Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Family Ecclesiola

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 12.30.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY
Matthew 2:13-15, Matthew 2:19-23

Friends, on this feast of the Holy Family,
our Gospel shows us Joseph and Mary’s flight into Egypt,
pursuing their mission to protect the Christ child.
This story prompts me to say something about the Christian family’s mission.

The family is, above all, the forum in which both parents
and children are able to discern their missions.
It is perfectly good, of course, if deep bonds and rich emotions are cultivated within the family,
but those relationships and passions must cede to something that is more spiritually focused.

A biblical prioritization of values helps us to see what typically goes wrong with families.
When something other than mission is dominant—a son’s athletic achievement,
a daughter’s success at university, etc.—
family relationships actually become strained. The paradox is this:
precisely in the measure that everyone in the family focuses on God’s call for one another,
the family becomes more loving and peaceful.
John Paul II admirably summed up what I’ve been driving at when he spoke of the family as an ecclesiola (a little Church).
At its best, he implies, the family is a place where God is worshipped
and where the discernment of God’s mission is of paramount importance.

[MurphsLaw]

+++When the magi had departed,
behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared
to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his
mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the
child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child
and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said
through the prophet might be fulfilled,

Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod had died, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared
in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt and said,
“Rise, take the child and his
mother and go to the land of Israel,
for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
He rose, took the child and his mother,
and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus
was ruling over Judea
in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go back there.
And because he had been warned in a dream,
he departed for the region of Galilee.
He went and dwelt in a town
called Nazareth,
so that what had been spoken
through the prophets
might be fulfilled,

He shall be called a Nazorean.