December 31, 2023 （The Feast of the Holy Family）
Father Ken’s Message:
Good morning, everyone. And Happy Feast of the Holy Family! This is a very nostalgic feast for me. Because every year on this feast, after Mass, my father would take our family to a pancake restaurant, and we had a tradition of eating a lot of pancakes. There was syrup, lots of sausage, and orange juice. It brings back very, very good memories. But the tradition was not just for us kids to enjoy. This tradition saved my father from having to prepare meals for our tired mother. There was also the gift of not having to prepare our mother's breakfast. Through this work of my father's love, I remember the love of Joseph and Mary.
Today, one week after Christmas, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family to thank Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus. To understand this feast, let us consider the etymology of the word "holy. The biblical word for "holy" comes from the Greek word helios. It means "ability. In the New Testament, in Matthew 25, Jesus told a story about talents. This talent is a gift from God, and if we use it, we will become holy people. Joseph and Mary probably used their talents well. In particular, their talent is love. First of all, love of God and love of neighbor. A good example of Mary and Joseph's love for God is their faithful fulfillment of today's temple events. Forty days after the birth of their child, this traditional ceremony began through Moses. They obediently followed this Jewish church ceremony. In retrospect, unlike Adam and Eve, they offered their time to God according to His Word to fulfill His will. Joseph and Mary put aside their selfish attitudes to protect and nurture Jesus. Mary also traveled to help the elderly Elizabeth after the news of her pregnancy came without worrying about her own condition. She lived with Elizabeth for three months to help John the Baptist give birth. During this time, Joseph faithfully supported Mary's example. Unfortunately, Joseph's words are not recorded in the Bible. However, his activities are recorded. For example, he made a journey of refuge from Bethlehem to Egypt to protect the Holy Family. Then, 10 years later, he returned to Israel and raised Jesus as his own son and taught him the carpentry trade. Jesus was raised in an atmosphere of love. He studied love through the example of Mary and Joseph. And after 30 years of studying love of God and neighbor in the home of the Holy Family, He set out on a three-year journey for His own work as Savior.
My fellow Catholics, there are many lessons to be learned from this feast of the Holy Family. First, God calls us to be a family. We begin our lives in a family. We form families, either biological or in other ways. Becoming a Catholic is like being born into a new family. As Catholics, we see God the Father in heaven as our spiritual parent. Our biological parents gave us our bodies and DNA, but God gave us our souls, which contain eternal life, so we are His sons and daughters. On Sunday, we gather to praise and thank our Heavenly Father for our lives. This is the content of the First and Third Commandments of Moses. Our love and devotion to our own biological parents is rooted in the Fourth Commandment of Moses. But we are not all naive, we all know that families are not just biological creations. Real families are created by using our talents of love, trust, and sacrifice. Today's first and second readings introduce us to another famous family in biblical history, Abraham and Sarah. They had their own challenges to overcome, as did Mary and Joseph. But both families show us that with trust in God and in each other, families can survive and dreams come true. It happened to Abraham and Sarah, to Joseph and Mary, and it can happen to us if we believe that we too are important characters in this drama of human salvation.
On this last day of 2023, let us all be encouraged by the story of the Holy Family and let each of us put on our garments of love like Jesus, Mary and Joseph for the healing of hate in our wounded world. Let us look beyond the love of our individual families and the love in our Catholic Church. Let us extend our love to the dream of a family of humanity, to live together in peace and joy on this planet Earth, which is our common home. Through this beautiful feast, our Father in Heaven asks us all to live as one holy family. Thank you very much.