“Every Family Needs Love and Care!”

Feast of the Holy Family
Matthew 2:13-15:19-23

Before I went for my Christmas vacation, I went to visit Nanay Nene, an old paralyzed woman in our neighborhood. She lives with her husband and three grandchildren in a very little house. Actually it was a swine’s house before. They just covered it with some old clothes and thick paper. She is paralyzed. She can’t move around. Her husband is sickly and old too. He can’t find work. They have children but they are away from them. They abandoned them. They don’t know where they are.

The worst thing is that their daughter left her three children to them, two boys and a girl. One is 12 years old, the other one is 10 and the youngest is 9. They can no longer remember the faces of their parents. The little girl is the one who take care of her grandmother. She does the washing, cleaning and others. Her little brothers go around looking for plastics and metals, and sell it. Sometimes, they catch just one or two little fish and that is enough for the whole day meal. Most of the time, they are hungry.

If we look at their life… if we look at their family… so terrible, isn’t it? They are the poorest of the poor. They have nothing to eat. Nanay Nene and her husband are old and sick. They need the love and care of their sons and daughters… but where are they? The three little children suffer. They need the love and care of their parents… but where are the parents? The situation of Nanay Nene’s family is just one example of many broken families. What they find most painful is the absence of love and care within the family. Parents abandon their children. Children abandon their parents.

The feast of the Holy Family gives us something to reflect on. The life of Joseph, Mary and Jesus in Nazareth was not that easy. The Holy Family is very human family! They lived in fear. They also lived in poverty. They lived in a very hard situation. Joseph and Mary escaped into Egypt to save their baby Jesus from the threat of Herod to kill the babies. Joseph did not abandon Jesus, his child. He did not abandon Mary, his wife. It is because of his love and care for his family. The love and care within the family makes it strong. The love and care within the family makes it holy.

Our readings today give us instructions to foster the love and care within the family – that is, to give respect, to be gentle, to be grateful, to be kind and to forgive to each member of the family. Love and care keeps our family together.

On this feast of the Holy Family, we are reminded that the very central for each family is LOVE AND CARE. The Holy Family, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, call all the families not to abandon our family. The Holy family is calling us to be to be enduring, to be strong. The Holy Family is calling us to be a loving and caring family.

Our family today is facing this serious trouble of lacking of love and care for each other. In many ways, we also don’t care about our family. We don’t listen to our father, to our mother, to our husband, to our wife, to our sons, to our daughter, to our family. Nanay Nene, her husband and grandchildren are hungry everyday. But they are not hungry for food; they are hungry for love and care of their own family. Every family needs love and care. Even how poor we are, we need love and care. Are we ready and willing to provide it?