Fruits of the Jubilee Year
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for December 28, Feast of the Holy Family
Today in Churches around the world, the Jubilee Year officially comes to a close. In Rome itself, the Jubilee Year will end on the feast of the Epiphany.
As you look back on your experiences during this Jubilee Year, how did it go for you? What fruits or what did you expect to receive during this year? Where did you hope to be by the end of the year?
In our Gospel for today, we hear about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph’s fleeing into and eventual return from Egypt. In a sense, they too went on a “long pilgrimage” not unlike our Jubilee year. They were probably expecting to be able to return one day, but as we heard in today’s Gospel, they ended up having to go to Nazareth in Galilee instead. And whether they knew it or not, like their fleeing to Egypt, settling in Nazareth ended up fulfilling yet another prophecy.
Our expectations are probably the single biggest obstacle to taking the steps we know we need to take to follow God’s will in our lives. If we reflect on our own lives, and the life of the Holy Family, are not the most meaningful moments – the ones that we remember and retell – the very ones that did not go as expected? God, lead me beyond my expectations, into your loving plan for my life.
"As our faith grows, we will come to recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in many different ways: Sacred Scriptures, the Magisterium, the prescriptions of our Constitutions and Statutes, ecclesiastical and religious Superiors, personal inspirations, the consensus we arrive at when we collectively seek God’s will through dialogue and house meetings, the demands of common life and the apostolate and the events of daily life"