FamA19.   Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14.   To have a family that is based in God, i.e., his way of thinking and of ordering, each person’s position in the family must be respected.  God rewards the children who honor their parents’ authority: atonement for sins; having God give special attention to one’s prayers; a long life.  Happiness on earth requires of us to live according to God’s Will, God’s order or sense of organization.

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23.   An important task of an angel was to speak God’s message to the ones he had chosen to hear it.  The prophets also did the same thing.  We also are chosen by God at times to deliver his message, as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, priests, religious or by anyone else as God chooses make known to others what God wants them to hear.  God not only listens to our prayer requests but also daily speaks to us, often through others around us.  The Holy Spirit aids us daily in our spiritual growth to be able to sense or discern the Voice of God.  To live a life of faith in God means to be always in the loving presence of our God, who is not passive but active in our lives.  The science of zoology, which is a part of biology, lists human beings as an animal of this earth.  The Holy Spirit builds the supernatural on the natural.  By our baptism God is our Father and we are his children with the right to have our inheritance in heaven.  That means we must live as his children now on earth.  The Holy Spirit enables us to live the spiritual life while we are here on earth.  On our own without the Holy Spirit we, as animals of this earth, cannot live spiritually.  In our gospel God seems to be quite comfortable communicating with Joseph through the angel.  He, as God, is quite comfortable communicating with us also but only in a way that a person of faith can discern, since God does not speak out loud or audibly.  A loving God is not a silent God.  Life in this world is a life that has many difficulties and challenges, as it did for Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the womb.  As Emmanuel, God is with us in our ups and downs.  As a loving parent, God cannot be but with us to help us by being endlessly engaged in our lives to bring us as his beloved children to our home with him in heaven.  God is our daily bread, not only in Holy Communion, but by nourishing our spiritual life every moment of our lives.  God is family now by living with us, loving us every moment of our lives.

Colossians 3:12-21.    Paul begins with the words, “Put on,” as though we are clothing our earthly bodies with heavenly clothes. “And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts.”  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”  Not only are we to be clothed in Christ on the outside but also filled with Christ on the inside. “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  Paul calls upon us to thoroughly be a heavenly people while still here on earth.  With God as our Father here and now we should grow as his children spiritually in holiness.  Not only should heaven be the household of God but also this world.  Family is a relationship in which we not only grow physically but also mature spiritually, caring for one another, nurturing one another through the presence of Jesus within us individually and in our midst as a community.