[Note: This sound-bite should run in bulletins on Sunday, December 27. It is being posted early for those parishes with early bulletin deadlines due to Christmas.]
Today's Feast of the Holy Family calls us to consider every family's role in the promotion of justice in the world. The love between father and mother should be a reminder to all of the love we should have for all peoples, and love of the other is the basis for justice. Furthermore, when their children are baptized, parents promise to bring their children up in this same love, training them in the ways of the Catholic faith. This means teaching them to love and care for other people and all creation.
The Second Vatican Council, in its Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, put it this way: "The mission of being the primary vital cell of society has been given to the family by God... This mission will be accomplished if the family... offers active hospitality, and practices justice and other good works for the benefit of all its brothers and sisters suffering from want."
Copyright © 2009, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins.
