Without an understanding and a love of the Holy family, we cannot have an understanding and a love of Jesus Christ.
As happens even to this day the child Jesus fully God and fully human, wandered away from His parents each thinking he was with the other. Imagine how worried would the parents of our own time be, with our kidnappings and amber alerts, we are alot more concerned with children as a society than were people in Jesus's day this must have added to the Holy parents' concern about the disappearance of Jesus. Then added to what we know of the slaughter of the innocents, a boy of Jesus's age must have stuck out like a sore thumb. Thus, adding even more to the parent's concern. These two factors may likely have played a role in Jesus returning home with his parents until his age of 30, when his ministry began.
The mystery of the holy family is so rich it is hard to know where to start. I am getting the mustard seen effect -- the more I mediate on this mystery the richer, broader and deeper it becomes until what appears small and simple at first could take a whole book, nigh volumes to fully explore.
There is the very distinct difference between Jesus and Mary, and St. Joseph. Because while Jesus and Mary were born without original sin, St. Joseph was born with original sin. So, to be near Jesus, he had to have been and extraordinary man, completely sanctified in the Jewish faith, and though with the stain of original sin, there being no baptism yet, he had to be free from other mortal sin in order to be that close to God to have held Jesus in his arms and not be struck dead. He was obviously given the special graces to attain this mostly sinlessness, and must have practiced his Jewish faith precisely, in order for Jesus to have chosen him as a step father from beginning of time.
St. Joseph was also repsonsible for providing the temporal needs and the religious education of Jesus, althg we can see from the day's gosple that Jesus needed no instruction, and that St. Joseph probably benefited more from the relationship and from the teaching of Jesus than the Saint's own knowledge however perfect that might have been.
St. Joseph was also responsible for teaching Jesus a trade. or that pf building and fixing wooden objects, a humble trade, even more so at the time of Jesus than in our own time.
And so here was St. Joseph, not exempt from original sin, given special graces, working at a humble trade, not wealthy devout in his obedience to his Jewish faith and example in moth areas to the human nature of his Son, God almighty, benefiting from the extra graces given him, and yet susceptible to all the temptations we as men have. The perfect model of the Father in the home, and reminiscent of my own father who died in 1997. Dad you did a good job. Are you seeing the mustard seed affect here.
In my own life I have not lived up to either the example of St. Joseph or my Father. I have a long way to go. I definitely can see the traits of St. Joseph my Father's life, although I did not appreciate these until he died.
And so St. Joseph, was an exceptional man, chosen by Jesus from the beginning of time, to be his step Father, to provide for an protect him in his innocence and helplessness. And to provide for and protect his mother. Jesus's in his humanity did not share genetics with St. Joseph hence the term step father.
Jesus as we know was conceived by the Virgin Mary out of the Holy spirit's love for her. And that the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and left her pregnant with Jesus and virginal, and yet loved in a special way. According to Arch bishop Fulton Sheen there can be no conception without love.
so, any contemplation of the Holy Family brings into contemplation the mystery of the Holy trinity. The Holy spirit overshadowed the virgin Mary, and yet since the trinity are three persons in one, all three persons were loved and there, Jesus was with the Holy spirit when the overshadowing occurred and thus conceived with the holy spirit and the father in the womb. And let us not forget that Blessed Mother gave Jesus his humanity.
This mystery is hard to comprehend as well. In order for Jesus to be fully God and Fully human, he had to have a human nature, this came exclusively from Blessed Mother, who's egg and DNA interacted with what was placed within her by the trinity via the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
She was chosen from the beginning of time for this, and the graces given to her where as special as this selection. She was immaculately conceived, without original sin, joining only Adam, Eve and her Son Jesus in this grace. Both Jesus and His mother were susceptible to temptation, Jesus in his human nature,and Blessed Mother due to her full humanity. Both remained without sin. But there is an important difference, Jesus Christ is God, Blessed Mother is not.
Both were tempted and passed the test, i.e., remained sinless. Both were stand ins replacements redeemers for Adam and Eve.
So, the Holy Family had 30 years of peace, and then at Cana, it all began, and Jesus and His mother began together. It was she who asked him to change the water into wine, it was she who told the rest of us to do whatever he tells you, it was she, St. Joseph having died, who alone knew, of His divine nature. And it was she who said woman what is this to me, when she asked him to start his ministry that would end in the passion and death of her flesh and blood, did she know it all at that point?
Well she knew what He told her of this in their special relationship. And it was he who said to her the first time calling her woman the universal woman, when He said to her woman what is this to me. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen explains,in the Aramaic what Jesus said was woman what to thee is to me, meaning are you really ready to start this, to give me to the world and watch my passion and death. I will then giver you to the church as the universal mother of all. Everything has gone according to plan, good job, but are you really ready for this. Jesus loved His mother so much and respected her position in the Holy family that He allowed her to call the time of the beginning of the messianic period, this short period of time between the time of the dispertion and the end times.
She started the epoch when saying yes to God through the angel Gabriel, and she said yes to her son, when she asked him to fix the wine at Cana,they have run out of wine, it was as if she asked, we need your blood now; now is the time; she was allowed to start this, by her Son, Jesus Our Lord and Savior and her true Son and Father, Her son and her God, so honored her, and so do we honor her according to her elevation and eventual assumption.
And so do we honor the entire Holy family for saying yes and allowing for our redemption, for Jesus in his humility to come as a human to humble himself and gives us what he new we needed fro our salvation a church a kingdom of god on earth, and a demonstration of eternal life by his resurrection and the nourishment for our soul spiritual food in the form of the Eucharist his presence for us to consume, our bodies carrying our souls in the communion line to receive this great gift of soul food of soul nourishment and the grace that comes with that of it is in that moment of communion when we consume the body and blood of our lord that we become like Blessed Mother when we say yes to salvation when we do whatever he tells us, regardless of whether or not it makes sense to us.
St,Joseph is the model for all men, Blessed mother the model for all woman ans Jesus the model for all children and declaring the importance of children in his humility.
The ideal family the Holy family saying yes and submitting to the father in heaven and in their arms.
this is an important day and there is much here to contemplate many mysteries to meditate on and model as best we can.
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copyright 2009 fred celio
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