Today we thank God for the gift of the Holy Family that we can embrace as our example
Reflections on the readings for The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (December 29, 2019): SIR 3:2-6,12-14; PS 128:1-2,3,4-5; COL 3:12-21; MT 2:13-15,19-23
MISSIO offers “Mission In Scripture” to nurture a missionary heart, providing reflections on the missionary themes in the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days
As we move from the celebration of Christmas to the New Year, this lovely day venerating the Holy Family helps us focus our attention on our personal relationship with God and with our loved ones.
After spending weeks getting ready for Christmas as both a holy day and a holiday, we can use the opportunity of this feast to reflect on our own home life. As individuals and as a family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph served the Lord with fidelity. Quietly and humbly, they took care of their obligations to each other as well as to their friends and neighbors in Nazareth.
We can look to the Holy Family as models for our own lives as members of a family and a community. In the New Testament reading today, we hear St. Paul encouraging Christians how to treat each other. “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. … And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts” (Colossians 3:12-14). These are the attitudes and actions that Jesus, Mary and Joseph exemplified. As unique as they were, they still had real, day-to-day lives that must have been as trying, arduous, and demanding as we experience now. This season, when we pack up our Christmas decorations, and gaze at the Nativity scene for the last time, let’s think about that Holy Family two thousand years ago. And let’s think about our own family and about what Almighty God asks of us today. We, too, can resolve to say Yes to the Lord and entrust ourselves completely to Him.
Suggested missionary action: As we prepare for a New Year, let us pray to the Holy Family. We can ask their protection and help for our own family in living together in peace, love, and service to God and His people.
