Feast of the Holy Family:

1. The stable unit of our society is the family. It is also the strongest unit of society. During the sixteen and seventeenth centuries villages were raided in Africa and people were sold as slaves for plantations in North and South America. The slave owners realised that the two strongest urges of the human being was the urge for food and the urge for sex. Without food man would die, without sex, the human race would end.

Food they would provide, but the urge to continue the human race, would only be permitted if the spouse or partner was from another plantation. Even the slave owners knew that if the family was allowed to bond as a unit, they would soon overthrow the terrible curse of slavery.

2. Today, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, a feast which brings blessings on the most stable and strongest building block of our society. The definition of a family has radically changed. Until the middle of the last century, a family was mother and father and children. Today we do have many families that fit this description, but we have equally large number of families that do not.

• The single parent family
• The elderly couple
• The dinks family: double income, no kids. Men and women who are career oriented and for whom children are not a part of the family.
• The dysfunctional family - There is chaos in the family, one of the spouses is either in jail, or depressed or does not play any part in the family, the children are abused, or neglected, they are on welfare, they do not have a fixed address, they need social assistance or help from the church community.

All these make up our society today, and all celebrated the fact that God has shown his love in a concrete way in the person of Jesus who lives with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth and is obedient and loving towards them.

3. The seven or eight characters introduced to us in the readings today all fit into the new description of what a family is in 2008. We have the elderly couple: Abraham and Sarah, who are childless. We have Simeon and Anna the two prophets. Simeon a priest, but his family is not mentioned. Anna is a widow. And the family of Jesus?

In some of the first world countries, they would be described as dysfunctional.

The mother is pregnant before marriage

The child is not born in a proper environment – born in a manger.

The parents have no fixed address. They live somewhere in Bethlehem

The child is in danger of its life, and the parents have to flee to another country

The family become refugees.

The child in the family is lost at the age of twelve, not for a couple of hours but 3 days.

However, we know we cannot judge by external criteria. We call them the Holy Family, because a God who is both unseen and all powerful, decides to come and live among us as a visible baby and totally vulnerable to all those around him. So what is the purpose of this feast and what is theme of our celebration? The two prophets Simeon and Anna give us the answer. This child says Simeon will be a light to the Gentiles and a glory to Israel. In a word, we celebrate God’s invitation to be a part of one united and Holy family – and this goes in a special way to the very people who are most at war with each other.

Jesus being a Jew was the Son of Abraham, but because of the prophecy, he was the Son of Abraham for all those who consider Abraham a holy man, and the father of their nation. It means those invited to be a part of the family are

the Jews who consider Abraham the father of all nations

the Muslims who also call Abraham their father

the Christians whose ancestors are the Jews, and who call Abraham their father in faith.

< span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif;">

Andre Rieu the famous Dutch violinists and musician in his televised musical shows has said over and over again, that if everyone made music, there would a lot of joy and laughter – and we would put our differences aside, we would be one and there would be peace. That may be true, but it would only last for as long the music played. The late John Paul II said on Jan 1, 2003, that if there was to be peace in the world, it would have to be with justice, and for real justice there had to be forgiveness.

WE continue to strive to achieve a family which has been traditional for so many centuries: father, mother and children. But we are also open to o ther family types who journey with us in faith.

The single parent family where the parent tries very hard to provide food, clothing and shelter and also the spiritual dimension to the life of the children all alone.

There also so many others who bond together not by blood but by common interest: prayer, animal right activists, environmentalists, struggle for justice for the unborn, the poor, the voiceless. Many of these have bonded together in small groups especially when their spouses or family are not sympathetic or even hostile to their inner convictions and vocation.

They have Simeon who waited patiently for years only to see and hold the Messiah even though he was only a baby.

We have Anna who spent a golden jubilee and then some in the temple waiting for the Messiah.

We have Abraham, realising that what was humanly beyond hope, was possible because of faith he had in a God who kept promises. We are his family today, more numerous than the stars in the heaven and sand on the shore.

As the echoes of the Christmas carols become faint,

As we wrap up the tinsel and wrapping paper of the gifts

As we prepare for the New Year celebration bash

We must be faced with the reality that we all live in a family which ever way you choose to describe it. There are sorrows, and crosses – Abraham and Sarah, Simeon and Anna had these, Mary would ponder them in her heart, and Jesus would finally die on one. But that was not the end. There was an overwhelming peace and joy at the end. It would the same one the angels announced to the Shepherds in Bethlehem, a joy to people on whom God’s favour rested: You and me.