SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY FAMILY – CYCLE B -     2017

-          A week ago we have celebrated the Solemnity of the Birth of the Lord, and today the readings invite us to contemplate Joseph and Mary bringing their child to the Temple to be presented and offered to the Lord.  

-          His family is a simple family like so many of our families. Together they build their family; they take care of their relationships and are faithful to the Law of God of Israel. 

-          A family that lives from its humble but honest work.  

-          A family that shares its life with the other families in the little town of Nazareth, from where nothing good can come, according to the words of Nathanael.  

-          A family where peace and, the joy of the pure of heart reign, but probably, being like us, they might have also some difficulties even in their relationships.  

FIRST READING  Sir 3:2-6,12-14

The author of this book describes the just relations with the parents, with those who have given us life.   

Ø  God has given us our parents. The author of the book says that to the father we owe honor and to the mother the recognition of her authority at home.  

Ø  He who honors his father, as we read in the book   

o   His sins are forgiven, and when he prays he is heard

o   He will be blessed with children    

o   He will live a long life    

o   And obeying his father he gives consolation to his mother.   

Ø  He who reveres his father gives comfort to his mother.   

Ø  The author  asks  the son  to take care of his   father when he is older and sick.  

Ø  He does not mention the mother anymore, only what has already been said: she has authority over her children at home and deserves to be respected by them.  

Ø  Nothing is said of the mother in her old age.   

Ø  It is a society where only men count, but we may apply whatever has been said for the father to the mother.   

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps  128

R. (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Ø  The author of this psalm sings the blessings of the one who fears the Lord and walks in his ways.   

Ø  The blessing is:  

o   To eat from the fruit of the work of his hands.  

o   To have a  fruitful wife   

o   To have many children around his table    

Ø  What a beautiful image    

o   This man earns his bread working.   

o   When he gets home he finds his wife who, like the vine, gives abundant fruit   

o   We may think the fruit to be the children, but we may think also about the goodness of this woman which is fruitful in good works, in love, in tenderness, in taking care of the household, always serving. O, how many woman we know like this one!  

o   The children are like olive plants around the table. The table where the family shares its experiences, love, sufferings, joys and difficulties; all together they share the “daily bread.”  

o   O how much we need, in our society, to rediscover and recuperate the family values. The family must have priority over the work.    In this psalm, which  is the Word of God, we are told that  the work is a blessing and a source of all that the family needs, but the family is at the center.        

Ø  The psalm ends with a blessing   

o   From God      

o   To see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of our life.   

SECOND READING  : Col 3:12-17

Ø  What a beautiful Reading taken from the letter to the Colossians    

Ø  It is a description of the Christian life in the following of our Teacher Jesus  

Ø  A heartfelt compassion, with kindness, humility which is the same as truth, according to the words of St. Theresa of Avila. If we acknowledge our truth, we can but act with kindness in response to the way God treats each one of us.    

Ø  In this litany which describes a behavior similar to that of God, the author mentions at the end “patience”. Patience to accept the limitations of our brothers, sisters and our own, like God who accepts, forgives and redeems our own limitations.  

Ø  All of this together with the mutual acceptance, forgiving each other as God accepts and forgives us.   

Ø  Everything wrapped in love which the author considers the bond of perfection.   

Ø  Allowing the peace of Christ to control our hearts, and make us one body

Ø  It is interesting how the author asks us to be thankful. What a beautiful custom to say “thank you”   because this transforms little by little our heart, and makes it humble and grateful.

Ø  We are also invited to let the Word of Christ dwell in our heart and,  that this word may be  manifested  in prayer, songs, hymns, psalms our thanksgiving to God.   

Ø  And the author ends inviting us,  that no matter what we do by word or work, we do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.    

Ø  How different would our world be if, in our homes and in our communities, all cultivate these values and heart dispositions!     

GOSPEL   LK 2:22. 39-40.

Ø  The purification of the mother after childbirth. The contact with the blood made the person legally impure, this did not have anything to do with morality, it was only a legal question

Ø  The firstborn child was consecrated to the Lord and at the same time he was redeemed by means of the prescribed offering.    

Ø  Jesus is that firstborn son, and his parents fulfill the law like any other Israelite couple.   

Ø  Once they had fulfilled the law of the presentation of the child and of the purification of the mother, Joseph, Mary and Jesus go back to Nazareth, where Jesus will live until adulthood.   

Ø  Today’s Gospel ends saying something which makes us reflect: the child, this child is the Word of God made flesh: “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. “

Ø  The Son of the Father, God like the Father, eternal like Him, made man follows the same life process as any other human being. I think that we will never be able to truly understand what does that mean, what does the mystery of the incarnation mean.   

Ø  We only can give thanks and adore the mystery which goes beyond our understanding, but that fills us with tenderness, gratitude  and joy.    

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

One night while praying and in bitter tears, pleading to our Lord that by the merits of His Passion and death to have mercy on the necessities of His church which at that time were many, our Lord told me and pointing at Mgr. Claret as if I saw him between our Lord and me.” This, my daughter, is the apostolic person whom you have asked me for so many years and with so much tears”.

His Divine Majesty showed me the grace He poured on that holy soul for the preaching of the gospel, and our Lord told me that there was no other remedy for the peace of the church. I did not know that person. Only a few days before I heard that a   certain chaplain by the name of Monsen Claret began preaching with much zeal about the honor due to God and the salvation of souls. It seems to me that have been at least eleven or twelve years ago. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 19.

I was barely six when my parents sent me to school. My first schoolmaster was a very active and religious man, Mr. Anthony Pascual . He never punished or upbraided me, but I was careful not to give him any cause for doing so. I was always punctual, always attended classes, and always prepared my lessons carefully.

I learned the catechism so well that whenever I was asked to I could recite it from beginning to end without a mistake. Three of the other boys learned it as well as I had, and the teacher presented us to the pastor, Dr. Joseph Amigo. This good man had the four of us recite the whole catechism on two consecutive Sunday nights. We did it without a single mistake before all the people in the church. As a reward he gave each of us a holy card, which we have treasured ever since. . Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters,    Autobiography 22-23.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiography.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography   

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