Solemnity of the Holy Family 2009
Posted By Fr. Jim Tucker on December 26, 2009
Have we ever thanked Almighty God for the gift of our families? God Himself chose that most important human structure of the family in order to set Salvation of humanity in motion. It was in a human family that God chose to set His Son.
After all the human family is God’s design. Genesis tells us that He made them male and female . . . and told them to be fruitful and multiply. God made the strong bond of love between a husband and wife the main constituent component of the family so that the children – the precious offspring of their love – may know security and be strengthened for the difficult journey of life ahead of them. Those children also see the proper example of how they are to fashion their own lives as they grow older.
Love is what drives those parents – the mother and father, as God has designed – to be nurturing and comforting, to teach and guide the children to a virtuous life, and to guard and protect those children. It is love that motivates parents to set their own wants aside in order to care for their children.
And it is the love of the parents that enables them, through their constant connection to God our Almighty Father, to set aside their own wants for their children to remain at home, and finally send them into the world to find the vocation – that calling that God has for them.
We hear in todays Gospel how Jesus is found by a frantic Mary and Joseph after a three day search. Yet when the boy Jesus is finally found, he tells them that He must be in His Father’s house, about doing His Father’s business.
I remember several years before I entered seminary, as I was finding my way in the world, I was like a ship without a rudder, unmoored as it were. My dad noticed this and was very concerned. As concerned as he was for me to find a steady job or career (which I eventually found in computer programming, and later to discover my vocation as a priest), he was more concerned that I find that substantial foundation, a grounding in something that no human being nor institution could offer. He said to me, “You’ve got to find and connect with your Father, and I don’t mean me!”
This says volumes to us today, and gives us all a handle as to how we can view our Gospel today. Eventually, we all have to find our foundation and grounding in our Heavenly Father, because He is our ultimate source and summit. We find Him in Jesus Christ, His Son, who has given us that special gift of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist.
As important as our human families are, we need to realize that if we depend solely on human beings, we become unhinged, un-moored as it were. To hear my father point me to my Heavenly Father for ultimate dependence gave me freedom to pursue more deeply my relationship with God and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Did this mean that I would love my father any less? Not at all. In fact, because of his convictions and his relationship with Almighty God, I find myself loving him all the more, because of the example he has given me and continues to give me.
Let us all find our dependence in God our Father, and thank Him for the gift of our families. Our connection with our Heavenly Father causes our love for our families to grow stronger.
Wonderful!