Holy Family B
The first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. Once we have a baby, we have a family. Before we had a couple, Mary and Joseph, just married. Now we have three persons, and this constitutes a family. It reminds us of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of which the family is a reflection. Marriage, the love of husband and wife, is geared to having children. In our society we talk about love and we forget about children. Some couples don’t want to have children. They say: “father, we are not ready.” We are never ready for children. “But father, how can we bring children to this mad world of ours.” Precisely, we need good children to make it better. When I ask couples how many children do they want to have, they answer: “two, a boy and a girl; we want to give them the best.” The best thing you can give to your children is a brother or a sister. “But we cannot afford more.” And then I ask: How many cars do you have? How many TVs? How many cell phones?
Some couples just live together without getting married. The commitment is not there, and they are just testing the ground. Marriage is not a testing exercise, but a covenant for life. The first question I ask when couples come to baptise their baby is: “Are you married?” With embarrassing look they say: “father, not yet.” I tell them: “you are beginning to build your house with the roof instead of the foundations.” You get married to have children, not the other way around, to have children to get married.
Today, the feast of the Holy Family it is a good reminder of how important the family is for our happiness, for society and for the Church. The most important thing we have, after God, our life and our faith, is our family. It is more important than your wealth, your career, you job, your future, your gadgets, your pets or your prestige. I remind people when they come to bury a relative: now you realise how important your loved one was. We take people for granted, and at the end of the day other people are what we need most, to support and support us, to go through life together to reach heaven. We are social beings and we need family and friends for us to grow and mature.
We live in a society where the family is not supported, not defended as it should be, and it is attacked on all fronts. When the family disintegrates, society crumbles. Most of the problems of our society come from a lack of strong families. Today we pray for the families in our country, and we commit ourselves to do what we can to help our own families and the families around us.
The lack of vocations we are experiencing in the Church is because there are few good Christian families. Our families are too small to produce children ready to give themselves to God. If the parents are generous, the children follow their example. To have large families demands a lot of generosity and dedication. A child is not just a toy to be bought and played with. It demands a lot of time and suffering, and we tend not to be ready to accept that, especially fathers. Today we ask the Holy Family to help us to foster young couples to want to have more children.
josephpich@gmail.com
Holy Family B
The first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. Once we have a baby, we have a family. Before we had a couple, Mary and Joseph, just married. Now we have three persons, and this constitutes a family. It reminds us of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of which the family is a reflection. Marriage, the love of husband and wife, is geared to having children. In our society we talk about love and we forget about children. Some couples don’t want to have children. They say: “father, we are not ready.” We are never ready for children. “But father, how can we bring children to this mad world of ours.” Precisely, we need good children to make it better. When I ask couples how many children do they want to have, they answer: “two, a boy and a girl; we want to give them the best.” The best thing you can give to your children is a brother or a sister. “But we cannot afford more.” And then I ask: How many cars do you have? How many TVs? How many cell phones?
Some couples just live together without getting married. The commitment is not there, and they are just testing the ground. Marriage is not a testing exercise, but a covenant for life. The first question I ask when couples come to baptise their baby is: “Are you married?” With embarrassing look they say: “father, not yet.” I tell them: “you are beginning to build your house with the roof instead of the foundations.” You get married to have children, not the other way around, to have children to get married.
Today, the feast of the Holy Family it is a good reminder of how important the family is for our happiness, for society and for the Church. The most important thing we have, after God, our life and our faith, is our family. It is more important than your wealth, your career, you job, your future, your gadgets, your pets or your prestige. I remind people when they come to bury a relative: now you realise how important your loved one was. We take people for granted, and at the end of the day other people are what we need most, to support and support us, to go through life together to reach heaven. We are social beings and we need family and friends for us to grow and mature.
We live in a society where the family is not supported, not defended as it should be, and it is attacked on all fronts. When the family disintegrates, society crumbles. Most of the problems of our society come from a lack of strong families. Today we pray for the families in our country, and we commit ourselves to do what we can to help our own families and the families around us.
The lack of vocations we are experiencing in the Church is because there are few good Christian families. Our families are too small to produce children ready to give themselves to God. If the parents are generous, the children follow their example. To have large families demands a lot of generosity and dedication. A child is not just a toy to be bought and played with. It demands a lot of time and suffering, and we tend not to be ready to accept that, especially fathers. Today we ask the Holy Family to help us to foster young couples to want to have more children.
josephpich@gmail.com