BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (#5)

 Christmas Day - Year B

 

“A Family Journeying in Faith” 

Bible READINGS

Gen 15:1-6; 21:1-3 // Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 // Lk 2:22-40

I . BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

The traditional “Noche Buena” or Christmas midnight meal of our family that year of 1966 was unforgettable. A week earlier my father was subjected to an exploratory operation by a medical team in Manila and was diagnosed with advance cancer of the liver. The situation of my father was so bad and the risk of bleeding so high that they could not even perform a biopsy.  My mother was told that, at most, he would have only three months to live. The cloud of sorrow hung over each one of us as we partook of the Christmas meal, with the much loved “pater familias” notably absent. My father came home from hospital on December 28, a few days before my birthday. As the veil of sadness fell on our family that Christmas holiday, we embarked on a journey of faith and dedicated ourselves to a ministry of prayer for the healing of my father. Fortunately, we were strengthened by the compassion of relatives and friends who supported us morally, spiritually and financially. Seven months later, my father, who had lost 50 pounds and was experiencing terrible discomfort and itchiness from head to foot, was brought to another hospital where he was subjected to a second exploratory operation. To the surprise of the medical team, they discovered that my father’s malady was tuberculosis of the liver, and not cancer. The biopsy confirmed the doctors’ finding. My father was given the proper medication and he lived for thirty more years. When he died on August 31, 1997 he was fulfilled and blessed like father Abraham, the man of faith. Indeed, our family’s journey of faith evokes the pilgrimage of faith of Israel’s first family: Abraham, Sarah and Isaac and that of the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The feast of the Holy Family is part of the Christmas festivity, when family members and loved ones come together to celebrate the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. On this day we not only celebrate the creation of the Holy Family at the birth of Jesus, but also recall its inspiring journey of faith. Indeed, the shadow of the cross fell across the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as they traveled on the road of faith.

The Holy Family’s faith journey has a remarkable antecedent in Israel’s first family of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. In the first reading (Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3), the Genesis story narrates the fascinating dialogue between the Lord God and Abram. God promised a very great reward to Abram whom he had called from his own country into a new land that was to be his inheritance. The divine promise was to make him the father of a great nation. Abram, however, manifested his concern that for lack of offspring, a servant in his household would become his heir. The Lord God assured him that he would have a son and that the steward of his house, Eliezer would not be his heir. God reinforced his promise to him. Taking him outside, he said: “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so shall your descendants be.” The author of the Genesis story then made a powerful declaration: “Abram put his faith in the Lord.” The text of the Old Testament reading proclaimed in the Sunday liturgy skips across six chapters towards the fulfillment of the promise in the birth of Isaac (Gn 21-1-3). It would be good, however, to recall an intervening event in which the Lord God gave Abram a new name: “You shall no longer be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I will make you father of a multitude of nations. I will make you most fruitful. I will make you into nations, and your issue shall be kings” (Gn 17:5-6). Abraham thus became the father of the son of promise, Isaac, whose name could be translated “God laughed” to show the wonder and joy brought about by the divine favor. At the birth of Isaac, Sarah exclaimed: “God has given me cause to laugh; all those who hear of it will laugh with me. Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children! Yet I have borne him a child in his old age” (Gn 21:7).

The second reading (Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19) is an excerpt from a litany praising the faith of Israel’s ancestors. It delineates in a climactic way the ongoing faith response of the patriarch Abraham: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance... By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age and Sarah herself was sterile... By faith Abraham offered up Isaac his only son.” Abraham’s supreme and most radical faith response was his obedience to the paradoxical command to offer his only son Isaac in sacrifice. He trusted the Lord God completely. According to the letter to the Hebrews, Abraham believed that God would be able to raise even from the dead and that “he received Isaac back as a symbol”. Scripture scholars explain that Isaac’s deliverance from death is seen as a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection. Indeed, Abraham’s total faith and reliance upon Yahweh became a source of salvation for the family of nations through the generation of a messianic descendant, Jesus Christ, the Savior of all.

