The Holy Family:[A]:Sir 3:2-6,12-14, Col 3:12-21, Mt 2:13-15,19-23

THE HOLY FAMILY:[A]:Sir3:2-6,12-14, Col3:12-21, Mt2:13-15,19-23

Introduction:On the last Sunday of the year, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. We are here to offer all the members of our own families on the altar for God’s blessing. Today’s Gospel describes the holy family, how Joseph and Mary protected the Child Jesus from the sword of King Herod by escaping with him to Egypt

Anecdote: We have heard of the story about the Luck of Roaring Camp, and was written in 1868 by Bret Harte.  The story takes place in Roaring Camp, a camp of gruff, hard drinking, fierce, gold diggers.  The men would kill someone sooner than they would ask a person his name.  One day a pregnant and sick Indian lady stumbled into the camp.  When she went into labor, two of the men were decent enough to try to help her.  She died during the birth, but miraculously, the child, a boy, survived.  Now, deaths were common in Roaring Camp, but a birth was something completely new.  The men of the camp took responsibility for the baby.  They began taking turns taking care of him.  They decided to build him a clean cabin and even put in windows with lace curtains.  He was their baby and they were determined to give him a proper home.  The men took turns taking care of the baby.  To hold him and sing to him was considered a privilege.  They demanded from each other previously unheard of things such as decent language, quiet, cleanliness and moral order.  The men began to shed their roughness, their anger and their selfishness.  The little child transformed this outpost of rough, crude miners into a community of generosity, tenderness and compassion.  The baby called forth from these reckless characters and criminals a dignity, worth and sense of beauty, wonder and joy.

Explanation: Children will do that to you and for you. Many young couples refine their lifestyles when a baby comes.  They want the baby to be brought up with the best they have, by being the best people they can be.  Many people who had been away from church return to Church on a regular basis. They want their baby to grow up with a real loving relationship to God and as a part of a worshiping community.  Children can bring out the best in their parents. And this is what God has done for us through the birth of His son.  With Jesus' birth, our humanity is made sacred.  He has called us from living self centered lives to lives of compassion, peace and joy.  Jesus Christ has transformed humanity, making humanity sacred, just as He is sacred.

Holy Family-Our Model: To celebrate Jesus’ coming of age he attends the Temple Bible class without informing his parents. When his parents catch up with him after two days of searching for him everywhere, all he tells them is, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:49). Even holy families do have their occasional tensions and misunderstandings.

The narration of this incident ends with this: “Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” (v.51). The twelve-year old adult, Jesus, already knows that his mission is to be in his Father’s house and be about his Father’s business. From the test-run he did in Jerusalem earlier that day, it was clear that he was already capable of doing it very well, because “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (v. 47). The puzzle then is this: If Jesus, already at the age of twelve, was ready to begin his public mission, and was evidently well prepared for it, why would he go down with his parents and spend the next eighteen years in the obscurity of a carpenter’s shed only to begin his public ministry at the age of thirty? Were those eighteen years wasted? Certainly not! In a way that is hard for us to understand, Jesus’ hidden life in Nazareth was as much a part of his earthly mission as his public life. We are reminded that it was at this time that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour” (v.52). And we reflect on the fact that for every one year of his public life Jesus spent ten years in family life. So we understand the importance and priority he gave to family life.

Joke:   A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen. 'Careful,' he said, 'CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the! Salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!' The wife stared at him. 'What in the world is wrong with you?You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?' The husband calmly replied, 'I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'

Life messages: 1) We need to learn lessons from the Holy Family: The Church encourages us to look to the Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph for inspiration, example and encouragement.   They were a model family in which both parents worked hard, helped each other, understood and accepted each other, and took good care of their Child so that He might grow up not only in human knowledge but also as a Child of God.

2) We need to make the family a confessional rather than a courtroom.  A senior Judge of the Supreme Court congratulated the bride and groom in a marriage with a pertinent piece of advice: “See that you never convert your family into a courtroom; instead let it be a confessional. If the husband and wife start arguing like attorneys in an attempt to justify their behavior, their family becomes a court of law and nobody wins.  On the other hand, if the husband and the wife -- as in a confessional -- are ready to admit their faults and try to correct them, the family becomes a heavenly one.”

3) Marriage is a sacrament of holiness. Each family is called to holiness. By the sacrament of marriage, Jesus sanctifies not only the spouses but also the entire family. The husband and wife attain holiness when they discharge their duties faithfully, trusting in God, and drawing on the power of God by prayer.

Introduction: Holy Family

Message: Family life is rooted in the unconditional love of God as witnessed by the Holy Family.

Saints and events in this week: 31-Thirty First-Tuesday-Saint Sylvester I, Pope; January 1-First-Wednesday-Holy Day of Obligation; 2-Second-Thursday-Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops, doctor of the Church; 3-Third-Friday-The Most Holy Name of Jesus; 4-Fourth-Saturday-Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious.