Feast of the Holy Family

12-28-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Abraham Orapankal, Pastor

Dear OLP Family,

Merry Christmas! I do hope you all had a happy time with your families for Christmas dinner. But it takes more than a festive Christmas dinner for many families to really have a great time with each other. Bringing a family together requires the patience to listen, the selflessness to forgive, the commitment to heal and mend.

To be a family is to seek out and bring back whoever is lost, to look beyond behavior to understand what is prompting such anger, bitterness, or disaffection, to put aside one's own expectations to respect another's perspective.

Today’s celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family helps us to look up to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus and learn their way of being a family. It may come as a surprise to many when I say that the Holy Family was not an ideal family as we have been brought up to believe! They also had their own share of struggles, tough situations, financial challenges, problems of communication between spouses and between parents and the teenage Jesus. Gospel vignettes give us inklings to their struggles: Matthew, the Evangelist, tells us the conflict Joseph had when he came to know that Mary was pregnant before he married her (Mt. 1:18-25). After Jesus was born, Joseph was told: “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you." (Matthew 2: 13- 15, 19-23). Why? They had to escape Herod's murderous wrath. As is clear from the infancy narratives (from Luke and Matthew), Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as a family experienced heartache, fear, misunderstanding, and doubt, but together they created a family of love and compassion. They understood one another, accepted each other, stuck together, and faced the challenges of life together as one family, relying on God’s guidance. That is how the Holy Family becomes a model for us to deal with our own family’s challenges.

If that is not the way our family is functioning, this New Year is an opportunity to begin anew. On December 31, the last day of this year, we have two Masses (8 AM & 4 PM) Why not come to church and thank God for the blessings we received in 2025. We usher in the New Year not only watching all the celebrations across the world including the dropping of the ball in Times Square, but also by celebrating the Eucharist in God’s house. We have two Masses on January 1: 9 AM and 12 noon. Attending one of these, we can begin 2026 with His blessings. Many will make this first day of the New Year a time of reflection, resolutions, and new beginnings.

So, a happy New Year and a happy Feast of the Holy Family! We raise up all parents and children in prayer, especially those who experience the pain of separation and single parent families who heroically face the challenges of life. As we will soon ring in the New Year 2026, may we all experience more unity, love and peace in our families and communities! And may the Blessings of Baby Jesus be with all of you for the whole of the New Year 2026.

Your brother in Christ.