Archive for December 28, 2019
Saving Family: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Feast of the Holy Family
Readings:
Sirach 3:2–6, 12–14
Psalm 128:1–5
Colossians 3:12–21
Matthew 2:13–15, 19–23
Underlying the wisdom offered in today’s liturgy is the mystery of the family in God’s divine plan.
The Lord has set father in honor over his children and mother in authority over her sons, we hear in today’s First Reading. As we sing in today’s Psalm, the blessings of the family flow from Zion, the heavenly mother of the royal people of God (see Isaiah 66:7, 10–13; Galatians 4:26).
And in the drama of today’s Gospel, we see the nucleus of the new people of God—the Holy Family—facing persecution from those who would seek to destroy the child and His Kingdom.
Moses, called to save God’s first born son, the people of Israel (see Exodus 4:22; Sirach 36:11), was also threatened at birth by a mad and jealous tyrant (see Exodus 1:15–16). And as Moses was saved by his mother and sister (see Exodus 2:1–10; 4:19), in God’s plan Jesus too is rescued by His family.
As once God took the family of Jacob down to Egypt to make them the great nation Israel (see Genesis 46:2–4), God leads the Holy Family to Egypt to prepare the coming of the new Israel of God—the Church (see Galatians 6:16).
At the beginning of the world, God established the family in the “marriage” of Adam and Eve, the two becoming one body (see Genesis 2:22–24). Now in the new creation, Christ is made “one body” with His bride, the Church, as today’s Epistle indicates (see Ephesians 5:21–32).
By this union we are made God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. And our families are to radiate the perfect love that binds us to Christ in the Church.
As we approach the altar on this feast, let us renew our commitment to our God-given duties as spouses, children and parents. Mindful of the promises of today’s First Reading, let us offer our quiet performance of these duties for the atonement of our sins.
As we gather in Jesus’s name….
Posted: December 28, 2019 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections, Photos
On Today’s Gospel
Posted: December 28, 2019 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & ReflectionsTags: Catholicjules.net, holiness, holy innocencents
Today as we remember the tiny Martyrs who died in place of our Lord Jesus Christ, we reflect on our own call to live out of lives as children of God our Father.
We are all called to holiness, to live in the light of Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore we must make every effort to avoid sin and all temptations that leads to it. If we should fall then we should quickly turn to Jesus whose mercy ave have will heal and restore to its. For to live in sin is to die is to die in sin.
To truly live is to die and rise in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
First reading
1 John 1:5-2:2 ·
The blood of Jesus Christ purifies us all from sin
This is what we have heard from Jesus Christ, and the message that we are announcing to you:
God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.
If we say that we are in union with God while we are living in darkness, we are lying because we are not living the truth. But if we live our lives in the light, as he is in the light, we are in union with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves
and refusing to admit the truth; but if we acknowledge our sins, then God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us
from everything that is wrong. To say that we have never sinned is to call God a liar and to show that his word is not in us.
I am writing this, my children, to stop you sinning; but if anyone should sin, we have our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is just; he is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours but the whole world’s.
Gospel
Matthew 2:13-18
The massacre of the innocents
After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
I called my son out of Egypt.
Herod was furious when he realised that he had been outwitted by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or under, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. It was then that the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting: it was Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they were no more.
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