We need the Holy Family's help!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Feast of the Holy Family, Year A

The great and central mystery of Christmas, and the entire Christmas season, is the Incarnation: God taking on flesh and dwelling among us. Jesus is fully God and fully man, both the Second Person of the Trinity, AND like us in all things but sin. We refer to this as a mystery for very good reason… we can bring one aspect of that into focus, into view, at a time, but trying to see both at once blurs our vision. God reveals Himself, but since He is infinite, we can never quite grasp all th

at He is and all that He does.

The Christmas season gives us a series of vivid images that point toward this mystery… we have Mary and Joseph making their way to Bethlehem, Mary great with child, Joseph attentive and worried. We have the manger scene, where the Christ Child is both terribly vulnerable, and also aglow with glory and beauty. The wise and learned Magi kneel before Him, as do the smelly poor shepherds. Angel choirs sing Gloria, and the animals also look on.

This Sunday between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God is dedicated then to the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and here too we have a vivid image that speaks to us of the mystery of who Jesus is… He not only takes on human flesh, but He is born, and raised, and lives in the natural human context, the family. Blessed John Paul II constantly insisted that the family is the basic unit of society, not the individual: no one of us here created ourselves or cared for ourselves. Our families are the soil in which we grew, the soil without which we could not be here. And when God came among us, He came into this part of our human experience as well.

It might surprise you that our feast today only goes back about 90 years as a universal celebration, although devotion to the Holy Family is much older. Pope Leo XIII got the ball rolling in 1892 by declaring the feast, and it became universal in 1921. I think you can see God’s hand very much at work here, because the last century has been particularly challenging for families.

Notice, too, that even though Mary and Jesus were both without sin, and Joseph was a very good man, that didn’t mean their family life was easy! In our Gospel we hear of their precipitous departure from Bethlehem, as Joseph is prompted to rescue his family from King Herod’s brutal slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Can you imagine what Mary must have been thinking? She’s bearing the Son of God, but that’s not enough… first she has to give birth in a strange place, in a stable, and then suddenly they have to head for a foreign country! Jesus experienced the blessing of family life from the beginning, but also many of the hardships.

I think we can all relate to that! As I’ve made reference to several times recently, even our joyful family gatherings during this Christmas season can be fraught with tension… we don’t get to choose our families, and so our ability to love is truly tested and deepened. Not only does our Feast of the Holy Family remind us of the fullness of Jesus’ humanity and human experience, but it also offers the Holy Family to us as a source of inspiration and intercession in our own family journey.

First, Sirach expands on the 4th Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” Notice how it isn’t conditional, “Honor your parents when they’re right or when they’re reasonable, or when you agree with them!” We’re not called to love and honor and be patient with our parents because they’ve earned it, but because it’s the right thing to do. Even if our relationship with our parents involves deep wounds, God still calls us to offer respect and love. We can’t do this on our own, but we can do it with God’s help!

St. Paul highlights the virtues we need to ask for:

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. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful.

St. Paul knows what we’re up against, that’s why he names these virtues so specifically! His final paragraph sometimes raises concern that he’s endorsing chauvinism, but if we read it in context of his other passages on this topic, we know that St. Paul is talking about mutual self-giving, mutual dying to self, in Christ. In fact, if anyone is given stricter instructions, it’s the husbands! In Ephesians 5 he echoes this passage, and adds, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church.” Men.. how did Christ love His Church? By going to the Cross for her, for us! Jesus gives us the example in all walks of life, but perhaps especially in marriage… and that example is the example of deep self-sacrifice, deep dying to self and deep giving of self, and that rule holds for parents, children, husbands, and wives, for every Christian.

Finally, I’d just like to say a word about a family topic that I know is on many of our hearts… the sadness we often feel as we see our family members drifting away from the Faith, or abandoning it outright. Once or twice I’ve had someone come up to me and say, “Father, you’ve got to get my son back to church!” I appreciate the vote of confidence, but this isn’t a contract service that you can outsource to me! In fact, it’s a basic duty that flows directly from our baptism for EVERY one of us here. How does God intend to draw our spouses or children or parents or grandchildren or cousins back to our parish and back to Himself? I am certain that you and I are right at the heart of that plan. Every one of you here probably knows at least 5 people LOCALLY who could and should be with us at this Mass… and there’s no better way for God to reach out to them than through you!

How are we to bring them back, to draw them back to the fire? Listen once more to St. Paul’s instructions:

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.

Our invitation and desire becomes fruitful when it is rooted in our own struggle for conversion and holiness, when daily prayer and Sunday Eucharist and regular confession are at the heart of our lives. May the Holy Family intercede for us and inspire us as we approach this altar now, and may we bring everyone we love to this altar in our hearts!

+ A. M. D. G. +