Holy Family 12.1.14 Doing God's will
From the fact that Our Lord spent so much time in His family before setting out on His public ministry the Church concludes that the family is very important in God’s plan of things.
We might say there are two ways of saving the world. One is the more obvious method that Jesus used of preaching, healing, finally offering Himself in sacrifice. These actions all pointed in a certain direction and led to a visible result.
But another way of saving the world for Him (and for us by imitation and participation) was to live the ordinary life completely in union with the will of God. This is no less than teaching us how to live – a necessary piece of knowledge to everyone.
Jesus did ordinary things as a child and mostly they probably looked ordinary. But there was a perfection about all His actions because they were completely in accord with the will of His Father, and offered to His glory.
So with Mary, who also lived a sinless life. It was not just that she kept the rules perfectly but that every action was offered to God’s glory and according to His holy will.
And St Joseph, also for him we understand that the greatness of his contribution was not so much his actions as that he did them so willingly as God directed Him.
All three members of the Holy Family had a job to do and they did it. And the ‘job’ was to do the will of the Father at every point, whether they understood it or not.
Jesus always understood what He had to do. Mary and Joseph had to work it out sometimes (as in today’s Gospel) but they always obeyed and trusted, even when they did not understand.
All this is meant for our instruction. Wherever we come in the scheme of things the overriding principle is always the same: that at any moment and every moment we should be seeking and doing the will of God.
It does not matter if what we are doing is public or private, large or small - as long as it is what God wants and we do it for love of Him.
It may not seem to us that we can make much difference to the progress of the world, even less its salvation - yet we can make a great difference if we keep to this simple principle.
We each make up some part of the Body of Christ and it is a unique part. There is no one else exactly like you in the whole of God’s creation. He made each one of us for a purpose.
Like parts of the body or members of a team if we each do our role the whole unit will function smoothly. But if one part is missing or not performing all will suffer.
We are very small players on a very big field but we can still know that our contribution is unique and pleasing to God. It pleases Him if we do what He wants, simple as that.
We might argue that the Holy Family is out of our league and therefore we are not obliged to try to be like them. But we can and must operate on the same principle, doing ordinary things well, doing them as perfectly as we can – both to please God, and to help everything else go smoothly.
All the rest of God’s creation do His will perfectly. The stars and planets, the fish and the birds, the mountains and the rivers – they all give glory to God and do what they are supposed to do.
Of course they have one big advantage over us – they don't have a choice! We have the freedom to rebel, yet to have that freedom and still choose to obey - this gives God the greatest glory.
May the Lord help us to know our place and to live it, thus to advance His glory and His saving plans.
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