DOCTRINE AND FAITH
Gen 15, 1-6; 21.1-3; Hebrew 11,8.11-12.17-19; Luke 2, 22-40: Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph; December 27, 2020; year B)
On the first Sunday after Christmas the Church invites us to celebrate the holy family of Nazareth. Our families too must be holy, according to God's call, to resemble this family. The first two readings speak of Abraham, to make us understand first of all that the children are wonderful gift from God. The family, with the mutual love of husband and wife and then with the fruitfulness of this love, is a gift from God, a participation in his dignity as Creator. In fact, to indicate the birth of children, the term procreation is used. God has given man this extraordinary dignity of being with him the procreator of children. In the book of Genesis, we read that, when the first child was born to our forefathers, Eve said: I acquired a man from the Lord (Gen 4, 1). By this statement she meant to have been associated with God for the procreation of a child.
The first reading shows us Abraham full of sadness, because he has no children. He is already advanced in years, as well as Sara, his wife. Therefore, they have lost hope of having children. When God turns to Abraham saying: Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great, Abraham complains to him: My Lord God, what will you give me? I am leaving without children and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. At this moment, the great sadness felt by Abraham is caused by the fact of having to leave without leaving children. All the gifts of God seem to him in vain. Each person, in fact, has a great desire to pass on the gifts received to their children, and Abraham does not have this possibility. His question: My Lord God, what will you give? Means: Your gifts, Lord, will not satisfy me, because I will not be able to pass them on to children. And full of disappointment, he concludes: Behold, you have given me no offspring and a servant of mine will be my heir. But at this point the Lord makes him a promise, which corresponds to his deepest desire: He will not be your heir, but one born of you will be your heir. In this promise, God reveals immense generosity. Then he leads Abraham out and says to him: Look in the sky and count the stars, if you can count them. Such will be your descendants. Abraham believes in the Lord, who credits it to him as justice. Here is manifested the faith of Abraham in accepting the promise of a son, indeed of an innumerable descent. Welcoming children as a gift from God is a natural attitude that we must have always. We must always recognize that children are a wonderful gift from God, who instills in the hearts of parents a very special joy: the joy of fatherhood and motherhood, which is greater than many other joys.
The second reading makes us understand that the gift of the child also involves a responsibility on the part of the parents. Children are a special kind of gift. In fact, they don't belong to their parents as if they were things. Of course, a child or a daughter is a treasure for the parents, but not a material treasure. They are people, and therefore they belong to God much more than they belong to their parents. Children are a gift from God that continues to belong to him and that must be respected precisely as much as it belongs to him. Abraham had to go through a very painful experience, just to become aware of this reality. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that he is put to the test: God asks him to offer his son Isaac, received by virtue of the divine promise. Abraham offers his son, he shows himself willing to give this son of his to God, who is a wonderful gift from God and does not really belong to Abraham. Abraham's trial has this profound meaning for all fathers and mothers: children belong to God; parents must not have possessive affection for them. This means that they must not seek their own satisfaction in their children, but their good as people loved by God, who must gradually conquer their autonomy and live their vocation. This is not an easy thing to do. In fact, paternal or maternal affection very often becomes possessive, preventing the child from becoming a free person who belongs only to God. Very negative consequences derive from this possessive attitude. For example, when the child marries, the mother claims to maintain the same relationship towards him as she had with him when he was a child, to continue to be the mother who must direct all the child does and have all the affection of the child. This attitude then causes a conflict with the wife. Possessive affection is not true affection, because it seeks its own satisfaction, instead of respecting and promoting the good of the loved one.
In the Gospel we see how Mary and Joseph become aware that Jesus is not a possession for them, but a responsibility, a gift from God that continues to belong to God much more than to them. A few days after the birth of Jesus they take the child to Jerusalem to offer him to the Lord, that is, to recognize that he belongs to God. The law of Moses in fact prescribes: Every firstborn male will be sacred to the Lord. Mary and Joseph go to the temple, to show that Jesus belongs to God and that they are only, so to speak, the administrators, and not the owners, of this gift. In this circumstance God reveals how Jesus must be his Servant. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, old Simeon says about this child: He is here for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, a sign of contradiction for the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. Jesus has the decisive task of revealing the thoughts of hearts, and in this way will be a sign of contradiction. Indeed, he must himself become the object of persecution, of unjust condemnation. To Mary Simeon predicts: And a sword will pierce your soul too. The fate of Jesus and that of Mary are very painful, but also very fruitful. We know that with his passion Jesus saved the world, and that Mary played a cooperative role in this great mystery. Mary keeps all these words in her heart (cf. Luke 2,19.51). In this way, she prepares herself to be the servant of the Lord also in her way of educating her child, and then of letting him go for his mission, which is so important for the salvation of the world. The Gospel tells us that when they had accomplished everything according to the law of the Lord, [the parents and the child] returned to Galilee, to their city of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. The joy of the family comes precisely from the raising of children. This is also a wonderful thing that causes awe. Children are destined to grow, to fortify themselves, to acquire wisdom and welcome God's grace. Jesus is truly one of us: The Son of God becomes a child, accepts to grow, to strengthen himself, is full of wisdom, and grace of God is upon him. Mary and Joseph have the joy of seeing their son growing up and buying all that is necessary for his mission.
The family has the task of encouraging the growth of children, respecting it and guiding it; it has the task of favouring the full development of all the qualities that God has given to children for the fulfilment of their vocation. The family must be oriented above all towards this mission. Each has its own vocation; to each one God entrusts a mission to carry out in the world, certain responsibilities to assume. In a family, each of the children has their own personal vocation, and the family has the task of creating all favourable conditions for the full development of this vocation, so that the children may live a truly beautiful life, worthy of God and useful to the world. John I. Okoye
(graphics by Chukwubike)
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