Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Pope Leo XIII established this Feast to promote the sacredness of family life and to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian Families. Many people struggle with the notion that all families should model themselves on the Holy Family. After all, Angles communicated with Joseph quite a lot, Mary, our Blessed Mother was conceived without sin and Jesus is the Son of God. No other family on earth has members who achieve this level of perfection.
We can, however, strive for holiness within our families. The key to achieving the ideal modeled by the Holy Family is found in our second reading from Colossians 3:12-21. In this reading St. Paul provides the Christian community of Colossae in Asia Minor with some guidelines for living the ideal Christian life in the world: “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.”
If each one of us follows St. Paul’s guidelines for Christian living, and applies them to our own lives and to our families, then we might come close to achieving the holiness modeled by the Holy Family. St. Paul certainly gives us great material for making our New Year’s resolutions. Happy New Year!
God our Father,
we give you all thanks and praise
that you chose for your Son a human family.
Through the prayers and example
of Mary and Joseph,
may we too learn
to make room for Jesus in our lives,
that he may grow up in us day after day
and make us more like him.
we give you all thanks and praise
that you chose for your Son a human family.
Through the prayers and example
of Mary and Joseph,
may we too learn
to make room for Jesus in our lives,
that he may grow up in us day after day
and make us more like him.
Teach us to rely on your word,
that in our trials as in our joys
we may be clothed in gentleness and patience
and united in love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
that in our trials as in our joys
we may be clothed in gentleness and patience
and united in love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Amen
