Thursday, December 19, 2019
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph with Pastor Carlos
The Holy
Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Today the Church
celebrates the Holy Family. Mary and Joseph had little idea of the challenges
that lay ahead of them when they accepted God’s call to welcome as parents God
incarnate. We know how difficult the birth was, not finding a proper place when
the time for Mary came to give birth.
Finding a place for Mary
to give birth was not the only difficult task they faced. Soon after the birth
of Jesus, as we hear in today’s Gospel, Joseph is told by an angel in a dream,
“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” (Mt 2:13). And
so, “Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for
Egypt” (Mt 2:14). Listening to the angel, Joseph leads Jesus and Mary on their
first great journey together as a family.
Later on they would
journey to Jerusalem each year. Meanwhile, the glory of God lay hidden in the
vulnerable child Jesus. Mary and Joseph moved forward guided sometimes by
angels, and most often by deep faith and their common sense. They knew that our
loving God had loved them first, and somehow was now present to them in a
child, needy and vulnerable like all newborns.
As we celebrate the holy
family today, I am grateful to the Knights of Columbus for promoting the
practice of having each family consecrate themselves to the Holy Family. We
have many families in the parish. Let us continue to reach out and welcome any
new families you see at Mass. As new families continue to move to our
neighborhood, we have a wonderful opportunity to welcome them so they
experience the love of God through the Sacraments, and through the genuine love
of neighbor.
God bless, Fr. Carlos, OSA
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment