Importance of Family

“And over all these put on love, 
that is, the bond of perfection.”

Colossians 3:14

The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is usually celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, which is today. (Side note: An “octave” is an 8-day celebration in which every day of those 8 days is celebrated as the day of the Solemnity, in this case, Christmas. So what that means is that for 8 days, every day is Christmas Day! This will be the same in Easter.) The Holy Family is a model which we should all emulate; I mean it is the HOLIEST of families out there! If you were to ask me to sum up what we ought to emulate from the Holy Family, it would be: the obedience of Jesus, the receptivity of Mary, and the righteousness of Joseph.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that “Son though He was, [Jesus] He learned obedience from what He suffered” (5:8). Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, but He was also the Son of Mary and taught by Joseph. Jesus learned everything from His parents, Mary and Joseph. Jesus learned how to pray from His parents. When He was 12 and stayed behind at the Temple after Passover, Joseph and Mary went all over the place looking for Him, and when they found Him, He gave a seemingly disrespectful response, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But what did He do afterwards? He went home with them and was “obedient to them” and “Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Lk. 2:51-52). It was in His obedience that wisdom came to be. We can see in Jesus’s public ministry the many times He suffered and turned to His Father in prayer, and in obedience continued to do His Father’s will, all the way to the Cross. Jesus’s obedience to His Father is the foundation upon which His entire earthly life was built.

From the moment the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God and she replied, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” we know that Mary’s primary position was one of receptivity, receptivity to the will of God. Because Mary received God’s word with joy and openness, the Word was made flesh, and Jesus entered into this world, bringing about our salvation. But in order for Mary to have made such a response, there first must have been a foundation of faith. If Mary did not know who God was or if she did not acknowledge the truth of God’s love and providence, she would not have been able to say “yes.” Of course we are told that Mary was “full of grace,” and so yes, she was pre-disposed to saying “yes” to God, but it also required an act of faith, one that came from gift of free will. So, Mary teaches us to say “yes” to God, but even more so, how we are able to get to that point in life. We must first learn to receive God into our hearts and allow His every word to permeate our being so that all that we think, say, and do comes from a place of truth and love, leading us to say “yes” to God, and in doing so, saying “yes” to our neighbor.

We do not know much about Joseph, but we do know that he was a “righteous” man, which means that he was in right relationship with God. Like Mary, Joseph received the word of God whole-heartedly, and he acted upon it. He took Mary into his home; he traveled to Bethlehem; he protected Mary and Joseph and fled to Egypt. Because Joseph was in right relationship with God, he was able to say “yes” to God and to live out that “yes” where he put his family first, something that all fathers ought to do. If a man roots his “yes” in God and builds his life upon the foundation of right relationship with God, then he can be the best son, husband, and father. (Likewise for woman!)

The obedience of Jesus, the receptivity of Mary, and the righteousness of Joseph only makes sense within the context of relationship, and a relationship that is rooted in love. A family is only a family within the context of relationship, and only if love dwells there. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph show us the different dimensions of a family and the different roles that exists within a family, all of which are indispensable. To be a part of a family means saying “yes” to love, but love is not saying “yes” to everything, but rather saying “yes” to what is most important: God and our relationship with Him. Only when we learn to say “yes” to God will we be able truly love our families because love without God will eventually become enabling, and when we enable our families and friends in things that are harmful to them, we are not really loving them.

So, on this Holy Family Sunday, let us remember that faith truly begins in the family. It is within the family that we first learn who God is, and what it means to love. May we all today reflect upon our families and the role we have been asked to play in our families. Have we lived out our roles obediently, receptively, and righteously? Let us turn to the Holy Family today, asking them to intercede for us so that God might grant us the graces we need to say “yes” to Him and to our families.

Click below to watch and listen to my reflection on the readings for Holy Family Sunday.

A Manger God

“While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child, 
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Luke 2:6-7

Merry Christmas to you! The angels proclaim “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests!” Our God has come to bring us peace, may we do our best to receive it and to pass it along to others. Although the angels pronounced such a grand blessing, the manner in which our “God in the highest” was in fact the lowest and humblest of all — He was born in a stable and laid in a manger.

Can you imagine that? Of all the ways He could have made Himself known to us, the all-powerful, eternal God chose to do so by becoming one of us, and in the lowest and humblest of states, without even a proper room or crib at His birth — all to show how much He loves us, how He shares in our poverty, and to draw us to Himself, allowing us to share in His very nature. May we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity. Those words the priest utters and prays in silence at every Mass as he prepares the offering of bread and wine. God became man and was born of a woman in a manger so that we might come to share in His divinity, participate in His divine life, and hope for eternal life.

On that very first Christmas night, there was no vacant room for Joseph and Mary to rest and bring Jesus into this world. But even when the world did not seemingly want Him or welcome Him, God chose to enter it anyways to save humanity from itself. Jesus entered into a place that did not want Him and where from the moment His existence was made known His life was sought after, yet God didn’t think twice about it. We are worth it in His eyes. We are loved so much that even when His life was sought after, He willingly entered into this world so that our lives might be saved. Will there be room in our hearts for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph this Christmas?

Click here to listen/watch my Christmas reflection.

Mary’s “Yes…” Again

“Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.’
Then the angel departed from her.”

Luke 1:38

Blessed Fourth Sunday of Advent to you! Yes, it is December 24th, but it is not Christmas quite yet, at least not until the Vigil Mass of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas Eve Mass). It is still Advent, and we must keep preparing our hearts to welcome Our Lord. This Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Church reads the account of the Annunciation…again.

We have heard the account of the Annunciation several times already this Advent season, but it is not because we do not have other readings upon which we can meditate and reflect. Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts to say “yes” to Jesus once again and welcome Him into our hearts, and so it is quite fitting that we hear the Annunciation narrative a few times during Advent, where we hear Mary saying “yes” to God.

The Angel Gabriel went to Nazareth to deliver a message to Mary, a message that would change not only her life, but the life of all humanity. Mary was but a young woman going about the daily chores of a Jewish girl when the Angel greeted her “Hail, full of grace!” and assured her that the Lord was with her. God comes to meet us in the ordinariness of our daily lives — Our God is a God who chooses to draw close to us in a manner that we are familiar.

Mary is told that she would bear the Son of God in a time when an unmarried pregnant woman was subject to being stoned to death. So, why did God do that? Why did God allow Mary to be put in such a situation? Because He had a plan to show that nothing is impossible for Him, that in what seems like a hopeless, losing situation, God can bring life, and life that would save all of humanity. But this needed Mary’s — and Joseph’s — cooperation. Mary and Joseph were asked to play such important roles in salvation history, and despite the uncertain and dangerous circumstances that their cooperation would place them in, they said “yes.” Not because they were forced or if they were to say no they would be struck down, but because they had faith. They believed that God’s word is true and that if God asked this of them, He would surely walk with them, and bring all things to fruition and completion.

We too, brothers and sisters, have been called by God. This Advent, the Lord asks us “Am I welcome in your heart?” How do we respond? Despite the possibility of being judged, ridiculed, and criticized by the world if we openly say “yes” to God, are we still willing to say “yes?” Will the fear of being stoned by the world or being excluded or disliked move our hearts to question our “yes” or even cause us to shy away from our faith? If so, remember what the Angel said to Mary and to Joseph, “Do not be afraid” for the Lord is with us. If He has asked us of it and has brought us to it, He will most certainly bring us through it. So, in these remaining hours of Advent, will we say “yes” to God once again?

Click here to watch/listen to my reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.