HOLY FAMILY YR. C. 1 SAM 1:20-22.24-28; PS 84:2-3,5-6,9-10; 1 JN 3:1-2.21-24; LK 2:41-52
Today, the local Church celebrates the opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope. Today, we also celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. There is a certain despair in the world today. This is because the family unit is breaking down. People have become more individualistic. The present generation sees the futility of this life. They have lost God. With the absence of God in their life, there is no after-life. And since there is only one life on earth, when we die, we will disappear forever from the face of this earth, so there is no reason to make sacrifices, to do good to others; just take care of ourselves, enjoy as much as we can today. After all, we have worked hard for it.
The loss of hope in society today has very much to do with the disintegration of family life. The basic cell of society is the family, comprising of parents and children. How strong society is, how cohesive and what kind of people we are, is dependent on the state of our family. By extension, anyone who is related by birth, marriage or adoption is a member of the family. Not only is marriage being threatened in today’s world, but the family as well. For this reason, the Church has a duty to address the world, the larger family of God, to help our people rediscover the beauty and splendour of the vocation to love and be at the service of life and humanity.
The Church encourages us to look to the Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for inspiration, example and encouragement. They were a model family in which both parents worked hard, helped each other, understood and accepted each other, and took good care of their Child so that He might grow up not only in human knowledge but also as a Child of God.
We need to make the family a confessional rather than a courtroom. Mr. Charles Dankwa, (my brother) senior Judge of the High Court congratulated Our Sister Christie and her husband Michael in a marriage and gave them a piece of advice: “See that you never convert your family into a courtroom; instead let it be a confessional. If the husband-and-wife start arguing like attorneys in an attempt to justify their behavior, their family becomes a court of law and nobody wins. On the other hand, if the husband and the wife — as in a confessional — are ready to admit their faults and try to correct them, the family becomes a Heavenly one.” On the Feast of the Holy Family, all parents should examine themselves to see how well they are fulfilling the grave responsibility which God has placed on them. As they heard during their marriage ceremony: “children are a gift from God to you” for whom their parents are accountable before God, as they must, in the end, return these, His children, to Him. Let us pray for the grace of caring for one another in our own families, for each member of our parish family, and for all families of the universal Church. May God bless all our families in the New Year!
Fr. Alex Osei
SSC-USA Spiritual Director