The Feast of the Holy Family 2010

The Holy Family is unlike any other families on earth. After all, it is holy, isn't it?
More than that, this family is where the sacred and the profane meet.

It all began with two ordinary families. Mary, a young virgin, was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter, a son of David (Matthew 1:6, 16; Luke 3:23, 31). Before they lived together, Mary was found to be pregnant, if you would believe her story, by the Holy Spirit. Um ... Unwed mother. How inconvenient, even in today's standard. Joseph must have been troubled by this situation. Struggles raced through his mind. But eventually, Joseph chose to believe in her! Amazing, wasn't it? Some divine intervention must have happened. Otherwise, no ordinary man could be willing to raise a child which does not carry his own DNA, unless of course, Joseph was a man of gigantic charity. Be it divine revelation or charity, Joseph has demonstrated a nobility man could ever dream of. Here, the sacred meets the profane.


At last, the pregnant Mary delivered her first boy among cattle and poultry because there was no room in the inn (Luke 2:7). Later, shepherds came to worship the new born Saviour. Many famous paintings have a radiant Holy Infant illuminating the darkness of the stable in which the Holy Family was staying. Here again, the sacred meets the profane.

The Holy Infant is the Lord of the whole Creation. Yet, it was so fragile. It needed the protection of an ordinary couple, Joseph and Mary. In the gospel reading today, we read of the Holy Family fleeing from the treacherous attempts of King Herod on the life of the Holy Infant (Matthew 2:13-18). Once more, the sacred and the profane meet. There are many more to come. In brief, in the life of Jesus and in particular, the daily life of the Holy Family, we see the encounters between the sacred and the profane.

What can we say about life, especially a Christian family life?
To be sure, there will always be a tension between the sacred and the profane. This tension will never be resolved here and now. Events will keep on arising from all sides so that we will love and hate our spouse and our children. There will always be situations in which we will be noble and mean towards our family members. We will keep our temper in full control but there will be times when our patience runs thin ... We have to learn to live with this tension until we return to God.

Dear Holy Infant,
We are fragile like infants. Without Your intervention, life would be impossibly hard to bear.
I pray for the families in this region of the globe. May the number of domestic violence cases be reduced. May husbands and wives find strength in their love of each other. May their children nourish in the warmth of their love. Amen.

Picture credit: The picture by Charles Le Brun was retrieved from Wikipedia.