OMELIE / Omelie EN

31 dic 2023

31/12/2023 – The Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph – year B

31/12/2023 – The Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph – year B

Reading 1 GEN 15,1-6; 21,1-3 Psalm 104 Reading 2 HEB 11,8.11-12.17-19 Gospel LK 2,22-40

The stress of today’s readings is on the obedience of faith lived by Abraham and by Mary and Joseph. Abraham and Sarah received a promise from God, and then they were tested very severely. Abraham was many times on the verge of doubting the truthfulness of God’s Word, and even after having proof that nothing is impossible for God, still he was asked to take an action which sounds unbelievable. He was sure God had asked him to offer that only son as a sacrifice, the son who had been promised to him and granted in his old age: obedient, he took all the necessary steps to comply.

Why are the Scriptures telling about these events multiple times? They are the foundation of our faith in God: is God God or not? Is His Word truth or deceit? Does Abraham’s behaviour have something to tell us nowadays about the relationship between the parents and the children who might come or not, or about the spouses between each other?

And does Mary’s and Joseph’s obedience to the Jewish Law, in obedience to which they go to the Temple in Jerusalem, give us some suggestions regarding how our children need to be welcomed nowadays?

God’s Word is for us a correction and purification, wisdom, advice and guidance, it is the arrow towards a path of salvation for the single person and the whole society.

Spouses are showing their mutual love in waiting for children to come. If this waiting is missing, their very love is in danger, if not even already lacking, mixed with selfishness. True love pushes for loving together, and not for giving each other to one another, but for becoming one in order to give themselves together to other people, bringing them to life!

If children do not come, while they wait, should they despair? Absolutely not, Abraham is saying with his faith. If children do not come, this is a sign we need to keep ourselves still focused on God: He might have special plans, we do not know about. If He makes us wait, it is a sign He wants to prepare us with a steadfast faith, in order to offer the children a humble environment, full of persevering faith.

When the children come, how do we need to welcome them? Abraham is saying: this is a gift of God’s mercy! The children need to be welcomed with the understanding that they are not the result of our efforts, nor of our intelligence, and not even of our skills. They need to be welcomed with gratitude. They need to be wrapped in cloths weaved in humility, thankfulness, in certainty based on God’s Word. They need to be fed with hope, illuminated by listening to God’s Word. How does the spouse need to be looked at? Both Abraham and Joseph tell us: we see our bride as the tool of God’s love, a place where are on show His tenderness, mercy and omnipotence. Sarah and Mary are telling us: we enjoy the presence of the groom, above all the faith he supports our weakness with. Abraham and Sarah love each other by focusing on God, to do His biddings. Joseph and Mary love each other by offering the Son to God with all their heart, pledging themselves to live for Him.

Simeon, who meets them, helps them to see only the Son, to not think of themselves, instead to offer themselves to carry with fortitude the suffering that a Son of God can create around Himself. There will surely be some who will love and appreciate Him, as he is doing then, but also some who will reject and hate Him. His suffering will be shared with the parents, ready to do this as well.

Today, we look at Jesus’s family, to find light and strength to live our family relationships. In them has a lot of weight everyone’s sin. In many families life becomes impossible, a hotel life, a prison life, a hospital life, exactly because sin is ruling and nobody thinks of finding its rightful place. The right place for sin are Jesus’s shoulders, the lamb of God! If we keep it instead, it weighs on the whole family, and it makes it a place of sufferings. We need to realise that Jesus has given the sacrament of reconciliation in order to make the places we live in together into places of peace and serenity, of experience of tender and trusty love. Mutual forgiveness is important in a family, between spouses and between parents and children, but it is even more fruitful the Lord’s forgiveness in the Church, to recover the serenity and the ability to love by carrying some of our cross. Many think that psychologists can replace confessors: God’s forgiveness cannot be replaced by some man’s words. This is why the results of one or the other are definitely different.

We thank God the Father today for our family, we thank Him by looking at the examples and the help of the Saints He puts in front of us: the families of His faithful, like Abraham’s and Sarah’s, but in particular the holy one of Mary and Joseph, put always Jesus at the centre of every action, of every desire, so our life too can be a gift, a blessing for the society in which we are called to live to spread wisdom and love.