Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
1. Is giving honor to our parents the same as giving gratitude to God?
2. Sunday’s feast celebrates not only the Holy Family––Jesus, Mary and Joseph––but also the Christmas family of God that we all become. Does God’s love for someone help you to love that person?
Second Reading
Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17
1. “Over all these put on love.” What is the only thing God asks of us? What happens to people when they are loved? What kinds of things would disappear off the face of the earth because they wouldn’t be necessary if everyone loved his/her neighbor?
2. In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul gives some ideas about how we can love each other and live in harmony. Having compassion, kindness, humility, patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other––is this easy? How are you doing with these things in your life? How are we as Church doing with them?
Gospel
Luke 2:41-52
1. “Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Today are many refugees and immigrants experiencing this kind of anxiety? Is there anything you can do to help?
2. For the Feast of the Holy Family, Pope Francis points out that Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple. How could that idea help in our search for him and release from anxiety?
That anxiety that they experienced in the three days that Jesus was missing should also be our anxiety when we are distant from him, when we are distant from Jesus. …. And many times, days pass in which we do not remember Jesus. … We should feel anxious when such things happen. Mary and Joseph searched for him and found him in the temple while he was teaching: for us too, it is especially in the house of God that we are able to encounter the divine Teacher and receive his message of salvation.
In the Eucharistic celebration we have a living experience of Christ; he speaks to us; he offers us his Word; he illuminates us, lights our path, gives us his Body in the Eucharist from which we draw vigor to face everyday difficulties.
Feast of the Holy Family
Sunday, December 30, 2018