In the Gospel narrative (Lk 2:22-40), the evangelist Luke portrayed the Holy Family as observant Jews fulfilling the prescriptions of the religious laws regarding the presentation of the first-born to the Lord. The Book of Exodus required the presentation and the redemption of first-born sons who belong to the Lord. Indeed, they were his own, for it was he who saved the first-born of the household of Israel from the angel of destruction who “passed over” them on the night of the last plague in Egypt (Ex 13:15). Moreover, Luke entwined the ceremony of the purification with that of the presentation of the first-born. The book of Leviticus described the ceremony for the ritual purification of the mother forty days after giving birth (Lev 12:1-8). On this occasion she was to offer a lamb and a pigeon or a turtledove, but the poor were permitted to bring only two pigeons or doves which were officially called “the offering of the poor”. According to the new edition of the Jerome Biblical Commentary, “that this is what Joseph and Mary offered indicates that the Savior was born into a home where there were no luxuries, a home where members knew it was to lack the essential, basic things of life, a home where every cent counts.” The journey of faith of the Holy Family includes trust in the providence of God who “feeds the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty” (Lk 1:53).

At the presentation in the temple, the infant Jesus would receive a more official recognition as the promised Savior of Israel. Open the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Simeon whose name means “God has heard” and the prophetess Anna whose name means “grace, favor” embodied the humble waiting of Israel for the revelation of God’s salvation.  At the presentation in the temple, Jesus was recognized by Simeon as the Anointed of the Lord.  Simeon proclaimed, moreover, in his “Nunc Dimittes” canticle that Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”  After blessing God who had given him the grace to see with his own eyes the salvation prepared for all the nations, Simeon blessed the child’s parents.  He then foretold to Mary that the prepared for all the nations, Simeon blessed the child’s parents.  He then foretold to Mary that the child would be “a sign of contradiction” so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed.  He also warned Mary that her own soul would be pierced by a sword.  The Collegeville Biblical Commentary remarks:  “With these two utterances of Simeon, we are given a foreshadowing of the universal salvation that will be proclaimed in Jesus and of the necessity of suffering in the mission of this Messiah…  The later followers of Jesus are not to be surprised that suffering is encountered in their pursuit of a Gospel life.  Even families and friendships will be broken up as ‘the thoughts of many hearts’ are laid bare, because the peace Jesus brings will not be a counterfeit covering secret divisions.”

As part of the Christmas mystery, the feast of the Holy Family helps us to contemplate the faith experience of persons who are influential models for all families today.  The journey of faith of the Holy Family would reach its climax in the paschal mystery.  According to Carlo Carretto, “God didn’t soften the path of those whom he put beside his Son.  He asked of them a faith so pure and uncompromising.”  Indeed, the life of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph – and prefigured by Israel’s first family: Abraham, Sarah and Isaac – is a paradigm of what it means to journey in faith today.

 II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

bullet A. In our personal journey and as members of a natural family and the community of believers, do we respond with faith to God’s saving plan for us?  Do we look to the Holy Family as a paradigm of what it means to journey in faith today?
bullet B. In the family of Mary and Joseph, where Jesus was nourished and formed, all human families find their meaning and destiny.  In a home where a family dwells, united in faith, hope and love, there God dwells also.  Do we strive to make our own natural family a cradle of faith, hope and love?
bullet C. The Christian family is both the cradle of the Church and its image in miniature.  Do we try to make our family relationship a limpid witness of what the Church should be and could become?

 III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD 

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(A prayer by Carlo Caretto, cf. Letters from the Desert, 144-146)

Mary and Joseph, you it its who are masters of faith, perfect examples to inspire us, correct our course, and support our weakness.

Just as you were beside Jesus, you are still beside us to accompany us to eternal life, to teach us to be small and poor in our work, humble and hidden in life, courageous in trial, faithful in prayer, and ardent in love.

And when the hour of our death comes and dawn rise over our friendly night, our eyes, as they scan the sky, may pick out the same star that was in your sky when Jesus came upon earth.

IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD

The following sacred text is a living word to nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it. 

“My eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all the people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” (Lk 2:30-32)

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

bullet ACTION PLAN A: Offer the Lord a prayer of thanksgiving for all the benefits you have received through family life.
bullet  ACTION PLAN B: (The following action plan to improve the quality of family life was proposed by Larry Riojas and Mary Jane Riojas, a couple from St. Mary’s Catholic parish in Fresno, California.) 

Families do not spend enough time-sharing meals together. Please choose at least one meal per week. Turn off the TV and have everyone sit down together at table. Start the meal with a short prayer. Anyone in the family can lead. After the meal, open a dialogue starting with 5-10 minutes of discussion using one of the five suggestions below, or any of your own.

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SUGGESTIONS:

1.      Did you have a good or a bad day today? Why?

2.      What are you thinking about?

3.      Would you like to ______?

4.      Tell as many things you can that start with the letter “C”.

5.   What would you like to do after Mass the next time we go?

 

Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM

SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
Tel. (718) 494-8597 or (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US

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