IN THE FATHER'S HOUSE
[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD]
Feast of the Holy
Family
December 27, 2015
IN THE FATHER’S HOUSE
Christmas is associated with family togetherness. My heart
reached out to so many people who, on Christmas Eve, were trying their best
still to catch a ride and go home to the provinces. All bus stations were
filled to overflowing and the ports all over the country were no exception.
Christmas without family is just an empty celebration,
devoid of meaning, and can only be enjoyed from afar. One’s heart belongs to
hearth and home, and home is where the kernel of family is, “in the Father’s
house.”
Today’s liturgy is about the “holy family.” It is prophetic
to know that the life of the holy family shifted from simple to complicated
just as soon as the child was born. After the foil and the tinsel and the
romantic images have worn off, and envious insecure leaders like Herod already
were entertaining crazy ideas, the complications began to set in. Led by
Joseph, the mother and child fled to Egypt as the life of the young boy was
threatened and in danger.
Christian families and families in general are now also
endangered in many and varied ways. The life of families the world over are now
complicated and besieged on all fronts. We saw some of it last Christmas eve.
Hordes of frantic travelers were trying to beat the deadline and reach home to
hearth and kin all the way up to the dying hours of the day, when families all
over the country were just about ready to partake of what they were able to
prepare for their “Noche Buena.”
Much like the boy Jesus, children, too, in our times are
threatened by so many challenges against not just the value of life, but
against so many other values or rights that children everywhere ought to be
enjoying. And much life the holy family, many families in the country are
forced to be on the move to get to the proverbial greener pastures.
The family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph also faced the
challenge of a sudden painful separation. The boy, who was no more than 12
years old, one day went missing. The distraught parents were searching all
over, frantically trying to understand the pain and the seemingly hurtful
answer of the boy when asked: “Why do you look for me? Don’t you know that I
must be about my Father’s business?”
The boy, early on, knew his priorities. The parents,
somewhat belatedly too, understood that it was part and parcel of family life
to become apostles, too, to others and on behalf of God. Somewhat belatedly,
too, Joseph and Mary learned that family togetherness and unity does not only
mean being physically huddled together all the time, but united in doing the
Father’s business.
The boy, they understood in due time, had to be in the
Father’s house to do as God willed – to begin his mission of being an
instrument of the Father’s saving will.
Yes, dear friends, dear parents and dear children. Christian
families are asked by the Lord to share the faith. They, too, are sent to
become messengers too of the Father’s plan for the world and for humanity.
The family, according to the Church’s teaching, ought to be
a domestic Church, and last thing I heard is, Church essentially means being
sent, being about God’s business, and doing the Father’s will.
So what about you? When will you spend your time, effort and
all resources you have in the Father’s house?
Comments