The Universal Church celebrates the first Sunday after Christmas as the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. Amen.”
We are celebrating not only the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the family of Jesus. Mary and Joseph, but also the feast of each Christian family, our families, and all that it means to us. The readings of this day’s Mass from the Old Testament as well as from the New Testament all focus on the family. In the first reading, from First Samuel, the birth of Samuel is shown as a miraculous event, emphasizing divine intervention and the child’s importance. A childless woman, humiliated by her husband’s other fertile wife, seeks a way out of her anguish by asking God, her only hope, to give her a son, which he does. In the second reading, from First John, the evangelist invites us to contemplate the marvelous gift of being God’s children. We have been created to obtain the dignity of children of God, through the grace that raises us up to a supernatural level. In the Gospel, Saint Luke, the only evangelist who reports the event of the Child Jesus being lost and then found in the temple, also reports how Jesus grew up in physical stature and in wisdom, obeying his parents as all good children should.
In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for our families which, in many parts of our country today are showing signs of weakening, especially in moments of a crisis, like the one the Holy Family of Nazareth is experiencing: the loss of the child Jesus. In moments like these, a family should stick together as Mary and Joseph do in Saint Luke’s Gospel passage of this day.
First Reading: 1 Samuel 1: 20-22. 24-28.
In those days Hannah conceived, and at the end of her term bore a son whom she called Samuel, since she had asked the Lord for him. The next time her husband Elkanah was going up with the rest of his household to offer the customary sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vows, Hannah did not go, explaining to her husband, “Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the Lord and to remain there forever; I will offer him as a perpetual nazirite.” Once Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and presented him at the temple of the Lord in Shiloh. After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull, Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said: “Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord.” Hannah left Samuel there.
Comment
History tells us that the two Books of Samuel, First and Second Samuel, present the hereditary monarchy from David onwards as a system of government that God desired for his people. David is portrayed as a model king, who, despite his personal limitations and his transgressions, always enjoyed God’s favours because whenever he fell short of God’s expectations he always repented. The history contained in the books of Samuel covers a very important period in the life of Israel, extending from the birth of Samuel, the last of the judges, to the end of David’s life – a period in which the twelve tribes changed from a system of sporadic leadership to an organized state with a single, hereditary monarchy, which was the standard pattern among the neighboring peoples.
The books of Samuel begin with an account of the birth of the man from whom they take their name, Samuel, who will become a judge of Israel and a prophet. His birth, which is at the center of the reading of this day, is described with all the elements denoting a miraculous event, with emphasis on the divine intervention. With no hope of a human solution, a childless woman, humiliated by her husband’s other wife, seeks a way out of her anguish by asking God, her only hope, to give her a son.
Even though her husband loves her, he does not understand her (v. 8), and Eli, the priest and head of the shrine at Shiloh, comes to bless her but even he does not understand her either. God is the only one who listens to her, and accepts the vow she has made to him, that is, to dedicate her son entirely to God. God takes away the stigma of barrenness from her and restores her dignity as a woman.
Hannah is an example of a devout and God-fearing woman who perseveres in prayer, convinced that God will heed her plea. As Saint Cyprian says, Hannah, who will bear Samuel in her womb, is a figure of Mary and also “a symbol of the Church which carries the Lord. Her prayer is not clamorous, rather it is calm and refined; she prays in the depths of her heart because she knows that God listens to her there.”
Samuel comes into the world as a gift from God; he is the one who was “asked for of the Lord.” His mission on earth will be as exceptional as his birth. His mother presents him at the temple and he is brought up by the priests of Shiloh, that is, within the ancient institutions of the time of the judges.
What lesson do we learn from this passage? First of all, we learn of the power of prayer. A woman perseveres in prayer and God exhorts her wish. God will also hear our prayer when we come to him with our problems, especially the problems of infertility that cause so much anguish in many homes in our land today. God’s preference for the weak, the hungry, the barren and the needy over those with much property cannot be better expressed than in the case of Hannah. So, let us pray to God to bless our families. Where there is discord, may he bring understanding and love. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 John 3: 1-2. 21-14.
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. And so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
According to tradition passed down by Saint Irenaeus, the Apostle Saint John, on his return from exile on the island of Patmos, spent the last years of his life in Ephesus, at that time the capital of the Roman province of Asia. That is where he is thought to have written the three letters attributed to him around the years 95-96 AD. From there Saint John ruled over the churches of Asia Minor, whose names are given in the Book of Revelation (Rev 2-3).
From the content of Saint John’s first letter, from where our reading is taken, it is obvious that some false teachers, whom John refers to as antichrist, deceivers, and children of the devil, had appeared in the young church and were spreading both doctrinal and moral errors to do with the salvific work of Christ. John considered them a real threat to the purity of faith and Christian morality. He therefore wrote this letter to denounce their errors and strengthen the faith of believers.
The passage of our meditation shows how moved Saint John was when he was contemplating the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all Sacred Scripture, desired that John should pass on to us this wonderful message, which is that we are all children of God. For this, we should reject sin in any shape or form, and live brotherly love to the full.
