster-father St. Joseph. On this day we remember the special relationship that Our Lord and Saviour had with those who were closest to Him in His earthly existence, that is His mother who bore Him for nine months in her womb, and His foster-father who took care of Him as his own Son, despite not being his biological one.

First of all, we must understand that God Who is All-Powerful, Almighty and Infinite does not in fact need a family, for He exists before all ages and time, not created and has always been there, not bound by the natural laws and rules. To have a family is part of the natural law, and to have a parent and a child relationship, and for human beings, every family consists of the nucleus of a father and a mother, and having a child as a result of that blessed union of marriage.

Yet, God made Himself to be part of that Law, which He had given to us, being born into a family of man, the family consisting of Mary and St. Joseph, making Himself an integral part of the loving familial structure that we have just discussed earlier. That is because, He Who is God, the Son of God, did not just symbolically become Man, but taking up for Himself the full nature of Man, and thus conceived and being born in the flesh from His mother’s womb and having a family.

In the Holy Family, we see how God made Himself small and insignificant, in need of love as the Infant born and celebrated this Christmas season. He is the King of kings and Lord and Master of all the universe, and yet He chose to be a little and frail Infant in the manger, needing the protection and love from His mother Mary and from his foster-father St. Joseph. He therefore took up the full nature of man, our own nature, to show us what each and every one of us should become.

He grew up under the loving care and protection of His parents, and as the Scriptures mentioned, He listened to them and obeyed them. Through them He surely has learnt many important life skills and wisdom in life, and therefore, His humanity grew as we all had, and He became for us the model of the perfect Man, the New Adam through Whose obedience and love for God, His Father, became the source of our salvation.

Then with regards to the other members of the Holy Family, Mary shows us the role of a loving mother, who shows love, care and compassion for her Son, Who is of her own flesh and blood, having resided in her own womb for nine months. She was devoted to her Son, and took care of Him from His birth all the way throughout His life, and as we all know from the accounts of the Gospels, even to the final moments before His death on the cross.

Mary showed us the love of a mother, which she showed very generously to all especially her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. As a mother, she stood by her Son and caring for Him with love, and she also loved her husband, St. Joseph. And this same love, she has also shown to us all as well, by the virtue of us being the brothers and sisters in Christ, and in what the Lord had done, at the moment of His crucifixion, when He entrusted His mother Mary to St. John, His disciple, and vice versa.

Through that action, Mary became for us the motherly figure, our mother and loving woman who is always concerned about our own well-being. That is why, just recently she was recognised in her role as the Mother of the Church, and how she also appeared many times throughout history, in Guadalupe, in Lourdes, in Fatima and in other places, with the message and intention of calling us mankind, her children through Christ, to repent from our sins and to return to God’s grace.

Meanwhile, we must also not forget the important role that St. Joseph played in the Holy Family. As the father figure to the Lord Jesus, despite not being His biological father, but he took Him as his own legal Son, and treated Him as much as if He was his own Son. St. Joseph cared for the Lord Jesus and for Mary, as seen in his crucial presence when the time of census came, and both St. Joseph and Mary had to travel all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Judea.

Mary could not have made the journey on her own, and St. Joseph was therefore important in the role he played, in protecting and caring for the need of Mary and the Baby in her womb along the long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And even when they reached Bethlehem, their problems did not cease, as all the inns and lodgings were full, and St. Joseph must have had a very difficult time in trying to secure a place for his wife Mary to give birth, as the time for her to give birth was imminent.

For his strong sense of righteousness and commitment to God, St. Joseph was therefore known also as the Protector of the Church, as the one who stands by the Church and protecting it, just as he watched over the Holy Family, protecting the young Lord Jesus and Mary, during the times of difficulty and persecution, especially when they had to flee to Egypt to get away from the hands of king Herod, who wanted to kill Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am sure by now we have seen the great love that is present within the Holy Family, as each and every one of the members of the Holy Family truly have that love in them for one another. And this love is not the kind of love that we may be accustomed to, but pure, selfless and committed love that Jesus has for Mary His mother and St. Joseph, His foster-father, the love Mary had for her Son and for her husband, and the protective care and love St. Joseph had for Jesus and Mary.

And it is important that each and every one of us take the Holy Family as our example and inspiration. Each and every one of us are either a child, a son, a daughter, and can also be a father or a mother, or even grandfather, grandmother or a grandchild to our family members. And unless we follow the example of the Holy Family in their love for one another, that is when cracks and troubles can appear within our respective families.

The devil knows this very well, and this is where he is intensifying his efforts in trying to destroy the fabric and the foundation of our families. We must realise that Christian families are the very important basic units of our faith and the important part of God’s Church. In fact, each Christian families are smaller subset of the larger Church, and it is through a functioning and loving Church, that the faith is preserved well among us, God’s faithful people.

That is why the devil is busy at work trying to undermine the institution of Christian families and marriage, by making use of many temptations, pressing on us to succumb to the temptations of worldly pleasures, fornication, adultery and unfaithfulness in the family. He tempts us to be disobedient and to create problems within our families, which eventually can lead to the breakup of its integrity and structure. And once we are vulnerable, the devil and his forces will strike.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all appreciate what we have in our families, and reflect on our actions and deeds thus far as members of our respective families, be it as a father, or as a mother, as a child or grandparent or grandchild. Have we truly made our families to be like the Holy Family of Our Lord Jesus Christ, His mother Mary and His foster-father St. Joseph? If we have not done so, that is probably why there were often problems within our families.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all imitate the examples of the Holy Family in our own families, by placing God first and foremost at the centre of our family lives, and spending time together in prayer, if possible every day. For a family that prays and works together, God will be in their midst and will become the anchor of the family. And that is also when, true love will bloom within the family, and when the true, selfless and unconditional love between the members of the family will flourish, and not the selfishness often found in our world today.

Let us pray, that our Christian families will remain strong and faithful amidst the challenges and difficulties we may encounter in life. May all of us continue to model ourselves on the Holy Family, and imitate the great love present in the Holy Family, in our own families. May God bless us all and our families, and keep us all in His loving grace. Amen.