2014/12/27 - Homily - HOLY FAMILY
A few days after Christmas, we celebrate the most important events in Jesus childhood. His life is just the same one as any Jewish male‘s life. The eighth day being the one of` circumcision and if possible, as we can see in Jesus’ case the presentation of the child in the Temple. By the circumcision and presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem his parents accomplished the old tradition.
What does that mean?
The People of Israel had been devoted, with some ups and downs, to the law of the Alliance that God made with them
They had learned that all lives come from God. Such faith was very deeply rooted inside the Jewish social lives.
The holy family`s feast reminds us of an important fact. Our whole life is depending on God. That requires a total trust into God. Indeed we often try to live according to God’s wish but when are we really able to fulfill his desire?
Often it is when we are in difficulties, when we are greatly in need for help. And as believers we turn to our God expecting from him something good for us. We do it because we trust Him.
A child can’t live without his parents’ constant care. So, a child must trust them. And he does so by natural human behavior.
When does the child find himself in need of putting his trust in other adults? When he needs them to survive.
As children, we have to put our trust in someone to survive, and not only survive but also to lead a fruitful life.
We know perfectly well that our Christian faith pushes us into such trust. Trust for the spiritual life, but simply for the human and earthly life.
So we know how difficult it is. It is because we don`t know what will happen with and whether they will follow a good way or bad one.
Mary and Joseph did not know what the future of their child could be.
They knew only one thing. They knew it since the revelation given to them by Gabriel, messenger from God himself. That something great would happen. Without knowing by witch way that would be bestowed on him. And it was only in the temple of Jerusalem they came to hear about his extraordinary destiny: to reveal the light of the God of Israel to the all nations.
For us it doesn`t matter because we and our children, we have to realize another mission in order to fulfill the plan of God for us. However something similar remains between both situations. Our life and the life of our children are to reveal the light of God.
As Joseph and Mary, we have to look after our children to see them grow up in the light of God and, by this way, becoming the light of God for others. So many different situations can the children of the world will meet.
Often living in poor material conditions, they can grow well. As what is most important is to show to them the ways to behave well in life in order to make them grow up to become stable and responsible men and women.
Indeed, our life is given to us by God through our parents. And if we are parents or we have some responsibilities towards children for example as teachers have when revealing the large field of knowledge about the world and his nature, we know that our children do not belong to us.
They are “given” to us for a just a while. Not an easy reality to admit and a difficult one to put into practice.
Today our prayers go to the Almighty God for all the children of the world, poor, rich, clever, disable, in good or bad wealth, for these children to get the revelation of God s` light in their lives. AMEN
