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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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Holy Family
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Feast of the Holy Family - B Cycle - Luke 2:22-40
Two thirds of United States families do not eat
their meals together. Of the third who do, 50% are watching TV during
the meal. The average child over 8 watches three and a half hours of TV
daily, largely because the tired parents use the TV as a baby sitter at
the end of a long day. (Economic Policy Institute)
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere
anarchy is loosed on the world." When poet WB Yeats penned these lines,
he might have been speaking of contemporary family life.
The Feast of the Holy Family is not as old as
one mightthink. Its origins are found only in the seventeenth
century.
In a Church, whose bloodline runs back two thousand years, three or
four centuries are not a long time.
In the first sixteen centuries of our Church,
solemn
veneration of Mary, her husband, and her Son was a non-event.
There was little need to offer the Holy Family as a model, for
family life was largely in a healthy condition.
But then came the Industrial Age and the birth
of cities. Serious problems appeared on the family horizon. Strategist
that she is, the Church looked about for a counterforce. Cleverly she
hit upon devotion to the Holy Family. Yet Mary, her husband, and her
Son had to wait until 1921 before today's official feast was created.
It was then the threesome of Nazareth officially became the First
Family of Christendom west and east.
Family life today is a most difficult pursuit.
One thinks of divorce, the scourge of alcohol and narcotics, the
breakdown of discipline, and all the rest of the unhappy lot.
We should pay attention to St Paul's letter to the
Colossians in Asia Minor. Apparently word had reached Paul that
Christian families in Colossae were falling apart. And so he notes the
qualities that must be in a Christian home.
Sit back and
allow Paul's magnificent words to seep into
your spirit. "Bear with one another. Forgive one another...
Over all these put on love...Christ's peace must reign in your
hearts...Be thankful...Wives, cherish your husbands...Husbands, love
your wives...Children, obey your parents in everything."
What a home it would be were one to find all
the qualities Paul enumerates! They would be Hall of Fame material.
People would fight to visit and just hope the family magic would rub
off on them and their families. Why not allow it to be your home?
Arthur Tonne illustrates my point with a
wonderful tale.
George was becoming old and infirm. He had been a bachelor sailor most
of his life. His nephew Bill invited him to move in with his family.
George gladly accepted. Now Bill, who had never traveled, did so by
listening to the many journeys of his uncle.
George noticed there were times that Bill was
fed up with family life - arguments with his wife, bills, kids'
sickness, etc. He told his uncle more than once, "I wish I was free to
roam the world as you did."
One evening over supper, the old sailor told
the family
of a map of buried treasure in his possession.Bill stored
the information away. A year after that, George died. The nephew looked
through his few possessions for the map. Sure enough he found an
envelope addressed to himself. It was the hoped for map. It took him
but a moment to read it. It led to the very house in which he stood.
The dead salt was telling him, "Your own home and your own family are
your treasure. Don't blow it. Enjoy them."
Some of you may be saying, "Come
out of the clouds, padre. How can we relate to the Holy Family? Joseph
was a celibate. Mary a virgin. Jesus the Son of God."
We do Mary, Joseph, and Jesus a wrong if we
fantasize their lives. Take the Christmas stable for openers. We
picture it as something out of a glossy House Beautiful magazine. But
be real. Stables are constructed not for families but for livestock.
That Christmas stable was crawling with dangerous vermin and foul
odors. There were no pampers nor fresh water. Imagine the drafts. Mary
and Joseph had to be sick with worry for the Infant's health. And where
would the next meal for the Baby come from?
Consider, too, the teen years of Jesus. Most
teens believe
they know everything. Can you even speculate how difficult it
had to be to raise one who did?
We celebrate today not the feast of the Perfect
Family but the feast of the Holy Family.
Do you still find it difficult to relate with
such a family?
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Holy Family
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Being a Holy Family
We
Americans are a competitive people.We have this drive to always
want to be better than someone else. As a result we spend a lot of
energy comparing ourselves, or our situations with those with whom we
work, live near, etc.In many ways this is healthy.I want
a doctor who does everything she or he can to be better than every
other doctor. The same can be applied to every service orientated
position, or even to any person we work with or for.
