Friends,
on this feast of the Holy Family, our Gospel shows us Joseph and Mary’s
flight into Egypt, pursuing their mission to protect the Christ child.
This story prompts me to say something about the Christian family’s
mission.
The
family is, above all, the forum in which both parents and children are
able to discern their missions. It is perfectly good, of course, if deep
bonds and rich emotions are cultivated within the family, but those
relationships and passions must cede to something that is more
spiritually focused.
A
biblical prioritization of values helps us to see what typically goes
wrong with families. When something other than mission is dominant—a
son’s athletic achievement, a daughter’s success at university,
etc.—family relationships actually become strained. The paradox is this:
precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s
call for one another, the family becomes more loving and peaceful.
John Paul II admirably summed up what I’ve been driving at when he spoke of the family as an ecclesiola
(a little church). At its best, he implies, the family is a place where
God is worshiped and where the discernment of God’s mission is of
paramount importance.
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.When Herod had died, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt and said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel,
for those who sought the child's life are dead."
He rose, took the child and his mother,
and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea
in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go back there.
And because he had been warned in a dream,
he departed for the region of Galilee.
He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth,
so that what had been spoken through the prophets
might be fulfilled,
He shall be called a Nazorean.
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