HOLY FAMILY
Luke 2:41-52
The
Trinity is the primordial family in perfect love. From the outpouring
of God's charity the first
human family of Adam and Eve was born. It was meant to mirror the Divine
communion and love. Yet far from being
perfect, human frailty, infidelity, greed and anger destroyed the once happy
human family. But God did not give up and promised to re-create a
new community that would mirror the family of the Trinity once again. God
conceived this “dream family” for a long time through a people he had chosen to
be his own. Jesus gave birth to the Church out of his pain and suffering
on the cross. The Church became the God’s new family. God continues
to give birth to his children on earth in the context of the Christian family
which is called the “domestic church”.
The family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus is the ideal
family; they are called the Holy Family not just because they were good
people but because Jesus was the centre of their lives. Like any other
ordinary family, they also experienced the hardships, anxieties, rejection,
suffering, tragedies and other problems that we experience within our
families. Their lives were not at all roses in bed; humans as they
were, most of the times they did not even understand why strange things were
happening to them. They were as ordinary as we are but because of the
presence of Jesus in their midst, they had a different way of looking at
things.
Under normal circumstances, each one of us was born in
a family hence belonging to a household. It is through our family that
we experience God's love by loving and being loved by our parents, brothers, sisters and kins.
Because of our human weaknesses, our families are far
from the ideal. Just like the first family of Adam and Eve, our
families have our own share of frailties that make us vulnerable to faults and failures. Some of us come from broken homes, others are victims
of misfortunes that continue to beset our families; we also have skeletons in
the closets and dark secrets of our parents and ancestors. But in
the midst of all these grim realities is the hope that the grace of God will triumph. Our faith makes the difference, knowing that life is beautiful
because of the silent presence of Jesus in our lives. He is the beacon
light of our families when tragedies strike us and everything is dark…
It is through the Church that we manifest the reality
of the family of the Trinity in our world today. When we come together as
a Church to celebrate the Eucharist, we gather in the altar of the flesh and
blood of Jesus just as we gather as a family to partake our meal in our
homes.
One day we will all be gathered as one Family of God
when we see each other together back in the womb of God. This is the Father's dream!
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