Sunday, December 27, 2020 - Holy Family - On many occasions in the past God has spoken to our fathers through the prophets; in the end, in these days in which we live, he has spoken to us through his Son - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2, 22-40

We are on the feast of the Holy Family, the family of Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus. According to the Gospel that was told to us earlier, two things have marked this family.

Firstly, Joseph and Mary, obedient to the law, present their firstborn child to the Lord and offer sacrifices according to the law. The laws and the temple are part of what reveals the deep bond between God and his people. The family of Joseph, Mary and the child Jesus was a family that believed and obeyed God; it is therefore not surprising that the love for God the Father and the fulfilment of his will were rooted in Jesus, because of the education received from his parents. The Holy Family is a model for all families because the child's spirit depends essentially on the parents' example.

Secondly, the offerings made by Joseph and Mary indicate the poverty of the family: no lamb but two doves, a poor family even though they come from the house of King David; and awaited by a poor man in the temple, when it is He who chose poverty to make mankind rich who presents himself in the temple. Poverty opens the human heart to God's salvation, poverty is the sign of consent so that God can fill us with his love, the precious treasure that makes us happy. Poverty is both a call from Christ and his condition as he fulfilled his mission by saying: "Blessed are the poor".

Only receiving God can change us and change the world. It allows us to feel that we have a lack of love and that we need God. May each family take the Holy Family as an example, and strive to be a family where God reigns, loving and caring for each other in order to be the lever to make society and the world a better place.