JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH
REFLECTION
As I look at this picture of the Holy Family, many themes come to mind. Love and faithfulness stand out… Mary’s words of obedience to God’s messenger, “Be it done to me according to thy word,” without understanding the consequences of her fiat. Her submission to God’s will says so much about the trust Mary had in a benevolent God that only wishes us well.
Mary conceives a Son by the Power of the Holy Spirit….the Son Mary conceived was no ordinary Son but the Son of God…Mary will bring God to the world… the Word Incarnate…God will dwell once again among His people…The Garden is refreshed with a NEW ADAM…
Joseph had his own qualms to deal with when his wife to be became pregnant and not by him. Joseph was already a righteous man in relationship with God and did not want to do anything to embarrass or jeopardize his spouse to be so he was going to separate quietly.
Then God intervened, “behold, the angel of the Lord* appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.” Matthew 1:20
Because of the love of Mary and Joseph, the Christ child in the picture is able to hold out his arms and embrace the whole world in blessing. A child lives what he experiences. A loving family attached to God their creator and source can only spread the love and embrace of God the Father to others.
At one point Jesus got separated from Mary and Joseph and when found teaching in the temple he willingly left His Father’s house and went back to his earthly home in Nazereth. “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man” Luke 2:49-51
Jesus went home with His earthly parents and was obedient to them…He obeyed the Father’s will in honoring Mary and Joseph….How am I honoring God in my daily duties…
Not much is known about Jesus’ child hood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood in his home town of Nazareth. We do know the Holy Family were all devout Jews honoring and worshiping God according to Jewish practices, especially holy days like Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, and Pentecost.
Mary and Joseph would have provided for their family in traditional roles of feeding and caring for their child. In his human nature Jesus would be learning and not taking any “divine” short cuts as he assisted his earthly foster father, Joseph, in his carpentry trade.
Loving parents, loving child, the core of God’s plan for salvation of mankind, imaging the relationship of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
In the cultural change taking place in the present-day, models are often presented which conflict with the Christian vision of the family. Christianity proclaims that God created humanity as male and female, and blessed them to form one flesh and transmit life Gen 1: 27-28; 2, 24
The mystery of life’s creation on earth fills us with wonder and delight. The family, founded on the marriage of a man and a woman, is splendid to behold and irreplaceable in an interpersonal loving relationship which transmits life. The act of generation, must be understood in light of the parents’ responsibility and commitment to the care and Christian upbringing of their children, who are the most precious fruit of conjugal love
According to our faith, the difference between the sexes bears in itself the image and likeness of God Genesis 1:26-27. “This tells us that it is not man alone who is the image of God or woman alone who is the image of God, but man and woman as a couple who are the image of God.
To families with homosexual members, the Church reiterates that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his/her dignity, while carefully avoiding “every sign of unjust discrimination”…Regarding proposals to place unions of homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family”.
Marriage is a gift and a promise of God. The witness of couples, who faithfully live their marriage, highlights the value of this indissoluble union and awakens the desire to constantly renew their commitment to fidelity.
PRAYER TO THE HOLY FAMILY
Heavenly father, you have given us a model of life
in the Holy family of Nazareth
Help us, O Loving Father to make our family another Nazareth
where love, peace, and joy reign
May it be deeply contemplative, intensely Eucharistic,
and vibrant with joy.
Holy Family Pray for us.
St. Terese Kolkata
IN JESUS’ NAME WE PRAY