December 30, 2018 Sunday,
Feast of the Holy Family 1st Reading: 1 Sam 1:20-22.24-28.
2nd Reading: 1 John 3:1-2.21-24. Gospel: Luke 2:41-52.
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”But they did not understand what he said to them.He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
If people like Joseph and Mary could lose Jesus, there is greater possibility that we’d also lose him, given the quality of our lifestyle, options, sinfulness and trepidation.
Lifestyle is one leading cause of losing God. St. Augustine says that the God who created us without consulting us will not save us without our consent. The message is clear: Divine initiative must be matched with human openness to grace. Sporting a lifestyle of godlessness disables God’s initiative to save us. We could lose God for good.
Another factor to consider is a person’s options. Life presents a spectrum of choices without clear delineation of where the good ends and where the bad begins. Only those whose fundamental option is for God can make the right choice.
The third and fourth factors are one’s sense of sin and trepidation. On the one hand, this generation is losing the sense of sin. Promiscuity, for example, has crept into the subconscious of young people as a form of heightened social awareness. Trepidation, on the other hand, is a state of fear and apprehension, which intensifies when faith is feeble. A trepid person still cries out to God, though. But his crying out is bereft of hope that a God out there really hears prayers. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected].
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