Family

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family on the first Sunday after Christmas. It is certainly not as grand as any of the other feasts we celebrate within the year, but it is a beautiful one nonetheless. A beautiful reminder that by his birth, he gave his parents the gift of their own family. Before he was born, Joseph and Mary only had a marriage and as blessed as that was, Christ further blessed it when he consented to be their child.

The birth of every child is a welcome blessing. At least, it has always been that way in our family as I am certain it also is with most other families. For every child is different, every child a new hope, every child a new chance. Every child carries with him or her the love of God and another part of his plan for humanity. When I see all my nephews and nieces, I see how infinitely unique each of them is. Even if they are born of the same parents, grow up in the same household, carry the same last name, they are born with a personality all their own. And each of them further strengthens the bond of the family.

In a country like ours, there is no need to remind people of just how important the family is. I am always humbled and amazed when people talk of the sacrifices they make for the families—of the OFW husband, of the single mother who supports her 10 children, of the hardworking sibling who sends his younger brothers to school, of the feeble grandmother working in the market when she should have retired long ago. No, there is no need to make people aware of how much family should mean to us. That is something that is already engraved in every Filipino’s heart.

There is, however, a need for us to be reminded that we ought to make our families holy (or holier for some)—that every family on earth ought to have the duty of being an extension of God’s family, that all of us are called to be a better parent or a better child or a better sibling or aunt or uncle, that by our birth we, too, are called to be a blessing unto others. Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was not only a gift of presence, it was also a gift of example.

The journey was never meant to end at Bethlehem. For we all must make our way to Calvary or Tabor as God pleases. But often times, we forget that there was also Nazareth that nurtured the child, that strengthened the mother’s heart, that sanctified the father’s soul. That before there was a cross or rabbi or ministry or miracle, there was first a father, a mother, a child and love. A family.