HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY The opening prayer for the feast of the Holy family reads: O God who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house delight one day in eternal rewards. This opening prayer for this celebration explains why we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, namely, to help us to imitate the shining example of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in practicing the virtues of family life and the bonds of charity with the ultimate goal to ‘delight one day in eternal rewards’. What constitutes this shining example of the Holy Family? What are the virtues of family life that they practised and we are urged to imitate? i. Submission to God’s Will • Joseph accepts the advice to marry Mary (Mt 1:24). • Mary accepts to be God’s Mother (Lk 1:38). ii. Obedience to God’s commandments • Presentation according to the command of Moses (Lk 2:22-24) • Annual journey to Jerusalem (Lk 2:41). iii. Companionship In Genesis 2:18, companionship is the reason God made a woman for Adam. We see this companionship abundantly expressed by the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joe: • They went for census together (Mt 2:4-5). • They ran to Egypt together (Mt 2:13-18). • They were at the Presentation together( Lk 2:22). • They attended the Passover together (Lk 2:42). • They reasoned together (Lk 2:48). iv. Obedience Though divine and attentive to divine voice, Jesus also paid due attention and honour to human parents. Though he showed them that it was important to do God’s will by staying behind in the temple, he followed them and lived with them for about 18years. If the whole God, Jesus, grew up under the authority of human parents, who are we to do otherwise? While we, to a large extent, often honour and obey our parents, it is also true that often times, we refuse to honour and obey them. Because they are poor, harsh, sick, weak or/and illiterate, we tend to disrespect or ignore them. In fact, some do not even want their parents to be identified as such. We often forget the Tiv saying ‘ijer i or ngi vihin nan ga’ – nobody detests their saliva. Our parents are our parents, irrespective of their economic, social, moral, physical or educational background. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, let us - as parents or children - make conscious efforts to imitate Jesus, Mary and Joseph in their submission to Gods will, faithfulness to Gods commandments, Companionship, obedience and fidelity.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 10:24:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015