Young Adults of St Francis

by Rev. Fr. Vincent Anyama

Parochial Vicar, St. Francis Catholic Church, Frisco.

The New Family of God

As a young lad, Christmas season was my favorite season, not so much because of the Christmas decorations and gifts, but more so because it was time to travel as family from the city where we lived, to the home where grandma and grandpa lived. It was also a time to see aunts, uncles and cousins who travelled to visit our grandparents as well.

While we know that Christmas is a time of family, we also remember that it is a time when God began to create a new kind of family on earth. At the birth of Jesus, God entered into our human family, so that we may be able to share in his divine family. What does the divine family look like? Well, the manger scene can give us the answer. In the manger where Jesus was born, we see baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We do not see the aunts and uncles of Jesus, or even the grandparents, rather we see the shepherds and wise men.

Who are the shepherds and the wise men? The shepherds are usually poor, dirty, ignorant and lawless folks, the kind of people that you see on the streets and you run away. The wise men are travelers from a distant place, who found divine wisdom in a cow shade in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.

So what does the new family of God look like? It is the family were the poor find their dignity, where immigrants find a home, where the marginalized find their human voice and where the learned find true wisdom. So as we enjoy Christmas with our family, we remember those families who are experiencing some crisis or are in some type of difficulty; for divided families; for families where the father or mother is missing and where the remaining parent must assume sole responsibility for the children.