The Family - the Basic Unit of Society

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Feast of the Holy Family (Basic readings, not the options for Year B or C)

Merry Christmas! This is the proper greeting for today, since we are still within the Octave of Christmas, and today is the 6th day of that Octave! The Church gives us this Feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas to further focus our attention on the mystery of the Incarnation: Jesus not only took on flesh and dwelt among us as one like us in all things but sin, He didn’t just enter into the individual human condition, but He also entered fully into human society.

The basic unit of society is NOT the individual… no individual is self-sufficient… our DNA and bodies come from our parents, and we have to be fed and tended with great care for many years before we come anywhere near taking care of ourselves! At the end of our lives we once again depend heavily on others for basic bodily care, and at every moment of our lives in between we are by nature, by God’s design, members of a family, and members of the human family. In a world so focused on “ME,” it is only by an intentional choice that we will live in touch with the fundamental reality that we are not self-sufficient, and that our lives do not in fact make much sense except in relationship with God and others. Jesus Himself entered into this fundamentally communal reality at His conception, He became a member of a family, and a town, and a nation.

The family is a complicated reality to approach from the standpoint of faith, because in every time and place there have been families. What structures family is marriage – the particular relationship between a man and a woman who are potentially a mother and a father. There are certainly instances where the conception of a new life is not physically possible, but the basic reality of family is structured by marriage and oriented toward the possibility of children. This reality is evident in every society in every time and place. There are variations, and various degrees to which particular cultures respected the equal dignity of men, women, and children, but nonetheless marriage is not the particular expression of one culture or religion, but a basic human reality found wherever there are humans.

It is this basic human reality, woven into our very being, that God elevated, blessed, and purified through His self-revelation. First amongst the Jewish people, and then in a fuller and fuller way in the Christian community, marriage took on a clearer and clearer form – a covenant between a man and a woman who freely and knowingly commit themselves to be totally faithful to each other until death and open to the possibility of life. Even in our first reading from the Book of Sirach we don’t find the full expression of Christian marriage, but notice how each member of the family, father, mother, and each child, are called to honor and respect and serve each other in kindness and love. Place this against the backdrop of the pagan world where wives and children were often treated as mere possessions to be bought and sold!  A helpful way to summarize this fullness of God’s teaching on marriage is to use four adjectives: free, total, fruitful, and faithful. We could unpack each one of those adjectives at great length, and maybe we will at another time!

I think anyone who opens their eyes and looks around in our society can easily recognize that marriage and family are under great pressure and even attack, and that, on average, our family structures are slowly falling apart around us. Everyone suffers from this: kids without parents, parents trying to do their best without spouses, and everyone else who’s caught in the middle. Marriage as the Church understands it, marriage as a sacrament, a covenant, that fundamentally structures family life is difficult… without God’s it’s not at all plausible or realistic. With God all things are possible, but as every married couple here present can attest to, that doesn’t make it easy.

Listen to Paul’s advice to the Colossians, and imagine how you might apply it in your family relationships:

Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

This advice applies to each one of us in all situations, but especially in family life.

The incident recorded in our Gospel today alerts us to the full reality of Jesus family life: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have a miscommunication and misunderstanding that leads Mary and Joseph into no little difficulty and fear. They can’t find the child entrust to them by God! If such difficulty can be present in a family where two of the three people involved are without sin, how much more so in our own families!

With Christmas we have entered into the 2nd phase of our Year of Faith. After focusing on the Sacrament of Penance, in step with the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass, now we are moving into the Liturgy of the Word, with a focus on Sacred Scripture. In the midst of all the difficulties that each family faces, one very powerful way that we can center our family life on God is to place the Word of God in place of honor in our homes, and in our time. If a family begins to allow itself to be shaped by God’s word, each member individually and the family as a whole, then God’s grace will be more and more at work in them and through them. As the family goes, so goes society... it is ONLY by seeking conversion in our individual lives and in the lives of our families that we can hope to change the world!

Listen now to Bishop Sample’s invitation to each of us during this second moment of the Year of Faith:

BISHOP SAMPLE’S SCRIPT: SECOND MOMENT OF THE YEAR OF FAITH CD

“This is Bishop Alexander Sample. It gives me great joy to welcome all of you to this second moment in our celebration of the Year of Faith. This period will run from Christmas until Holy Week. And this part of the Year of Faith will focus on the part of the Holy Mass that we call the Liturgy of the Word. And we will focus during this time on the Sacred Scriptures, on the Bible. As we celebrate at Christmas time the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, we will celebrate God’s Word in a very special way. We will take a closer look at what God has revealed to us in His Holy Word, in the Sacred Scriptures.

I ask you during this period of the Year of Faith to open your hearts and your minds to God as he speaks to us in the Sacred Scripture, in his Holy Word. During this time, we will try to teach all of you to take a more focused look at the Holy Bible. We hope to teach you how to study the Bible, how to pray with the Word of God, to meditate upon the words of Scripture and to apply the words of the Bible to your own lives. God’s Word is a living Word, and it speaks to each one of us today.

As a way of introducing all of us to this moment of our Year of Faith, we are going to ask that each one of us enthrone the Holy Bible in our homes. We will provide a ritual to use for you and your family to create that special place of honor in your home for the Word of God. We will also provide a reading plan for you, asking that you, individually and as a family, take time each week to read the Holy Scriptures. We will focus on the Gospel of St. Luke, which is the Gospel that the Church gives us during this year.

I ask that each one of you draw closer to God through his Holy Word during this time. God will speak to you and will draw you closer into communion with himself and in his mercy and love. God bless each and every one of you.”

+ A. M. D. G. +