In homily spoken on 28 December 2008, the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel, Monsignor John Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, preaches about the need for families to take the Holy Family – made up of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as an example of perfect harmony the importance of living holiness as a family.
Watch the excerpt:
Following are the very words of Monsignor John Claudia:
Today, the Church celebrates this feast with great jo[1]y , because it is the "mater cell" of society, the basis of every society, and is practically the Church constituted in her family cell – father, mother, sons, daughters – and within perfect harmony based on the grace of De us.
But if the family lives in function of grace and lives receiving the graces for their elevation of spirit, for their spirit of piety, for their commitment to sanctify themselves, then all graces are given and everything becomes easy. It's not that there will be dramas, it's not that there will be no pain; but the dramas themselves and the pains themselves will be given by God, allowed by God in order to give more merits and still give more awards afterwards.
The extraordinary example of this family full of dramas, full of pain, is true, but facing everything with a high spirit: it is the Holy Family. Father, Mother and Son living in perfect harmony. Why is that? Because God is at the center.
Someone will say, "Well, but also, what a comparison! The Holy Family runs away at all and all comparisons!"
That's not what the Liturgy tells us today. The Liturgy, when we pray the initial Prayer, told us very clearly: "O God of goodness, who gave us the Holy Family as an example, grant us to imitate in our homes their virtues…"
Imitate the virtues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, for they are our examples!
"… that, united by the bonds of love, we may one day come to the joys of your home."
And then we are eternally integrated into the eternal family: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with all the blessed, Angels and Saints. God wants to give us this joy that is He, God wants to make us have this immense happiness that is the conviviality with Him in eternity. And for that He himself embodies himself, He himself lives within a family.
And if we are to consider that It took Him three years to expose the doctrine and Revelation He brought, and it took thirty years to give us an example of what family life should look like, we see the importance of family life. Thirty years to give us a clear sense of how we should be in the internal relationship, husband with wife, husband with wife, with children, with daughters.
I will ask, and ask all too, that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph who are represented here today by these images fortunately placed in the presbytery, that they, Our Lord, by intercession of Mary and Joseph, may pour out the most effective graces, more more transformative, more transformative for each of those who are here and who constitute a family, so that they may be convinced, to be penetrated by the need to live holiness as a family.
[1]Homily excerpt of December 28, 2008.