However, we would be wrong if we were to apply this natural competitive
attitude to our families.It is neither just nor wise for us to
compare our families to our neighbors. Yet, so many of us do
this."I wish my marriage was as happy as theirs.I wish my
children got along as well as theirs.I wish our family was as
strong as theirs."This is wrong because, first, every family is
a unique relationship of singular individuals. It is impossible for two
families to be identical. Second, every family has challenges which
usually are not apparent to the eye of the envious neighbors.
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family.In our natural
competitive attitude, we are tempted to look at the Holy Family as an
ideal we can not realize in our families.But, Jesus, Mary and
Joseph had their share of struggles.The trust which is
fundamental to a marriage was challenged by the pregnancy.Joseph
must have felt terrible when he had to bring his wife to a stable to
have the child.Living in a foreign land, Egypt, away from family
and traditions, was far from ideal.Still, the Holy Family made
it through the difficulties of their family life for one reason only:
they had great faith.Joseph had faith inthe angel of his
dreams and treated the pregnant Mary in an honorable way.He had
faith that God would help him protect the child, and he moved the
family to Egypt.Mary had faith both in the angel and in God's
working through Joseph.Jesus, having emptied himself of his
divinity, had faith in his parents to care for him.Some of the
pious Christian works of the second and third centuries didn’t
understand this.The apocryphal gospels, like the Gospel of
Thomas, which have never even remotely been considered Sacred
Scripture, would present the child Jesus performing miracles to help
his family even in everyday chores, like changing rocks to bread so
Mary would not have to bake.(By the way the apocryphal gospels
also had Jesus doing distinctly unchristian actions like beating up the
local village bullies.) The child Jesus didn’t need to perform
miracles.He had all the miracles he needed in parents who cared
for him.
The
Holy Family conquered their struggles through their faith-life.
This must be the primary concern of our families.For example, so
many single parents waste energy wishing that their marriage had worked
out and their children could be with both their parents.It does
no good to long for that which is not probable.Instead, the
single parent should focus on establishing a strong Christian
home.Or so many parents wish they had the financial resources of
their neighbors to be able to provide so much more for their
children.What children need is a Christian home, not the things
that the neighbor’s kids have.
The
readings for this Sunday present some aspects of a Christian home. The
first reading from Sirach says that children need to respect their
parents.At first it refers to young children as it notes that
mothers and fathers have their authority from God.Then it refers
to older children when it says that children should take care of their
parents when they age.Little childrenlearn respect for their
parents from the respect they see their parents giving each other and
the respect their parents have for their grandparents.I have
always believed that the way you treat your parents will be the way
your children will treat you. If your relations with your parents are
motivated by respect and love, and are evident in your kindness to
them, your children will have learned this aspect of Christianity and
will treat you the same way as your years mount.
The
second reading deals with the interrelationships of the family.
Paul tells the Colossians and us to deal with each other out of
kindness, to be patient with each other, to forgive each other
continually, not to let out pride determine what we say and do to each
other. If we strive to live this way, than as a family we
can pray together not just in Church, but in every aspect of our
lives."Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in
the name of the Lord." Paul goes on to mention the roles of a family in
his epoch.At that time the equality of women was not
recognized.In the Roman empire women were seen as property that
needed to be protected by their fathers ortheir husbands.
The respect given to a woman was different from that given to a
man.That's why we have the phrase, wives be submissive to your
husbands.Closely followed by husbands love your wives.The
heart of this reading is that husbands and wives must respect each
other.This same line of thought continues with children being
told to respect their parents, and parents being told not to nag, to
continually find fault, with their children.
A
few years ago one of the finest men I have ever met died of a massive
heart attack on Christmas day.One day about ten years ago he
spoke to me about his daughters who were in their early twenties at the
time.He said to me, “My girls are really good kids.Yeah,
they both made mistakes and had babies before the married, but that
doesn’t change the fact that they are both good kids.”Those are
the words of a father who was disappointed, true,but not to the
degree that it changed the deep respect he had for his children.
