My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our Church dedicates the first Sunday after Christmas to consecrate our families to the Holy Family – Mary, Joseph and Jesus. To talk about families, perhaps we should identify a traditional marriage. Marriage is too often conceived as the sacrament that unites a man and a woman to form a couple. In reality, marriage establishes a family, and its main purpose is to multiply the number of human beings.
A real marriage should be intending toward children. Although Mary and Joseph were not untied in a carnal way, their marriage is still a true marriage: an indissoluble, exclusive union, wholly subordinate to raising the Child. Mary and Joseph had only one child, but He would contain the whole of mankind, even as Isaac, an only child, fulfilled the promise made to Abraham of countless children.
Thus, the whole purpose of every marriage is to establish a Christian family. To look at the Holy Family, it observed the religious laws of Israel; it went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem every year with other Jewish families. When Jesus got lost in the temple, Mary and Joseph tried to find Him with fear and sorrow! Mary said to Jesus when she found Him: “Why did you do this to us?” Jesus simply responded that why are you looking for me? Don’t you know that I have to do my Father’s will? Therefore, it may happen that God’s will must oblige the family to make disconcerting sacrifices. Yet every Christian family must also live in harmony and in prayer, which are the pledges of joy and union.
Then at the end of the Gospel it said: “He remained obedient to them.” Jesus was God, but He did everything as a son of man. Perhaps this is the perfect example for all children of God nowadays in our society. To become Holy Family, each member of a family has to live as Mary, Joseph and Jesus: recognize and fulfill duties and responsibility; deeply love and respect one another; live with joy, happiness and harmony. And above all, always listen and do the will of God.
Happy New Year.
Best wishes,
Fr. Thuong Hoai Nguyen, Pastor