WHAT MAKES A HOUSE A HOME

Feast of the Holy Family
Lk 2:22-40

The family is the door through which we enter into human history. The same door, the Lord passed through to reach us. By becoming part of a human family, Jesus sanctified all families.

But what has become of many of our families today?

The family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is called “The Holy Family”. What makes their family holy? Jesus, the Son of God, makes the union of Mary and Joseph holy.

Is Jesus really in our families? If He is, how does He count: a guest or the head?

Our families today suffer from various attacks on all sides. Abortion, divorce, same sex marriages are but three of the realities that run counter to our professed belief that the family is sacred. Hedonistic values that permeate mass media nowadays are gradually but surely eroding family ethics. As a result, the family is rendered an accident rather than essence of coming into life.

Let us pray for our families. Let us work together to defend and promote the sanctity of family life. Let us keep Jesus in our families. Let us have holy families like the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Three “P’s” for a holy family:

Pray together. Have we not heard enough: “The family that prays together stays together”?

Play together. Do good things together, things that are worthwhile and yet at the same time enjoyable.

Persevere together. Never quit and never give any member of the family even a single reason to break the bond of charity that exists in the home.

Praying together, playing together, and persevering together may not make families wealthy and famous. But they certainly produce holy families. If given a choice between wealth and holiness, choose holiness. It made to decide between having a famous family and a holy family, opt having a family that is holy. Since holiness is the perfection of charity, a holy family is a family where real love reigns. And it is love, not wealth nor fame, which makes a house a home.