My thought is that the reason why the girls were such good kids and why
they both went on to be good mothers and wives, was because they were
treated with respect by their father, and mother for that matter, and
they returned this with respect and deep love.By the way, the
gentleman passed away after opening up a gift that the families of the
two girls gave him on Christmas Day.God bless him and God bless
all parents who never let anything diminish their respect for their
children.And God bless children who receive and return their
parents’ love.That is what Colossians, the second reading is
about.
Today’s Gospel is acted out almost every Sunday here at St. Ignatius.
Mary and Joseph went to the temple holding Jesus.Simeon and Anna
made a fuss.This happens here also. Just about every
week one of our couples come in to the church holding their newborn
child.There joy is indescribable.“Look who we have with
us,” they say before they ever open their mouths.I make believe
I’m surprised even though I may haveseen the expectant Mom every
week.I love seeing the babies,and I enjoy making a fuss.
And I love seeing the huge change in the parents who present their
first child.One young couple told me something that I know all
of you realized when he came home from the hospital with that first
child.They said, “You know, we can’t come and go and do the
things we did before we had the baby, but we have so much more
now.Life was great before, but much better now.”
I
love seeing how much you love your children.I love the fact that
you all are determined to provide the best for your children.Let
me remind you, to be the best parents you can be, remain grounded in
the Lord.Make prayer a part of your home life.Pray with
your children at bedtime and pray for them after they fall
asleep.Teach your children respect.Let them witness your
respect for them, for each other, and for others and demand that they
respect others, including you.
Do
your best, and trust God to do the rest.
May
all our families be Holy Families.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
Holy Family
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Holy Family
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December
28th 2008
Holy Family Sunday
Background:
One might almost want to accuse Jesus of violating “family
values” in today’s gospel story. He is surely acting in with some lack
of consideration for his parents. Perhaps the origins of the story are
in an attempt – always strong in the Gospels if underplayed by some
contemporary Christians-- to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. In
any case we have here one more story that indicates how ordinary and
human the Holy Family seemed to be. In the so-called “hidden years”
Jesus stayed well hidden. It’s not altogether clear what “family
values” means today. It does not seem to preclude adultery or divorce
because of its most vigorous proponents are publicly guilty of both –
and show no remorse. All it seems to stand for is punitive attitudes
towards gays and opposition to feminism. In any case authentic family
values would emphasize respect for the dignity of all members of the
family regardless age or gender. That comes hard for some kinds of
people, especially men.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a family which decided that it wanted
to go away for Christmas to some place warm – the family lived in one
of the snow belts. Actually it was only the mother who wanted to go.
The kids objected because they wanted to spend Christmas with the
friends. The father objected because he liked to shovel snow with his
power-driven snow plow. The dogs didn’t get to vote because they
wouldn’t go to a warmer climate anyway but to a kennel (where they
would make themselves right at home with the other Christmas orphan
dogs). Anyway the mother wanted to go away more than the others didn’t
so she won the argument, though neither side was completely gracious.
WELL, they left in plenty of time for the airport, but got caught in a
traffic jam and missed their plane by five minutes. They had to sleep
at the airport and catch a plane the next morning. Unfortunately the
morning plane was cancelled and they had to wait stand-by for the
afternoon flight on which they all got on (though spread out all over
the cabin) at the last minute. The plane was late in landing at the
warm place, because of thunder storms and high winds. They got to their
hotel to find that their reservations had been cancelled because they
had not show up in time. They were put in another hotel with a skimpy
and unheated pool, but that didn’t matter because the weather was so
bad that swimming was impossible. They played Jeopardy in the lobby of
the hotel. Only on the last day of their Christmas vacation did the
weather warm up and golf and tennis became possible. The mother felt
terrible, but the others said they didn’t mind because it had been a
fun trip anyway.
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
Holy Family
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Holy Family
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Holy Family
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
Holy Family |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author.
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