The main message in this passage, as in all our readings this day, is one of love of God and love of neighbor. Our model is Christ Jesus, who gave his life for us. Christ therefore shows us that brotherly love involves total confidence in God, who knows everything (vv 19-22). God’s commandments are summed up in terms of love for Jesus and love for one another. As Saint Bede tells us, “We cannot rightly love one another unless we believe in Christ; nor can we truly believe in the name of Jesus Christ without brotherly love.”
Let us say this prayer that is taken from the Pope’s Family Prayer Book: “Father, you called us to found this family together. Give us the grace to animate it with your love. May our family always comfort those who live in it and welcome those who enter it, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia. Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son. Alleluia.
Gospel: Luke 2; 41-52.
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety. And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
Saint Luke is the only evangelist who reports the event of the Child Jesus being lost and then found in the temple, as we hear in the Gospel of this day. Only males of twelve years of age and above were required to make the pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. Jewish tradition required that men and women going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem go in two groups: one of men, and the other of women. Children could go with either group and this explains how Mary and Joseph could go a whole day’s journey before noticing, when the families regrouped to camp, that Jesus was not with them.
Saint Luke’s picture of Jesus is that of a young exemplary boy doing the normal duties of a Jewish family. He is docile and obedient to his family and, as the evangelist tells us, he grew in wisdom and in favour with God and man (Lk 2: 52). Saint Luke celebrates the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family of Nazareth, which Saint John Paul II calls the “prototype and example for all Christian families,” and the “model and spiritual source of every Christian family.”
A feast that touches the family touches us all as it touches the basics of our daily life. The family is honoured throughout Sacred Scripture. As we hear in Genesis (2:18-19) when God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, he created woman and together they formed the first human family. Genesis 2:24 again emphasises the importance of the family when it tells us that man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become one body. In stressing the importance of the family, the Bible also calls on the children to honour their parents.
The feast of the Holy Family is an invitation to each member of our family to play the role assigned to him or her. Husbands and fathers should be faithful, understanding, caring and loving heads of their families, just as Joseph is. Joseph immediately takes measures to protect his family by taking them away to Egypt. It was from Joseph that Jesus learnt the trade of carpentry, in other words, the means to make an honourable living.
This day is also an invitation to wives and mothers to be as faithful, caring, truthful, holy and respectful as Mary was. It also invites the children to love, respect and be truthful to their parents as Jesus was to his own parents.
A Christian home must be an imitation of the house of Nazareth: a place where there is plenty of room for God so that he can be right at the center of the love that members of the family should have for one another.
But what do most families look like, particularly in our country, Cameroon, today? The increase in the number of children without a home, the so-called “street kids”, points to a family crisis of which our children are victims. The kids revolt against parental authority, flee the home and the result is an increase in juvenile delinquency. Why are our children not like Jesus to their parents? They will be like Jesus if we find the time to pray with them? Do we bring them with us to Church? Do they even see us going to Church for them to imitate us? Do we go looking for them when they stray and are lost in the mist of our towns and cities, like Mary and Joseph do when the child Jesus is lost in the massive city of Jerusalem? Do we open our doors to them when, ruined by such self-affliction as drugs, they come back weeping for acceptance and understanding? Do we imitate the example of the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son where the father runs out to meet a wayward son, who has come back his face drenched in tears of regret?
That is hardly the case in a society where husbands generally stay out late at night, coming back home, if they do at all, only in the early hours of the morning, and then they are gone again even before their children wake up from sleep. The phenomenon of keeping mistresses outside the home, the so-called “deuxième bureau”, is causing havoc to our families these days. Divorce is rampant, as a consequence.
Women, especially those working outside the home, generally do not have enough time to consecrate to their children, especially when they come back home late and tired. The picture of the family, especially in the city of Douala, shows that there is much healing to be done. There is a need for the restoration of holy and healthy relationships between the various members of the family. We all have to cultivate those virtues Christ singled out: selfless love, forgiveness and thankfulness. Children are asked to take care of their parents when they are old, even if their minds fail them. Children owe their parents honour, obedience, respect and gratitude for all that they are doing for them. Parents pay their fees in school, sometimes under very difficult conditions, and provide for their other daily needs. For this, children should be thankful to them. In turn, parents should teach their children to love God. Families should learn to make time to pray together for a family that prays together, stays together.
Let us say this prayer from an Anglican Prayer Book: "O God our Father, bind together in your all-embracing love, every family on earth. Banish anger and bitterness within them; nourish forgiveness and peace. Bestow upon parents such wisdom and patience that they may gently exercise the disciplines of love, and call forth from their children their greatest virtue and their highest skill. Instill in children such independence and self-respect that they may freely obey their parents, and grow in the joy of companionship. Open ears to hear the truth within the words another speaks; open eyes to see the reality beneath another’s appearance; and make the mutual affection of families a sign of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
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