Most important for today’s feast, the Feast of the Holy Family is the conclusion of the reading: Jesus went back to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them, growing in wisdom, and age, and favor with the Father. So let us take a look at the family, the Catholic family. For the Catholic family to function as God meant it to function, there must be certain fundamentals. The family must be centered on the real presence of God’s love. This springs from a sacramental union of husband and wife. Sacramental union. Sadly, some people are more concerned with their wedding than they are with their marriage. They are willing sacrifice the sacrament of matrimony for a sunset. But just as the secular celebration of Christmas quickly fades away on December 26th, a secular marriage will quickly fade into a simple remembrance of a wonderful party. What is needed, what is necessary for a real marriage, a Christian marriage, a Catholic marriage, is the presence of Jesus. The sacrament of matrimony is the union of Jesus Christ to the love of the husband and wife. With Christ present in their marriage, the newly married couple joins the Lord in creating the Little Church. That is an expression that used to be popular in describing the Catholic Family. The Little Church exists as long as there is a sacramental union, even if the couple does not have children. If the husband and wife are blessed with children, then the children are brought up in the Little Church of their parents’ marriage. That is why we baptize infants. They are baptized in the faith of their parents. People are not ready to think about marriage unless they are ready to think about having children and raising them for God. Those who think that they are too young to have children are too young to marry. Parents have the responsibility of caring for their children in every aspect of their children’s lives. They feed them, keep them clean, care for them when they are sick, help them to learn how to have a good relationship with other children, help them as their minds develop, and in all ways protect them. The greatest responsibility that parents have, though, is to raise their children for God. They have to give their children the ability to become that unique reflection of God’s presence He created them to be. Parents bring their children to Church and prepare them to celebrate the second two sacraments of initiation, communion and confirmation. They make sure their home is a Little Church by keeping all that would destroy that Church out of their home. Jesus was subject to his parents and obedient to them. He allowed them to fulfill their responsibility to care for him in all ways. Children need to be taught that the authority of their parents comes from God. The Fourth Commandment, Honor you Father and Mother, is rooted in the responsibility God gives parents to lead their children to be all they can be: physically, mentally, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually. Jesus was the center of the Holy Family. Jesus must be the center of all our families • AE

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Fr. Agustin Schedule for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (2021)

7.30 a.m. English Mass @ St. Dominic Catholic Church

10.00 a.m. English Mass @ St. Dominic Catholic Church

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Fiesta de la Sagrada Familia (2021)

Los hombres terminamos por acostumbrarnos a casi todo. Decía Péguy que hay algo peor que tener un alma perversa, y es tener un alma acostumbrada. Por eso no nos puede extrañar demasiado que la celebración de la Navidad, envuelta muchas veces en superficialidad y consumismo, apenas diga ya nada nuevo y gozoso a tantos hombres y mujeres de alma acostumbrada. Ya no nos sorprende ni conmueve un Dios que se nos ofrece como niño. Lo dice A. Saint-Exupéry en el prólogo de El Principito: «Todas las personas mayores han sido niños antes. Pero pocas lo recuerdan». Se nos olvida lo que es ser niños. Y se nos olvida que la primera mirada de Dios al acercarse al mundo ha sido una mirada de niño. Pero ésa es justamente la noticia de la Navidad. Dios es y sigue siendo, misterio, pero ahora sabemos que no es un ser tenebroso, inquietante y temible, sino alguien que se nos ofrece cercano y entrañable desde la ternura y la transparencia de un niño. Y éste es el mensaje de la Navidad. Para salir al encuentro de ese Dios, hay que cambiar el corazón, hacerse niños, nacer de nuevo, recuperar la transparencia, abrirse confiados a la gracia y al perdón. A pesar de nuestra aterradora superficialidad, de nuestros escepticismos y desencantos, y, sobre todo, de nuestro inconfesable egoísmo y mezquindad de adultos, siempre hay en nuestro corazón un rincón en el que todavía no hemos dejado de ser niños. Atrevámonos siquiera una vez a mirarnos con sencillez y sin reservas. Hagamos un poco de silencio a nuestro alrededor. Apaguemos el televisor. Olvidemos nuestras prisas, nerviosismos, compras y compromisos. Escuchemos dentro de nosotros ese corazón de niño que no se ha cerrado todavía a la posibilidad de una vida más sincera y más confiada en Dios. Es posible que escuchemos una llamada a renacer a una fe nueva. Una fe que rejuvenece; que no nos encierra en nosotros mismos, sino que nos abre; que no recela, sino confía; que no entristece, sino ilumina; que no teme, sino ama • AE

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ADESTE FIDELES

Adeste fideles laeti triumphantes, Venite, venite in Bethlehem. Natum videte Regem angelorum. Venite adoremus Dominum.

Acudid, fieles, alegres, triunfantes; venid, venid a Belén, ved al nacido Rey de los ángeles. Venid adoremos, venid adoremos,venid adoremos al Señor. He aquí que dejado el rebaño,los pastores llamados se acercan a la humilde cuna y nosotros nos apresuramos con paso alegre. Venid adoremos, venid adoremos, venid adoremos al Señor. El esplendor eterno del Padre Eternolo veremos oculto bajo la carne Al Dios Niño envuelto en pañales Venid adoremos, venid adoremos, venid adoremos al Señor.

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