Homily, Holy Family
From The Pastor
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In every sense of the word, as we travel through the octave of Christmas, we are in a holy week. An octave is an eight-day period used by the Church to continue the celebration of important feasts. This is the case for both Christmas and Easter. The celebration of the feast, in this case the Birth of Christ, is extended to further reflect on and soak in the mystery of this Divine action. The coming of Christ has radically changed the world not only through the redemption of Jesus, but also in the transcendence of the Divine within and among us.
This week also celebrates the feast of the Holy Family, the blessing of a New Year, and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and Epiphany next Sunday. These days are packed with opportunities to ponder and soak in the reality of the Divine action of God who sanctifies the world through the Incarnation.
Why do we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family? What does it mean and intend to convey to us? This feast highlights the effect of the Incarnation. The ‘family’ of God in the Holy Trinity is now united with and joined to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In Jesus, God joins the human family through the motherhood of Mary. The family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are holy because they have accepted and surrendered to the invitation to be instruments of God’s will. With faith and commitment, they suffered the trials of birthing a child, raising him, keeping him from harm, and allowing him to become the Savior he was given to be. Mary persevered through the suffering of his Cross.
Despite and within their holiness, the gospel today is a good example of the irritations, misunderstandings, and inconvenience of keeping up with a maturing young adult. Even in their deep love for Jesus they had to learn the manner of his being as he realized and discovered his true identity in the Father. Did Jesus intend to frustrate and scare his parents? I think not. His heart had turned toward his Father, and nothing would distract him from this Divine relationship.
As for the Holy Family, so for our families. Families are a place of primary formation for life, love, faith, and maturing virtue. God is present in all families as they journey through the joy and trials that life will inevitably bring. The reading from the Book of Sirach honors both parents and children. With love, couples blest their children with the disciplines of love, respect, obedience, reverence, honor, and responsibility. In turn, children will honor, obey, and serve them when they are old. Notice the blessings that come from the holiness of honoring one’s parents in their time of need; sins are forgiven, prayers will be heard, and you will live a long life.
Why does Sirach offer these blessings? One obvious directive is the Fourth Commandment to honor thy father and thy mother. The Book of Sirach was written about two hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Clearly, there was no social security at the time. The children were the security and stability for older parents. The parents were dependent on the reverence, respect, and practical support of their children. This becomes the fruit of obeying the Fourth Commandment. So powerful is this work of reverence and justice that sins will be forgiven, prayers will be heard, and long life will be offered.
The second reading from the Letter of St. John gives us another vantage point of today’s feast. With the birth of Christ, God joins the human family. God unites the Divine nature to our human nature. This is nothing we can do for ourselves. It is a work of God accepted in faith and experienced through the grace of God given in the Lord Jesus. What is that grace? As the Father loves his Son, so does the Father love those united to Him through the redemption of Jesus. What the Father sees and loves in his Son, he sees and loves in each of us.
Jesus is our brother. In Jesus we are received into the family of God, united to the Father through the dying and rising of the Son. ‘See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.’ This gift of unity is realized in the reconciliation accomplished on the Cross fulfilling the purpose of the Incarnation. It is the confirmation of the love God has for us in the desire to free us from the separation caused by sin. Our identity is now beloved sons and daughters of God given in Christ.
These mysteries of our faith are worthy of our pondering and reflection. The words and ideas are familiar to us, but the mysteries they convey deserve our prayerful attention to value their deepest truths. Pay attention to the meaning of Christmas this week, the gift of the Holy Family, and how you work to make your family a place of love, respect, reverence, and honor. God bless you all.
Father John Esper
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