Daily Reflection – Dec 27, 2015
Sunday 27 December 2015
First Reading: 1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
Psalm Response:
How happy they who dwell in your house, O Lord
Psalm 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10
Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24
Gospel Reading: Luke 2:41-52
Today’s Feast: The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Gospel Reading:
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor
before God and man.
Reflection:
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.
Indeed, what love! But what calling too! Not a calling to serve blindly as a servant might, not a calling to be subdued as a slave, but a calling to be sons! A calling to let love, and not fear or duty, be our strength and reason to strive for the Father’s way.
What love! It is a love that gives us freedom to waver, to fail and wander. A love that welcomes doubt and misunderstanding. A love somewhat like that of the Holy Family: patient through doubts and fears, understanding through reproaches, steadfast in adversity. A love that would not abandon the cross, a love that rejoiced in resurrection, a love that trusted, that protected in danger. The love of a family.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be part of the Holy Family! Let us, then, live to the challenge of immersing ourselves in this love that we, too, may grow to resemble our Father.
