Charity Manifests Itself Through Trials - The Feast of Holy Family(2019-01-13)

Charity is a virtue.
One thing is doing a charitable action once or sometimes;
Another is being habitually charitable.
Charity, which is a virtue, consists in being habitually charitable.

Where does a human being learn virtue?
We are not individuals fallen on earth from whatever planet.
We were born in a family and we belong to a family.
And some of us, grown up adults, have formed their own family and continued the chain of creation.

If we do not learn charity at home, where will learn it?
If we don’t witness charity at home, how will we experience that God is essentially good and that He expects us to love one another as He has loved us?

 

We are celebrating today the feast of the Holy Family. A unique family that was literally centered on God. An amazing example of the daily practice of charity.
Let us not argue that it was easy for each of them to practice charity since they were perfect.

 

Charity manifests itself through trials. And the Holy Family experienced lots of trials. Starting with the so-called doubt of saint Joseph, when he realized that Mary was pregnant and he could not understand the mystery.

 

Then, the tiring trip to Bethlehem where She was to deliver Baby Jesus. Upon arrival, “there was no room for them in the inn”. And shortly afterwards, the amazing flight into Egypt, during the night. A 500 km trip to the unknown, with the fear of being caught by the criminal troops of Herod.

 

In all these circumstances, the best of us would have got impatient with God and with their entourage. We would have been irritable, depressed and our sad mood would have contagiously spread to other family members.

 

But Mary’s and Joseph’s love for God and their mutual love immensely grew amidst so keenly felt trials.
On this beautiful feast day, let us learn how to persevere in charity. It is not an optional virtue.
Charity is essential to enter heaven, that is to join the large family of God in heaven.

 

Fr. Wailliez