Homily For Holy Family Sunday

FAMILY IS EVERYTHING
Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the gift of Family. Family is not just something
important, but family is everything. From my family I can get all I need; I can attain my path
to sainthood. Unfortunately, many homes are very very wounded today, such that we cannot
even picture our homes as our everything.
- The Doctrine of the Family
a.
b. Marriage is a “memorial, a vocation and prophecy.”
Meaning, as a memorial, husband and wife, in the sacrament of marriage, have the
honour and purpose of memorializing the magnificent labours of Christ by their daily
humble and selfless sacrifice in caring for their offspring. As a vocation they are called
to be exemplars of Christ’s love and forgiveness to one another and to their children
throughout their entire lives. As prophecy, they have the honourable task of embodying
and revealing, with reverence and commitment to one another and their offspring that
Christ is the way, truth and light and through Him alone can one receive eternal
communion with God. All these are linked to the Priestly (Memorial), Kingly (Vocation)
and Prophetic (Prophesy) role of Christ. Mary and Joseph went through all of these. “A
sword would pierce your soul too.” They went through many sufferings and hurdles in
taking care of the infant. They lived their lives as a perfect vocation. They taught the
child all he needed to know in order to save the world “He grew and became strong,
filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was with Him.”
c. The Significance of Fatherhood and Motherhood.
FATHERHOOD: The absence of a father causes psychological and moral imbalance
and notable difficulties in family relationships, …” Fatherhood is indeed a vital ministry
to the integrity and growth of the family and its communion. Fathers ought to be
unconditional in their acts of love towards their children daily. All fathers are called to
be involved in the spiritual, emotional and physical development of the entire family.
Furthermore, fathers must complement the significant role that the mother of his children
has in nurturing and loving them at a young age. He does so by engaging them in the
moral and doctrinal truths of the Church as their intellect develops with age.
If more catholic fathers did this, it would likely result in a faith-filled growth of the
entire family, as well as, create a stronger and more robust relationship between fathers
and their child(ren). For instance, if a father did not spend quality time building his
communion with each his children, there is a likelihood that those children will grow
into adulthood believing there exists no significance in the vocation of fatherhood. His
place is not simply to provide bread for the family to consume but to inspire his wife and
children to consume the Bread of Everlasting Life in both their hearts and bodies.
MOTHERHOOD: In an equally unique and complementary way, motherhood
embraces the attributes of the Church. From the early days of her children’s infancy and
throughout their adulthood her role is to remain vigilant in keeping wide the doors of
her heart when her children need her. Even when they do not know or can accept it.
She may have assisted or is currently assisting in providing financial stability to assist in
meeting the needs of the family, such as providing food, clothing and shelter for the
family, but her task of comforting the hearts of her family never ends. Even as her
children beget their own children, her role is a spiritual one that promotes and extends
peace and love.
THE MATHEMATICS OF FAMILY LIFE: WHATEVER THE FATHER GIVES
THE MOTHER OF THE HOME, SHE MULTIPLIES IT OVER AND OVER
The whole mystery of Childbirth demonstrates this; the husband gave her just a cell,
and she multiplied it over and over and formed a baby.
In the same manner,
 If you give her love she would multiply it to affection and
passion
 If you give her patience, she would multiply it to tolerance and
endurance.
 If you give her fidelity, she would raise it up to loyalty and
trustworthiness.
 But if you give anger, you get fury, acrimony, hostility
 If you give meanness, you get cruelty
 If you give selfishness, you get self-centredness
- The Family and Upbringing of Children
o Children become the grass that suffers when two elephants fight. The
enjoy or the suffer from the product of the mathematics of their parents. When
the mother multiplies the father’s love to affection and passion, the Children
share it among themselves. Just as the share the tolerance, endurance, loyalty
and trustworthiness of their mother. But if the father gives anger, meanness
and selfishness, they share the hostility, fury, acrimony, cruelty and self-
centeredness of their mother.
CHILDREN LEARN MORE FROM WHAT YOU ARE THAN FROM WHAT YOU TEACH
o All Children Belong to God (Cf. Abraham and Isaac, Hannah and
Samuel). They are not like our pigs and goats that we invest in. Treat them
well and give them back to God.
o Educating the Children about Social Life: Mothers take time to teach
especially your girl children about social life. If not, they would learn it
from social media, from bad friends, from bad boys. Don’t hand over your
responsibility to the bad people of the world to do it for you.
- The Family and Society
- Some Crises in Family Life today
o Developmental Crisis: Every family must change as their youngster
approaches puberty. To become mature adults, teens must gradually get more
practice in making decisions.
o A structural crisis: occurs when the family resists changing to meet the
demands of a developmental or “out of the blue” crisis. Being unable to
change can aggravate existing conflict and can lead to many actions that harm
you or other family members. Examples include cheating on one’s partner,
feeling suicidal, drinking too much (alcoholism), physical and sexual abuse,
drug use and divorce.
- Possible Solutions to Family Problems
o Don’t blame
o Be patient
o Pray always

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FAMILY IS EVERYTHING

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