From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Family:

Last Thursday we celebrated the joyful birth of Our Lord. God became man, so that we could share in His own divine life. But before we can share His divine life, He shares in our human life. And to share in human life is to live in family life and to experience, for better and for worse, the close interaction between people; to experience the joys and the sorrows of family living. Jesus, in His family with Mary and Joseph, experiences the full range of family life. And it t is within the context of His family life that, “the child Jesus grew to maturity, and He was filled with wisdom and God's favor was with Him” (Lk 2:40). The family is the place where faith in God is to be nurtured.

We come from different families, and our family backgrounds shaped us through the years. Jesus came from a family, and we celebrate his family every first Sunday after Christmas.

As we celebrate the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, let us reflect on the sanctity of the family and the challenges of building a holy family. Obviously, there are so many definitions of family in the modern world and some of these definitions are a far cry from the traditional and Christian understanding of family. Broadly speaking a family is a group of people who are related to each other. The Church defines family as “A divinely instituted community of persons made of husband, wife, children and relatives open to life in love.”

In a special way we celebrate the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, popularly known as the Holy Family because they serve as a role model for Christian families and provide a portrait of how a Christian family should look. Joseph cared for Mary during the period of her pregnancy even when he knew he was not responsible for her pregnancy; together, Joseph and Mary took the infant Jesus to the temple for dedication; they had many difficult moments as a family. One of these challenging moments was Herod threatening to kill the infant Jesus. Herod was determined to eliminate him and so they had to flee at night to Egypt for safety (Matthew 2:13-15). This must have been a tough experience for this young couple. This action of Joseph and Mary goes a long way in saying that a child’s upbringing is a collaborative effort of their parents.

Joseph loved Mary and Mary respected Joseph, and the child Jesus was obedient to his parents. St. Paul wishes that all families imitate the love of Joseph and Mary and so the Apostle advises families: “Wives, be subject to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged” (Colossians 3:19-21).

The family is the first institution set aside by God in order to foster mutual love, respect and understanding (Lk 2:24). The family is the primordial institution where the rejected, unloved, sick, aged, dejected, unlovable, depressed, and downtrodden should get reassurances of hope, care and love. That is why, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, Pope St John Paul II, establishing the primacy and importance of the family, says, “As the family goes, so goes the nation, so goes the world in which we live.”

All families desire to be peaceful, loving and happy. However, in modern society there are common family challenges that can mitigate the flow of happiness and peace. Among these challenges are:

Financial Problems: This problem can come in various ways such as lack of sufficient money for the upkeep of the family; lack of transparency and openness about savings, income and investments; stinginess; reckless spending and lack of financial budgeting and planning. In traditional society, the man is responsible for all financial transactions, including the payment of bills for housing, clothes, fees, etc. and the woman is responsible for all domestic chores. However, in modern society where many women are working, there is a paradigm shift as husband and wife share the bills and domestic chores according to the strength of each.

Leadership Problems: The father is naturally the head of the house. St. Paul advises women to respect their husbands as they respect the Lord and to husbands, he says, “Love your wives as Christ loved the Church” (Ephesians 5:24-25). Cases abound where fathers abdicate their responsibilities of caring for their families. A father is supposed to play the role of a shepherd or even pastor of his family, leading them in prayer and bringing them to the knowledge of the faith. Generally, husband and wife complement each other in the building their family.

Upbringing of Children: The Church says the “Primary role of parents is not just to pass genes unto their children, but also to bring them up in every aspect of life in the society.” These aspects of life include providing the children with adequate opportunities for civic and religious education. Some parents are willing to send their children to qualitative civic schools to obtain good education, but do not care much about the religious upbringing of their children. Furthermore, there are children today who are passing through difficulties because they have lost their parents and are entrusted to foster parents. Some foster parents make good efforts to bring up these children well. In some family homes foster children are treated as slaves and as second-class children.

Honoring Parents: Often, we hear people say that Father and Mother took care of several children and years later, several children are unable to take care of Father and Mother. The book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) advises Children to honor their parents. These words from Sirach re-echo that of the commandment of God in the book of Exodus: “Honor your Father and Mother so that your days may be long in the land the Lord is giving you” (20:12). Showing honor to parents means expressing love towards them and maintaining a close relationship. We honor them when we forgive them for the mistakes they made in bringing us up, knowing that there are no perfect parents; seeking their wisdom; respecting them privately and publicly; speaking well of them whether they are alive or dead; and supporting them emotionally, physically and financially.

We need to remember that the presence of Jesus makes the Nazareth family Holy. So, it takes the presence of Jesus to make our families holy. We can attract Christ’s presence by making our homes domestic churches. According to the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, “The family is, so to speak, the domestic church” (Lumen Gentium #11). This means that it is in the context of the family that we first learn who Jesus is and to prayerfully seek His will for us. As we celebrate the Holy Family today, let us strive to build God-centered families where God takes precedence and where peace, love and happiness reign.

May the example of Joseph, Mary and Jesus as a family makes us be One Body, One Spirit, One Family! Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, St. José Gregorio Hernández, Pope Saint Pius X, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Charbel, pray for us.

Happy New Year 2026!
Fr. Omar