HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH, YEAR C: REFLECTION BY FR. JULIAN EKEH
THEME: HANDLING THE CHALLENGES FACING OUR FAMILIES TODAY
(Luke 2:41–52)
The family is made of the Father, the Mother, and the children. The Catholic Church today celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. She wants us to ponder on the importance of the family, the worries and challenges of the family, and the blessings God has lavished upon and wishes to bestow upon our families.
Whether good or bad, our families are important to us. Their goodness keep our shoulders high, and their shortcomings challenge us to step up. Parents are worried by a lot of things about their children, they are worried by their upkeep, worried about their future, worried about the company they keep, worried about their unnecessary attachment to phone and the social media, worried about their ‘prayerlessness’, disturbed about their addictions, mad at the type of wears they put on etc.
These worries were there for the Holy Family. But in the midst of them all, they went to Jerusalem for a feast. Let it not be worries alone. Go up to Jerusalem with your family, with your family problems, with your Thanksgiving, with rejoicing. Yes, it is there that the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. Try and make your family the household of God by going up to get empowerment from God’s house.
As they went up, Jesus got lost. As you journey to make your family an ideal one, challenges will certainly come up. Mary and Joseph searched and searched but couldn’t find Jesus. He was actually in his Father’s House. There He was found on the third day. This is interesting. As a young boy or girl, member of the family, where are you found when you’re looked for?
There are a lot of good things your parents look for in you. What do they find? When they look for care, what do you give? When they want love, what do they find? When they want to talk to you, what do they get? Their son chatting away?
It gives joy too to find out that One’s parents look after him/her.
When they found Jesus, He went with them and lived under their authority. Never allow your children to wander like sheep without a shepherd.
May God bless all families of the world.
May God bring peace to every family facing any form of crisis.
May God make our families His own abode.
May God give us good health, a long life, and prosperity in our various families.
May our families be true homes.
May God put a final stop to all the unnecessary worries of our families and fill us with happiness, joy, and love.
May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph bring the reign of God in our homes in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Happy Holy Family Sunday, Merry Christmas.
Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh