Year End
Brothers and Sisters,
On this very last Sunday of our calendar year, we pause to thank God for our families. None of us come from perfect families. Even the Holy Family had enormous challenges. First of all, they were very poor and could not even find housing in a local inn, but Mary gave birth to Jesus in a cave or stable where animals were kept. Very soon after his birth, the Holy Family had to leave their own country and flee to Egypt – a long journey by foot – to escape death at the hands of Herod. They were poor migrants, even illegal refugees in a foreign land. They endured crises and never gave up. Most of us come from similar families that had to endure challenges and failures. Many of us come from dysfunctional families, and yet we learn how to cope and how to survive and how to grow.
This Sunday is a perfect time to thank God for our birth families and to ask God’s blessings on our present families. We cannot undo the past but we can change the future. We have a mind and a body and a soul to respond to love. In every family, we learn to forgive and to move on. It is a terrible mistake to hold in past failures. Our God is a loving and forgiving Father. Notwithstanding our personal sins and mistakes, we know that our God loves us unconditionally. All we have to do is to run to our Father, ask for forgiveness and be made whole once again. Isn’t it wonderful to belong to such a fabulous family of God?
Happy New Year,
Fr. John Maxwell
