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26 dic 2021
26/12/2021 – The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph - C

26/12/2021 – The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph - C

Reading 1 1 SAM 1,20-22.24-28 Psalm 83 Reading 2 1JN 3,1-2. 21-24 Gospel LK 2,41-52

Today the liturgy is bringing us in front of the family Jesus was welcomed into, and, consequently, we can consider all the ways to look at and live relationships in our families. Jesus has been welcomed in Mary’s and Joseph’s holy and pure love. God’s word does not say anything about how they would love each other: it tells us instead how both of them were completely obedient to God. When such a will exists in both the spouses, everything is clear also about their interpersonal relationship. When two spouses want to obey the God of the covenant, all their actions and their desire are focused on looking for occasions to offer themselves, ready to renounce themselves, happy to give joy and exchange with one another the signs of God’s holiness, for His glory. By obeying God, Joseph has welcomed Mary, without doubting anymore her holiness and her one-of-a-kind vocation, and he has offered himself, with his skills, to serve Mary and the Son who she was gazing upon in an adoring silence.

We are used to see and stop considering Jesus who is born in poverty in a shed. Will we be also able to look at the spiritual climate of obedience to God, of faithfulness, of detachment from earthly things, of renounce to our own desires and pleasure, of attention to the eternal Word, climate in which Jesus has been welcomed by Mary and Joseph?

When two spouses become able to notice this condition of the holy Family, they will be able to imitate it. Their children will grow in a climate of peace, serenity, joy and freedom.

Today it is difficult, everyone might say and you might say. Today is difficult to give your children a different environment from the one the world is showing us and giving us. The world is fooling us and, with its idols, ruins all relationships. What is difficult does not need to scare us, if it is on the path of life. We need to be afraid of the path of death, the easy path. Also for Mary and Joseph it has been difficult, for them too it has been about going against the flow welcoming Jesus in an environment of obedience to God, of Faith, of abandonment to the Providence of the Father.

We can ask ourselves something else instead: in a world like ours, can our parents create in their family the environment which lets children grow and mature in serenity, peace, harmony, freedom and joy? There is no other way but the one of the faith lived firmly and faithfully. The spouses which trust their own feelings are always unsure. Those who trust the faith in God are sure: they can suffer too, as Mary and Joseph have also suffered, but they give to the children and the whole society an environment of stability and peace.

We have all to pray, and pray a lot, because this type of family cannot be shaped without prayers. And the prayer of a family is supported by the prayer of everyone. Do you want healthy families? Make sure that in them there is space for holiness. Do you want serene families around you? Do not leave to others the occasions for both personal and community prayer.

Look at Mary and Joseph who every year make the big effort to go to Jerusalem. They get their son used to go every Saturday to the Synagogue and offer God every day the evening and morning praise. Look at them more often than looking at random families. Mary and Joseph intercede also for the families which do not look at them as an example to follow.

Mary and Joseph have suffered. The scene which today’s gospel is giving us is telling this clearly. Jesus has started to think for himself, to decide according to His own judgement. Was it a reckless thing to do? We might as well think so. But He was actually thinking of His parents: when they met Him in the temple, after three days of looking, He told them: “Did you not know…?”. He could have thought that His parents had brought Him there on purpose to leave Him there, as Hannah, the mother of Samuel, had brought the son so he could stay in the temple at Silos. For sure there has been a misunderstanding. It was suffering for them, but also for Him. He, Jesus, gave up doing what He wanted and went back to be obedient to them. They started understanding that their son was God’s Son, and so they needed to get used to listen always to the Father in order to be able to understand Him.

God’s presence in the family is a source of security, but also of freedom, freedom from themselves, from the world, from selfishness. Let us thank God for all the holy inspirations which come to us from contemplating the Holy Family.