AS Christmas season passed by, we looked at the photos of families and friends we shared on Facebook and Instagram and expressed a profound sense of gratitude to God. Thank God that we were able to push through another Christmas gathering.
Thank God for siblings, nieces, nephews, and other family members who drove or flew from far places to be with us. Thank God for the exchange of gifts, the laughter and joy, the food, and drinks. Indeed thank God for a beautiful family celebration!
Thank God for the Christian community we belong—for fellow worshipers and the witnessing of their faith. For those of us Catholics, thank God for the graces of nine days of Simbang Gabi, especially for being able to complete the novena of Masses in the evening or early morning. Thank God for the priests who celebrated the liturgies and inspired us with their well-thought homilies. And thank God for the people who served dinner or breakfast after each Simbang Gabi Mass.
Beneath the joy and laughter of Christmas gatherings and photos of family and friends is the reality that there is no perfect family and perfect community. Indeed, we enjoyed the celebrations and expressed our wishes and sentiments for each other, but deep inside us are our struggles and pains in family and community relationships. We’re concern about our health and those of other people. We deal with our insecurities and anxieties about our jobs, our children’s future, and the political climate of our country and other parts of the world.
And so, here is our continuing challenge this coming new year: to keep striving for love, affection, understanding, forgiveness, and peace in families and communities throughout the year It’s the challenge that St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading this Sunday (COL 3:12-21): “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
Mary and Joseph faced the same challenge as a family and members of a faith community. They tried to keep their family together by observing the Torah, the Jewish laws, and tradition. As pious Jews, they were aware of teachings on family relationships such as what we hear in the First Reading this Sunday regarding honoring one’s father and mother. So without a doubt, they instilled in the mind of Jesus, the value of respect for one’s parents and unity in the family.
But as we hear in the Gospel, fear and anxiety overtook them when they realized that Jesus was missing as they returned home with a caravan of fellow worshiper from the feast of Passover. How could they have lost sight of the twelve years old Jesus among the fellow travelers? How could they have presumed that he was enjoying the company of other children in the group? Like any parents, they must have felt guilty with their lack of attention to the young Jesus.
As we learned from the Gospel, after three days of fearful searching, they found Jesus in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. And the hard thing to swallow was Jesus’ response to their worries: Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?
Of course, Mary and Joseph could not be angry and complain out loud in the presence of the teachers of the Law. Deep in their hearts, they knew that Jesus was honoring his Father—not his earthly Father, Joseph—but his true Father in heaven. He was doing his Father’s business.
Even then, Mary and Joseph experienced the fear of losing a child and being embarrassed as parents. But they have to keep believing and trusting and honoring each other and God. The Gospel tells us that as Jesus advanced in age and favor before God and man, he was obedient to them.
The Holy Family then is our model of a family that keeps facing the challenges and struggles of life. What keeps them serene and united in their belief and trust in God whose power and might rule over them in all life’s complexities, failures, and surprises!
Happy New Year!
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1991-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
