The Human Family's Gifts to the Baby of Bethlehem

As Christmas is here, our thoughts are directed to the Holy Family in Bethlehem. In the manger, humanity experiences God whose love for her brought Him from heaven. In the manger too, Mary feeds her son Jesus while Joseph watches on them to secure his little family. When King Herod looks to kill the new-born "king" Jesus, Joseph gets his family to escape to Egypt and live there until Herod is no longer a threat and the family is able to go back to the Holy Land. This is the Holy Family - Holy because they are for each other. 

But it is not only this family that is holy. In Christianity, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Yes God is one but how could He be love if He is alone?! From eternity God poured out Himself in love and thus begot His Son, an image of Him. God became a father when He poured out Himself and at this point He looked at his Son and experienced love. In His act of unlimited love, He emptied Himself and gave His divinity totally to His Son. The Son received His Father’s love and discovered that He has everything from His Father and He could not live without love, because life is love and nothing else but love. So the Son emptied Himself and gave all He has - all the divinity - back to the Father. Neither the Father wants the gift of divinity nor the Son wants it. Why? Because full love is giving and giving away oneself! In order to realize His fatherhood, the Father has to empty Himself - the Son, after listening to the love whispering in Him, gives back His filial love to His Father. This dynamic force of love that pushes the Father to love and the Son to return His Father’s love with love is the Holy Spirit. In true faith, this dynamic movement of love continues from eternity to eternity. The Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the eternal Holy Family in one God...

How far is the typical family today from the Holy Family? While the ancients regarded childlessness a curse, today abortion of unwanted children in the womb is easily obtained. Today, individualism, not individuality, stresses selfishness and facilitates divorce between married couples.  Some TV shows of entertainment often encourage the sensual instincts which can in turn enslave men to their sexual desires of possessiveness rather than faithfulness to their spouses. Prostitution, the oldest industry in history, has become popular and attractive for the money it brings thanks to the superficial media accessible by every person. Education of children and teenagers is no longer based on the moral requirement of virtue.  In Ontario, Canada, the Liberal Government has added this year a curriculum of sex education for teenager students that angered many faithful parents since it contains such practices as emphasizing "the importance of consent and discussions (between students) about delaying or abstaining from any genital contact including vaginal, oral or anal intercourse." ! But who am I to judge anyone? Pope Francis gave us the example of finding the good in the human family and investing our energy in making our society and the world a better place to live in. He follows the Gospel of Jesus Christ who says "Love your enemies". It is for the revival of the Christian family including her estranged members that Pope Francis had the Synod on the family held earlier this year in Rome.  We are also aware that in our society today, excessive materialist consumerism has spread everywhere and, because of the greed in profits by  large business in global outsourcing, it most recently caused difficulties to middle-class families thus almost eclipsing society into two layers: a very small minority of very rich people and a large majority of poor people. The hardship of the family is no longer limited to raising well-educated and morally upright children, but rather the social failure of these children in finding jobs for which they studied and graduated after spending much money, often with their parents help. As a response to such difficulties facing families, the building of a just and equitable social order is best achieved in the distribution of wealth that would avoid a "revolution of the hungry". Christian families need to grow, and grow in love. The family whose members have a bit of time for each other can make a difference in understanding the needs and responding to them in a responsible way. Parents need to communicate constantly with each other and with their children, but above all they can be good examples for the new generations. In weekends family members have the opportunity to eat together, talk together, play together and pray together. Indeed in every parish, families can support each other and the community in every field because love is creative.This is the beauty of the family. It is the role, not of celibate bishops and priests, but of every Christian family. 

In the world, the Christian family of Churches faces more persecution. In the West, materialism and atheism pervade society and challenge Christian morality. In a recent symposium, Cardinal Thomas Collins made it clear how the courts in Canada challenge Christian morality.  The above influences Christian individuals and families to lose their faith. In the Near East, Islamic extremism has caused untold suffering to Christian families that the Christian family presence in the Middle East is threatened like never before. The Knights of Columbus (especially at Jesus the King Church), among others, are helping vulnerable families in Syria, Iraq, and the Holy Land through sponsoring and transferring donations from North America. As terrorism reached Africa, Europe and North America it became urgent that Christian families become reunited and rise over the above threats which would inspire Bishops of all Churches in East and West to work together for the renewal and fullness of Christian unity in the Triune God. 

Today everyone must be concerned about the larger family; the human family. As the Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis starts, let us think of the vulnerable, the needy, and poor and share with them generously of what we have.  Let us ask the God of love to forgive us our sins, and help every one, near and far including extremists, realize the true joy that is Christ. Christ is the light of nations and the blessing of the poor. He will enrich the hungry and bring peace to the fighting nations if we only believe and act on faith!

This Christmas, what gifts can we give to the baby of Bethlehem? In his inauguration, Saint Pope John Paul II said "Open your doors to Christ". Indeed, every person, every family, and every parish needs to open their/our doors to Him who took the risk to become one of us in order to save us.