Feast of the Holy Family 13.1.13 Our social nature
Suppose a king wanted to make something of one of his lowly subjects and he took him aside and said: I will give you great riches and a big castle to live in. If you are generous with others I will give you even more but if you are not generous with others I will take away what I have given you.
This is broadly how God deals with us. He has given us so much, physical and material blessings galore. He has made something of us. Without Him we were poor; now we are rich.
But His greatest blessing to us is not in the things themselves but in the fact that we can become like Himself, to be givers rather than receivers.
In such a way that the more we receive from Him the more we want to give it away to others, cf many saints, some of whom were actual royalty (eg Elizabeth of Hungary).
He has made us not just individual units to relate only to Himself but also given us a social dimension whereby we must relate to each other.
We must give love as well as receive it. (And if we don't... we might lose the lot)
This is the fulness of our development.
It is for this reason He has established the family as a basic social unit to give each person the experience of being loved, and learning to love.
At first, as babies we can only receive love; we cannot give it. Gradually as we get older we can learn to see the needs of others and try to help them. Eventually most people start their own families and the process goes on.
Every part of family life reflects something of God’s presence. He has entered our world and is right there with us at every point – even and especially when things don't work as they should.
He is with us in our suffering – the suffering of grief whereby families are divided by death, but consoled by the knowledge that the dead are in His care. Also the grief and anxiety for family members who have lost their way and need conversion and reconciliation.
He is with us in setting right quarrels, dissensions, disobedience (see Epistle).
And He is with us as we try to defend the traditional family against the furious assault of modern humanism.
Families are places of formation, so it is not surprising that very few families have reached perfection.
We are put in families to have the rough edges knocked off; to learn to forgive others; to learn to share what we have; to learn that we cannot always have everything when we want it etc.
For all the imperfections of families we are far better off with them than without them.
The fact that God Himself would enter family life and stay there for thirty years indicates how important He regards it for our spiritual formation.
So we rejoice that God has called us to this extra level - to discover that ‘I’ am part of a larger world, of which I am not the centre, yet I am important all the same – this is an important discovery.
We reflect back to the Source of all blessings. It is God, who has blessed us most of all by teaching us how to give, not just receive.
The perfection of the Holy Family is not meant to frighten us away, rather to invite us to come and share what they can give us.
May our families, and all families, experience healing and hope on this Feast.
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