Holy Family
Sirach 3:2-6,12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40
"Holy Families"
by Fr. John Martin Shimkus,
O.S.B.
The readings of this feast are filled
with wise admonitions to family members. From Sirach we read:
“Whoever honors his father atones for sins . . . he stores up
riches who reveres his mother . . . take care of your father when
he is old”. And St. Paul insists that: “Children obey your
parents in everything” and “Fathers do not provoke your children, so
they may not become discouraged.”
One can legitimately wonder how these sayings
are heard by those who attend this Sunday’s Eucharist. While
presenting a certain idyllic ideal of family life, I suspect that,
often as not, these directives call to mind hurts and failures within
families, the ways in which the wisdom of mutual love and care has
sadly been violated or neglected.
For this reason, I think it’s good to consider
that this feast dedicated to the perfect family, the “Holy Family” is
just as much dedicated to all families, as perfect or imperfect as they
may be. The invitation to care, reverence, kindness and obedience
proclaimed so clearly is not just an impossible ideal against which to
measure our poor efforts. It is also a curative to the wrongs of
the past. To embrace the life of the Holy Family within our
families means that we never give up on God’s grace; it means that we
continue to believe healing and the renewal of love are possible
because of the God who makes this possible and the Child who came to
bring reconciliation to this world.
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