Never Cut the Thread (Holy Family B)

A father accompanied his son to fly a kite. The kite easily reached high up in the sky.  After a while, the son observed that the thread seemed to hold the kite from flying higher. So, he asked his father to cut the thread. The father obliged. The kite, to the son's delight, started to go a little higher. But then, slowly, it started to come down and soon fell on the top of a tree. The son, surprised by what just happened, asked his father, “Father, I thought that after cutting off the thread, the kite can freely fly higher. Why did it fall down?”

The Father explained, "Son, the thread was not holding the kite from going higher. It was helping it stay higher when the wind slowed down and when the wind picked up, you helped the kite go up higher in a proper direction through the thread.  When the thread was cut, the kite lost its support.” So it is with the support of our family. Our loved ones edify us and see us through the rough times, sustaining us as we reach higher heights in life. They are not holding us back; they provide us the thread of support for us to fly. So, never cut the thread.

The celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family encourages us to value our own families and to appreciate the "thread of support" our families provide us with. In the light of the scriptural readings for today, let us reflect on three areas of support our families may offer us inspired by the Holy Family: The area of obedience to God's will; of building our trust in God's faithfulness; and of extending our families to the wider family of God.

Obedience to God’s Will. The Gospel describes how Joseph, as the head of the Holy Family of Nazareth, presented Mary and the Baby Jesus in the Temple for the mother’s purification and the Child’s “redemption.” The Law of Moses taught that every Jewish firstborn male child belonged to Yahweh and therefore must be “bought back” by the parents with a lamb or turtledoves as a sacrifice in the Temple. Also, the mother had to be purified after childbirth by prayers and an offering made to God in the Temple. As an act of obedience to God, Joseph kept these laws. Hence, in the gospel reading, we see the Holy Family in the temple obedient to God’s commandments.

Joseph’s obedience to God provided the thread that trained Jesus to be obedient to the Father’s will; so that when his hour came, Jesus faced his harrowing passion and death on the cross, overcoming his agony by praying for strength to do his Father's will: "Father, not my will, but yours be done" (Lk 22:42). Jesus’ total obedience to God the Father reversed the disobedience of Adam, the cause of the downfall of man.  How crucial is obedience to God in the work of redemption!

The Holy Family reminds our families to become schools of this very important virtue, i.e., obedience. Through proper discharge of authority and by way of everyday witnessing of parents as Joseph and Mary did, children are moulded to become persons with deep respect to their parents and with fear of the Lord.  And there is a promise of blessing that await a family that lives in obedience to God’s laws: “How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments” (Ps 112:1). May our families be a school of obedience that leads each one to walk the ways of the Lord.

Building Trust in God's Faithfulness. The Holy Family has been a witness to God’s fidelity to his promise.  As God had been true to his promise to Abraham in the first reading (Gen 15:1-6; 21:1-3) giving him a son, Isaac—who would fulfil the promise of a multitude of descendants, God fulfilled the Emmanuel prophecy through Joseph and Mary by giving them Jesus, the Saviour born of a virgin (Mt 1:23). In today’s gospel, Mary and Joseph presented the child Jesus in the temple; there, they witnessed how the promise made to the righteous and devout Simeon and the prophetess Anna were also fulfilled. The Presentation in the Temple, we can say, was an event in the life of the Holy Family together with Simeon and Anna wherein the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation for the people was revealed and celebrated.

God is a God of promise and a God of fulfilment. He is a faithful God as witnessed to by the Holy Family. Our families, too, experience the fidelity of God as He abides with us through all the vicissitudes of family life.  May we exclaim at all times what the Psalm proclaims: “The Lord remembers his covenant forever” (Ps 105:6). May the sincerity of the husband and wife to live together with faithful love be their own witnessing to the faithfulness of God.  May we make good of every promise we make to one another in our families; may we be there for one another in good times and in bad; and as we grow in integrity, honouring our every word, may we build the culture of trust—strengthening our trust in one another and in the faithfulness of God. 

Embracing the Wider Family of God.  In Simeon’s prayer of blessing, he prophesied that Jesus was meant to be the glory of Israel and the light of revelation to the Gentiles. And as he blessed Mary, he warned her that her child would be “a sign of contradiction,” and that she would be “pierced with a sword.” Simeon was prophesying both the universal salvation that would be proclaimed by Jesus and the necessity of suffering in the mission of the Messiah.  Right from the very start, the Holy Family was well aware of the mission of Jesus—He was not to be theirs alone. He belonged to the wider family of God. As the child Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and God’s favour, his family in Nazareth was there to provide all the support He needed for this mission.

Our love for the family must not be exclusive.  Our love should embrace the wider family of God.  The support our family gives to each other must be conscious of our mission to be of service to the wider community.  Families should provide that “thread” of support for each member to respond to God’s call to serve or even face sacrifices for the good of society. May our families be in solidarity with the wider family of God. May we see that the homeless out there in the cold are part of our family; the addict, the broken, and the lonely are members of our family; the sick and the dying, are our brothers and sisters; the persons in the prison cell are also sons and daughters of God, and as such, are members of our family. 

On this Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family, we lift our families up to God for His blessing, thanking Him for the gift of our parents, our brothers and sisters, our grandpa and grandma. May we always draw our strength and sense of direction from our family who is there to allow us to fly like a kite with the guiding thread which reminds us to fear the Lord and walk in his ways, to trust in God’s promises, and to embrace the wider family of God. And remember, never cut the thread.