Dec. 29, 2019: Holy Family A
Dec. 29, 2019: Holy Family A
How often does an average American family move? According to the data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average person in the United States moves residences more than 11 times in his or her lifetime. Sometimes a family has to uproot and move to a different town or even a foreign country to seek a better life, to escape poverty or to avoid threats to life. Uprooting involves much sacrifice and hardships; a family may lose livelihood, familiar surroundings and connections to friends and extended family.
It was in 1984 when my parents sold their home and pharmacy business in Seoul, South Korea to immigrate to the United States. They reduced all their possessions down to eight large bags each the size of a 55-gallon trash can and boarded an airplane from Seoul to Los Angeles. After arriving at LAX (airport), my dad called his college friend who was living in Orange County to come pick us up. When the friend arrived at the airport, he froze at the sight of eight oversized bags that he thought would be impossible to fit in his station wagon. We managed to load and tie four bags on the top of the wagon and then squeezed the other four bags inside his wagon. As we slowly crawled along on the LA highway, we looked like we were riding on a loaded Beverly Hillbillies truck. When we arrived at his home, the first items that we unpacked were a crucifix and a small statue of Blessed Mother from our old home. My parents left South Korea with a dream that they would have a better life for themselves and for my sister and me. At times, unfamiliar language and unexpected circumstances cast doubt on my parents’ mind whether they had made the right decision to come to a foreign country. Yet, the familiar sight of Our Lord and Blessed Mother was comfort and assurance to our family that God was with us on our journey.
We cannot fathom what went through the mind of St. Joseph when he was warned in a dream to pack up what they had in Bethlehem and quickly relocate his wife Mary and son Jesus to Egypt, a foreign country 300 miles journey across a desert. Where will we live? How will we make a living? Can we make the dangerous and exhausting trip across the desert? Those were perhaps some of the thoughts that St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother pondered. While this was the holiest of families, they had more than their share of earth’s troubles and cares. It was God’s plan for His Son Jesus to be born into the poor, lowly, and humble family of Joseph and Mary, and they will forever serve as a model and encouragement for earthly families. While they appeared to be lowly and poor, the Holy Family had everything necessary to be a happy family--faith, mutual love, and peace. Pope Francis, reflecting on the Holy Family said, “Jesus wanted to belong to a family who experienced these hardships, so that no one would feel excluded from the loving closeness of God. The flight into Egypt caused by Herod’s threat shows us that God is present where man is in danger, where man is suffering, where he is fleeing, where he experiences rejection and abandonment; but God is also present where man dreams, where he hopes to return in freedom to his homeland and plans and chooses life for his family and dignity for himself and his loved ones.”
Our own families experience both joys and hardships as we do our best to juggle responsibilities of work, paying bills, and busy schedules. While we would rather skip hardships, it’s part and parcel of life. In fact, hardships can bring us closer to God. When we face the hardships of family life with prayer, trust, and perseverance, we grow in charity and virtues. Peace in the family is not a result of happenstance; it is the fruit of small acts of love. St. Paul wrote, “Put on, as God’s chosen ones… heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another… and over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection… Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...And whatever you do...do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Today we gaze on the Holy Family to learn how to live simply, to face hardships with faith, to treat each other with tenderness and mutual forgiveness. Our own family can become a place of joy and refuge if we intentionally strive to put prayer and mutual love at the heart of the family life. As we welcome the New Year with hope for a year of peace for our family, what concrete resolutions can we make to become a holy family? Do we work at being more patient with our children or spouse. Do we need to rebalance where we spend our time? Has work or pursuit of possessions overtaken gratitude for what we already have? The Holy Family is teaching us that the joy of family is a gift given by God, and we are responsible for gently opening the gift and sharing it wisely.
