“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.” (Luke 2:51-52).  

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and offer our own families to God for blessings. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “the family is the original cell of social life” (#2207). The stability and the well-being of a society depends on the state of its families. Only if the family is strong and healthy, the society is strong and healthy. Moreover, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium, teaches: “family is the domestic Church” (#11). It has its special dignity and is willed by God to fulfill a particular vocation. In the family we first come (1) to know and experience love, (2) to acknowledge our identity and dignity, (3) to discover our vocation, (4) to exercise our duties and (5) to fulfill God’s will.

The family is the resting ground where values and virtues are inculcated and cultivated. However, there are a variety of factors that have contributed to the fragmentation, isolation, disintegration, and structural evolution of family in our society. For example: (1) an increasing rate of divorce, (2) a steady rise in the number of single-parent households, (3) the majority of both parents must work outside their home to sustain themselves financially, and (4) increasing number of migrations, immigrations, change of residences every year. All these factors create less and less stability for American families, resulting in all sorts of cultural breakdowns, increasing the amount of crime and drug abuse, affecting our attitude toward sex, individual responsibility, civic duty, public service, respect toward authority, denigrating our moral and faith life. Facing this reality, the Church gathers us together each year to bless and pray for the well-being of our family, so that our society and country can be stronger, more stable, healthy, dignified and secure.

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topics invite us to imitate the virtues of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and exercise them in our own family and community.

What can we learn from the Holy Family, looking to it for inspiration, example and encouragement to improve our family life, making our home a confessional for Love?

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.