Merry Christmas, Day 5!
Many of you know Deacon Jim Lee and his wife Mireya. Deacon Jim is more or less retired from the deacon biz now, but I always appreciated his homilies. I remember him preaching once on this very Feast of the Holy Family many years ago. He was chatting about his own family and quipped, “I used to wish that my kid would be more like Jesus. Then I realized that my kid would probably be more like Jesus if I were more like St. Joseph.”
As we celebrate the Feast of the Feast Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we can learn a lot from them on how we can each be “holy families.”
They faithfully practiced their faith — The scriptures tell us that the Holy Family did all the things a good, pious Jewish family would do…and more. They were faithful to the Law when they dedicated him in the Temple. We see today in Luke how they would go up to Jerusalem each year for the Passover. Something Jesus did well into adulthood all the way up to the end of his public ministry when he celebrated the Passover with his disciples in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.
They were each open to the will of God—Each member had to grapple with what God was asking them and then go forward living their lives accordingly. Mary was probably envisioning a very different life with Joseph when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the mother of the Savior. Yet, she responded in faith, saying, “Let it be done to me according to your will.” Joseph also had to change his plans when Gabriel told him that it was by the Holy Spirit that Mary had conceived. Then again, when he was told to flee into Egypt…and again when they returned to Nazareth. Finally, in his agony in the garden, Jesus asked that this cup might pass, but in the end said, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
They dealt with hardship and kept their faith in God and in each other—The circumstances of his birth in the stable and becoming political refugees fleeing from Herod are just two examples. I am particularly struck by how the Blessed Mother remained with Jesus all the way through his passion and death on the Cross. Even later, she stayed the course and remained with the disciples in the Upper Room. She was with the disciples in the Upper Room at Pentecost.
There are many, many other examples of how the Holy Family can teach us holiness, but let’s go with these three for now.
First, let us practice our faith.
Now, you have heard me say a few times this year that to be Catholic in the United States these days is to be countercultural.
Sometimes we may think that this is a recent phenomenon, but it has ALWAYS been so.
So, how can we live our faith in today’s world? Pretty simple really. The Church sanctifies three things: people, places and time. To sanctify someone or something, means to set it aside for God. Each household, such as it is, should do the same.
- Realize that you have been sanctified by your baptism. You are a holy people, a holy family, a household of grace, set aside by God for the sanctification of the world. And if not the whole world, then at least that little part of the world which with come into contact each day. Be the animators of grace in your neighborhood.
- This season, or next, put up a manger scene in your yard. John Thomas Williamson has a really cool one that he came up with made out of plywood and a few lights. It is really cool. If we are nice to him, maybe he will share with us the plans so we can each have one next year. Imagine the difference that would make?
- Sanctify space: Where does prayer happen in your home every day? You have a place to eat, a place to sleep, a place to watch TV, hopefully a place for your vehicle. Where is the space set aside for prayer each day? Get creative.
- Sanctify time:
- When does prayer happen each day in the home. This will change as the life within the home changes. Prayers that once took place at bedtime may move to right after dinner as the household gathers around the dinner or moves into the family room for a quick decade of the Rosary.
- Celebrate the holy seasons and feasts of the Church as part of the life of the home. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, feast days of the patron saints of members of household.
2. Living our faith and building that deep relationship with Christ and one another allows us to be open to the will of God for each member of our family.
In doing so, we are able recognize the gifts of others in the household and encourage those gifts to be used in a way that is pleasing to the giver within the family and the Church for the greater glory of Almighty God.
For ten years I was the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese. Do you know what the greatest biggest obstacle was for those who were discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life?
Parents. Specifically fathers who wanted their family name carried on and mothers who wanted grandchildren.
Now, neither of these are bad things, but if they are not the will of God for your child, you are doing them a great disservice and will find yourself fighting against God himself. Personally, I would not want to be in that position. You want your kid to be happy? Want the same thing that God wants for them. You’ll be glad you did. Celebrate each others gifts and vocation within the family and within the Church…for the world.
3. Finally, if we live our faith, if we are open to the will of God, then we are we may bear hardships that lead us and those around us to salvation.
I’ve said it many times.
Life is messy…and…God is faithful.
You can count on it.
Still, I cannot say how I have been inspired and lifted up by those who seem to be going through the worst of times. Yet through it all, they literally glow with the light of faith.
It is real and it is undeniable.
It was true for the Holy Family, who seemed to know no end of hardship in those early years.
Why would it not be true for us also?
The world and everything and everyone in it has limits.
Sometimes those limits manifest themselves in very tragic and troubling ways. So what?!
We have God and one another.
I know a woman who has had cancer two times, who has a 6’4” autistic son, who sometimes is more than a handful, and who by many measures of the world has had more than her share of heartbreak and hardship.
And yet she radiates a joy that is unmistakable.
When I asked her about it once, she said, “Well, you just have to realize that you are held.”
And so we return to the Holy Family
As Jesus was held in the arms of Mary and Joseph so too each of us is held precious in the arms of a loving God.
So let US be a holy family.
Let us practice our faith with courage and constancy,
Let us celebrate each other’s gifts for the glory of Almighty God
So that none of the troubles of this world or of anyone in it can ever separate us the love of God or one another.