Feast of the Holy Family<\/p>\n\n\n\n
December 29, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 2:13-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we were given the choice to choose our parents, what kind of parents\nwould we like to have? Perhaps, some of us want to have rich parents. Some of\nus may desire to have beautiful or genius parents. Some of us may wish to be\nborn in a royal and politically influential family. These are our usual dreams.\nYet, surprisingly, these are not the options that God made when He chose His\nparents. In His beautiful wisdom, God selected Mary and Joseph of Nazareth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joseph was a descendant of acclaimed King David, but the Davidic Kingdom\nwas the only thing of the past in the time of Joseph. He was also a carpenter\nand despite hardworking, this profession just gave enough to survive. Mary was\nan ordinary young woman from an unknown village called Nazareth. Joseph and\nMary were simple if not poor people living within the time where most\nIsraelites were suffering from the oppression of the Roman empire. In the eyes\nof the world, this couple was nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, our God is the God of surprises, and He has a hobby to upset\n\u201cthe established world\u2019s order.\u201d For God, the crucial criteria to be His\nparents are not wealth, popularity, or noble line. God has no need of these\nthings. So, what is the basis of His choice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fundamental criterium is faith in God. Joseph and Mary possessed\nnothing of this world, but both are the man and woman of faith, or the man and\nwoman of God. Joseph was called as the \u201crighteous man,\u201d meaning he was a man who\nknew the Torah by heart and obeyed them faithfully. Joseph loved God and His\nlaws. Moreover, when Gabriel appeared to Joseph and revealed the plan of God,\nJoseph immediately got up and followed Angel\u2019s instruction without any question\nasked. Mary did basically the same thing. When Gabriel told her about God\u2019s\nplan that she would be the mother of God, Mary did not understand, but she did\nnot simply give her nod, but she accepted God\u2019s design as her own. Joseph and\nMary knew well that the moment they participated in God\u2019s way, they had to\nsurrender their own plans, dreams, and hopes. Their lives were practically\nthrown into the unknown. Yet, their faith is bigger than their fear or pride,\nand they believed that God\u2019s way is always the best way. These are the kind of\nparents whom God chose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Joseph and Mary, I do believe that the first attitude that any\nparents have is faith in God. Every child is a gift, yet this gift will\nchallenge and change the parents who receive them. As a child enters the life\nof their parents, husband and wife shall also enter the life of sacrifice.\nSometimes, I am sudden by the decision of some Catholic couples who refuse to\nhave children. We understand that it is difficult to raise children, but our\nrefusal to accept a gift from God might point to our lack of faith, even to our\nselfishness, our obsessiveness to our plans, career, and ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God does not need a perfect couple to raise His Son, He rather chooses a\nman and woman of faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Feast of the Holy Family
\nDecember 29, 2019
\nMatthew 2:13-23<\/p>\n
If we were given the choice to choose our parents, what kind of parents would we like to have? Perhaps, some of us want to have rich parents. Some of us may desire to have beautiful or genius parents. Some of us may wish to be born in a royal and politically influential family. These are our usual dreams. Yet, surprisingly, these are not the options that God made when He chose His parents. In His beautiful wisdom, God selected Mary and Joseph of Nazareth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9086,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9085\/revisions\/9086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}