Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

Happy Christ­mas and com­pli­ments of the sea­son! The Church in her wis­dom ded­ic­ates the Sunday fol­low­ing Christ­mas to the fam­il­ies, rep­res­en­ted by the Naz­areth fam­ily, com­posed of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. That is, fath­er, moth­er and son. Some­times, it is dif­fi­cult to present this fam­ily as a mod­el for oth­er fam­il­ies. The reas­on is that this is a fam­ily where the super­nat­ur­al dom­in­ated and greatly influ­enced the human dimen­sion. That not­with­stand­ing, this was a fam­ily were fath­er, moth­er and child feared God and walked in God’s way. It is on this aspect that it is presen­ted as a mod­el of every Chris­ti­an fam­ily. It was a respons­ible and godly family.

“When they had fin­ished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Naz­areth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wis­dom; and the favour of God was upon him” (Luke 2:39–40). As men­tioned in the intro­duc­tion, con­sid­er­ing the super­nat­ur­al inter­ven­tion in the Naz­areth fam­ily, it is dif­fi­cult to present it as mod­el for every fam­ily. But on fur­ther reflec­tion, we dis­cov­er there are many reas­ons this fam­ily should serve as mod­el for every Chris­ti­an fam­ily. It was the humil­ity of Mary that attrac­ted God’s decision to make her the moth­er of the saviour. As we know, Mary was born in a poor fam­ily from the insig­ni­fic­ant town of Naz­areth. She did not appear to stand out from her peers and would prob­ably not have been voted ‘most likely to suc­ceed.’ Even­tu­ally, how­ever, she was engaged to a man named Joseph who could not prom­ise her afflu­ence but was a kind man with a stable repu­ta­tion. Accord­ing to the words of the angel to her fath­er Jehoiachin (also Jehoiakim), Mary shall, in keep­ing to the vow of the par­ents, be devoted to the Lord from her infancy. She shall,

“Life affords no great­er respons­ib­il­ity, no great­er priv­ilege, than the rais­ing of the next gen­er­a­tion” (C. E. Koop). If, as Luke said, the child Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wis­dom, it means Joseph and Mary played their roles well as fath­er and moth­er. Although he informed them that he must be in his Father’s house doing his Father’s busi­ness, yet, Jesus went home with his par­ents and lived under their authority.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I and II)!! The reflec­tion for the Holy Fam­ily Sunday, Year B is found on vol. II pages 34–46. See also Vol. I, pages 43–51. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

 Email This Post