Sunday, 12-28-25… Mark G.
What a great place that we’ve come to, at this point of our secular calendar.!! Four more days until New Years Day 2026.!! No matter which of the camps you are currently resting in, whether you had a great 2025 or you can’t wait to see it go, please remember your ‘family’. I have my blood-line family, my parish family, my Ky. Charismatics (2 branches), my Cursillo brothers and finally my TMIY brothers. Do you think that’s a bunch?? What about YOU?? My A.C.M. sisters & brothers are “worldwide”!! It is through this ministry of mine here, another on YouTube, and finally through my book, that I hope to spread JOY to the world. Beginning with my personal life/world. If I am to be a rock thrown into a river, then you are the ripples, spreading the message!! Gracias, Danka, Merci, Grazie, THANK YOU for spreading the Joy-Filled message.!!
While this list of familial ingredients and spices that flavor my life seems extensive, I am merely attempting to please God through the second commandment… Love your neighbor as yourself!!
Our first reading from SIRACH 3:2 encourages men & women, fathers & mothers (immediate family), by stating, “God sets a father in honor over his children, a mother’s authority He confirms over her sons.” Wow, only One sentence, and the family dynamic has been set!! It’s occasions like this that begs the questions about how straying away from God and His Word, loosens this dynamic.
Today’s reasonings from St. Paul to the Colossians 3:12-20, almost reads like a grocery shopping list except for the urgency of the matter; personal relationships. Paul urges the holy and beloved of God to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, forgiveness, and patience. Forgiveness is the bond that holds you to perfection. This is the perfection that unites us to the rest of the body of Christ, the family. In closing this scripture, Paul exhorts that all the members of the ‘family’ are responsible for the goodness and success of each other. This is especially true in times of tough love!
I remember a scene from the movie “I remember Mamma.” Lars the oldest son comes home from school near the end of the year and sheepishly asks if he can go to High School next year. This request required a family meeting. There would be additional costs involved, books, paper and etc… This also meant that Lars would not be going to work and helping support the family, additional money lost. After a very quiet and tense few minutes, one of the younger girls offers to babysit more often to create extra income. Katharine the main character, offers to go to work and also tutor a neighbor’s kids, and Papa offered to give up pipe smoking to save money. The entire family sacrificing for the benefit of one, Hmmm. All for one!! Jesus, our Christ, died for all of us… but he would have done it for just one.
The gospel today carries on with the theme of family. The Holy Family is in trouble. Herod is hunting for the Christ-child, and he wants Him dead. We cherish these St. Joseph’s final dreams. An angel appears to tell Joseph to move the family to Egypt in order to escape Herod. Then after some time of settling in Egypt, an angel appears again to tell Joseph to go back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem seems to be a little tense when the Holy Family arrives there, so a detour to Nazareth is St. Joseph’s next, best idea. All of this moving around not only protects the family, but is Loaded with prophetic fulfillment.
Sacrifice is such a tremendously all-consuming word. Every time a sacrifice is made, a person or group of people, give every single, possible bit of themselves (Time, treasure, Life) for the benefit of another. The results are achieved with a clear mind and clear eyes that the benefit far eclipses any possible desire for thanks, medals or trophies. Sacrifice is done purely for the benefit of humanity, the greater good.
This holiday season, I will strive to be more like Cindy-Lu Whoo and all of the Whoos in Whooville as they sang on Christmas morning. The babe Jesus is born; Christmas still arrives and JOY Lives On!! EMMANUEL… God is with Us, All for one.! Happy New Years.!! Mark.
