Reflection On The Feast Of The Holy Family. December 28, 2025.

” The great danger for family life, amid any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort, and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish”.–John Paul II

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My Dearest Friends in Christ,

The feast of the Holy Family on this last Sunday of the year offers us yet another opportunity to reflect on the human family that is fast disintegrating in modern society. The family, the first institution established by God for the advancement of creation through procreative love, has suffered serious manipulation through science, evolving ideologies, and emergent beliefs that are counterproductive, exclusive, and destructive.

The human family is the sanctuary of life and the domestic Church, according to the Second Vatican Council. In the family, children are raised and trained in the values that promote a love of God and neighbor, affection, and appreciation. The family is comprised of the father, the mother, and children; yet where there is no child, the family does not cease to exist because conjugal love is the very essence of marital union. Naturally, a man and a woman make up a family. It follows from this, therefore, that LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER MARRIAGES (LGBT) are disordered and intrinsically sinful unions and a threat to the sacredness of the family institution, and also an aberration, a sacrilege, a perversion, a deprivation, a denial, and a sin against the natural and divine law. Despite the recent Vatican declaration “Fiducia Supplicans” on the possibility of blessings for same-sex couples, the church has maintained its stand and teaching on marriage, which is an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union with a man and a woman, which is ordered towards the procreation of children.

Family responsibilities belong to the father, the mother, and the children. The primary responsibility of every father and mother is to care for and raise their children in the fear of God. The family institution is quickly disintegrating due to the increasing selfishness in our hearts and the lack of good parenting. A survey of different families has demonstrated that parents who don’t spend time with their children at home end up losing them to bad societal influences. Parents should endeavor to spend quality time with their children. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the following advice to parents. “Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule.”

St. Paul instructs us in the second reading that the family must foster an atmosphere of tolerance, forgiveness, and gentle bearing with one another. Mutual understanding in the exercise of parental responsibilities should be the ideal between couples. Fathers should be guides and protectors as St. Joseph was, providing the spiritual and material needs of their family. The mother, in turn, should perform her motherly duties, imitating Mary in her contemplative life, and obedience to the Word of God, and must prioritize raising her children, among other responsibilities. Children must respect and care for their parents, especially when they are elderly.
Sirach in the first reading says, “Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and when he prays, is heard. Whoever honors his father atones for sins. He stores up riches who reveres his mother.

Dear husband and wife, Your home is your heaven on earth; if you destroy it, it becomes hell. Paul admonishes us to forgive and bear with one another. The family should not be a courtroom where attorneys argue, but a confessional where each admits his or her fault and forgives.

Like the Holy Family, every family should be built on prayer, love, care, concern, affection, forgiveness, and appreciation. Always love and appreciate each other in every situation. A family that prays together stays together.

Beware of the destructive elements of the human family. Many might argue positively for them, but we must listen and obey the teachings of the Church. She has the final say on these moral issues.

DIVORCE:
Divorce is the worst element of the disintegration of the human family. It is a product of a lack of forgiveness, tolerance, and compassion. Joseph did not divorce Mary, even when he found her to be pregnant from what he thought to be an unknown person. Learn to listen to the inner voice of the Spirit, as Joseph exemplified. Children suffer the most when their parents divorce. For the sake of these little ones hold your peace and let the sleeping dog lie. Stop traumatizing these children. Divorce destroys the beauty of family life. The Church disapproves of it.

ABORTION:
Stop abortion. The family has a special role to play throughout the lives of its members, from birth to death. It is truly “…the sanctuary of life; the place in which life, the gift of God, can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed and should develop by what constitutes authentic human growth.” Abortion is a serious threat to the existence of the human family. It destroys its very mission and end. Seek Natural Family Planning methods and shun abortifacients and contraceptives. Remember, thou shall not kill. If Mary had aborted Jesus, our salvation would have been an illusion. If Joseph had not protected the Holy Family by taking them to safety in Egypt and back to Nazareth instead of Galilee, the story would not have been the same. Be part of the mission of preserving and protecting lives.

SINGLE PARENTHOOD:
It is the mind of God that children be raised in the presence of a mother and a father, as Jesus was raised by Mary and Joseph. When this ideal cannot be realized due to family tragedies, the Church and society should support these single mothers and fathers. When a choice is made, not due to a tragedy, to deprive a child of a mother or a father, the Church condemns it. It is needed as an option. Children of single parents are deprived of essential psychological factors that enhance a balanced personality, and the child suffers. Say no to divorce.

CONCUBINAGE:
The family is established through the union of a man and a woman in the marriage institution. Why should you live together with a man or woman before marriage simply because they are your boyfriend or girlfriend? We all need to be reminded that concubinage is sinful because it denies the sacramentality and sacredness of the human family. Let your love for each other be publicly witnessed in the marriage covenant before the priest and God’s people in the temple of God. Say no to concubinage, dear child of God.

SURROGACY:
Say no to surrogacy. It is contrary to the unity of marriage and the dignity of the procreation of the human person. Surrogate motherhood represents an objective failure to meet the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity, and responsible motherhood. It offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world, and brought up by their parents. It sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological, and moral elements that constitute the family.

Be Mindful Of These
OBEDIENCE:
Dear Children, obedience to your parents is highly rewarded by God and man; little wonder the 4th commandment has a blessing attached to it. The reading from the book of Sirach amplified the blessings that come from showing reverence to one’s parents. Even if you have reached the legal age of 18, you are not above listening to the wise counsel of your parents. Without them, there would be no you. Mess up with your parents, and someday your children will mess up with you because whatever goes around comes around. You are not being charitable by not caring for your parents, both young and aged. It is a responsibility that flows from Divine law. Jesus is our model. Jesus grew up in Nazareth like any other young man, obeying his parents, faithfully discharging all His duties to God, to His parents, to the community, and “advancing in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” Jesus never disobeyed His parents, and that is why the favor of God remained with Him, and He grew up in wisdom. Any child who disobeys their parents shall never have the favor of God upon them.

GOOD EXAMPLE:
Parents teach their children by good example. Don’t scandalize them at home. Remember, every child bears the picture of the home from which they come. Family influences are very remarkable in shaping the personality of a child. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Parents have a grave responsibility to give a good example to their children.” (CCC #2223)

“Let the family bond be cemented with love. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts. Let the marital vows be cherished and respected. We are one family of God. The Church is our family. Let us shun individualism and reach out to others far and near. Let us share the warmth of love to overcome the coldness of loneliness.”

We thank God for bringing us to a successful end of this year 2025, thank God for His blessings, protection, and guidance as we work hard through His grace, to build up our families so that He will continue to dwell among us.

I wish you and your family a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2026. “You shall not die but shall live to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.” I keep you always in my prayers and ask for your prayers too, as we journey together with hope into the New Year.