CLOTH YOURSELVES WITH LOVE

FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY: Col 3:12-21

Importance of the family

In the first Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the Holy Family, which is an opportunity to reflect on the family and look at our families to see what problems they face and how faithful they are or try to be to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The family plays a big role in the life of each individual, specially here in Africa. One feels at home, always welcome. In the family, the parents have a central place. Women with many children, when abandoned by their husbands, un back to their parents house. It is always their home, a place of refuge, where one can find peace and love.

By celebrating the feast of the Holy Family, the Church wants to stress the importance and the dignity of the family, in such a way that the Church calls the family as a small community of faith, the Domestic Church. The family is the first school of faith, in which the proclamation and the teaching of the faith is done. The parents give witness to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and preside the celebration of faith in prayer and through prayer.

Dysfunctional families

Nowadays, we find a lot of dysfunctional families, where there is no sharing of love, in such a way that one does not feel welcome and cared for. In so many families, the home is no more a place of peace and refuge; instead, there are daily quarrels and insults. 

In Zambia, in the traditional set up, everyone in the family knew his role, and nobody entered marriage without being instructed and without receiving the support of the wider family and community. In a certain way, the traditional importance of the instructions is still accepted, but in reality the culture people live in, influence by urban life and by the media, undermines the traditional teaching, leading many people to underrate or totally ignore it. 

Many people are guided by selfish motives. Moved by selfishness, I see everything centred on me, demanding that the other puts herself/ himself at my service to satisfy my needs, without caring about my her/ his needs. I want the other to sacrifice for me, but I am not ready to sacrifice for the family, that is the spouse, the children, and the wider community. This attitude is the source of endless problems in the family.

Support each other

One of the readings of the Liturgy of the Holy Family comes from Col 3:12-21. In this passage, Paul stresses attitudes that are very important for the family.

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.” (Col 3:12-21).

Love must reign supreme and express itself in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. This gives the strength to support one another and makes it possible to forgive. Family life and community life cannot exist without the ability to reconcile. If our hearts are full of hatred and the desire for revenge, then we are going to make many people unhappy and ourselves will live an unhappy life. To experience the peace of Christ in our hearts, we must renew everyday our capacity to love and we must re ready to reconcile, by asking for forgiveness and accepting forgiveness.