Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Daily Missal November-December 2024

Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (feast) (C)
proper

FIRST READING

From the First Book of Samuel (1Sam 1:20-22, 24-28)
At the end of the year Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, «because,» she said, «I asked the Lord for him.» When Elkanah went up with his whole household to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go, because she said to her husband: «I will not go until the child is weaned and I can take him to see the face of the Lord; then he will remain there forever.» After she had weaned him, she took him with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him into the temple of the Lord at Shiloh; he was still a child. After slaughtering the bull, they presented the child to Eli, and she said: «Forgive me, my lord. As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord granted me the grace I asked of him. I, in turn, give him to the Lord; for all the days of his life he is given to the Lord.» And they bowed down there before the Lord. – The Word of God.

Commentary on the first reading

Elkanah and Hannah had received their son as a gift and a grace, because Hannah was barren. Samuel was consecrated to God and, in fact, his life would be fundamental to the history of Israel: he was the one who received God's command to begin the monarchy by anointing Saul first and then David; people went to him to resolve the most serious matters (King Saul himself consulted him continually), and he was like the judge, the voice of God for the whole people. He achieved great prestige and was a figure of complete integrity. This helps us understand how necessary and important it is to dedicate one's life to God, whatever mission he may wish to entrust to us. It is worth noting that people who are so dedicated to him often have holy parents behind them, parents who do not regard their children as private property and who know how to part from them even when they are still children (and we can imagine the mothers' sorrow) because they know that they are destined for great things for God. This teaches us the primacy of God and to raise children to be free to follow their own path, especially if it is the Lord who calls them. Children belong to God before they belong to us.

SECOND READING

From the First Letter of Saint John the Apostle (1Jn 3:1-2, 21-24)
Beloved, see what great love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. This is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, according to the commandment he gave us. Whoever keeps his commandments remains in God and God in him. And this is how we know that he remains in us: from the Spirit he has given us. – The Word of God.

Commentary on the second reading

John reaffirms that God's commandment is that we believe in the Son and love one another. The two realities are connected, because believing that Jesus is God means welcoming him into our lives and then shaping all our actions according to charity, because God is love. Children receive the same nature as their parents, so if we are in Christ, we too are children through participation in love. Ultimately, if we are in God's grace, we are a mystery even to ourselves, because while we retain all our human aspects with their related weaknesses, at the same time we carry within us a divine seed that elevates us to a supernatural dimension, which was not proper to human beings before the gift of the Holy Spirit. We therefore feel pulled between two worlds: on the one hand we face the world, and on the other we face God. This inner conflict is permanent until we are freed from our body through death. And it is good that this should be so, because if we are children, our desire is to be reunited definitively with the Father and live the life of love for which we were created.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 2:41-52)
Each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the festival custom. But after the days had been completed, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, without his parents knowing it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they traveled for a day, and then searched for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem in search of him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him: «Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.» And he said to them: «Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be concerned with my Father's affairs?» But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God and men. – The Gospel of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

«Being concerned with the Father's affairs» means putting the things of God above all else, even above the natural affections of the family. When it has this understanding, the family fulfills itself, because divine Providence intended the family to be the fundamental cell of human life. From the beginning, God, the creator and orderer, has conceived and willed the family for us: father, mother and children, and he desired it to such an extent that he sanctified it when, having come into the world, he lived for much of his life in the family of Joseph and Mary. The primacy of God, in fact, does not destroy the good things he has willed: once he returned to Nazareth, Jesus obeyed his parents in everything, while they lived in accordance with the order willed by God. In the family of Nazareth, everyone obeys everyone. Jesus, humble and docile, is subject to his parents; Mary most holy listens to her husband, just as Joseph listens to his wife; he who has in his home the Queen of Heaven and God himself in Christ Jesus lives solely for them, obeying every desire of the Father for their good. A perfect family, because it puts God first.