Paul's Reflections 26th December, 2010 Holy Family. Year A

26th December, 2010      Holy Family. Year A

In many ways, today’s feast and readings continue on the Christmas message….

 

And it continues on my point from the homily at Christmas…….   God is truly with us on our lives and the ordinary and daily events of our lives….

 

“It is about 402 kilometres from Jerusalem to Cairo. Not bad if you have a plane or car.  But of course, no such luxuries were available in Jesus’ time.

 

I doubt the Holy Family- even had a donkey or a camel

 

In any case, it would have been a very difficult and uncertain journey.

 

Centuries earlier, the Chosen people, the Israelites, journeyed through that same desert, looking endlessly for the promised land;

 

Mary and Joseph journeyed too, but with God literally right in their laps the whole time.

 

Not to downplay the difficulties and challenges, but it must have made the journey survivable knowing that God was truly with them in their struggles and difficulties.

 

We, too, (in a symbolic sense)……wander through many deserts on our way through life, sometimes forgetting that the child Jesus is right there in our hearts.

As he spiritual writer Thomas Merton once said….  “The journey to God is a journey inwards…..”    we are searching and trying to find God is right there in our hearts…”(1)

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

REFERENCES:

 

FR. PAUL W. KELLY

(1) MY DAILY VISITOR REFLECTION, December 26^th. Holy Family.