HOMILY – FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY Year C

Faith in Jesus and Love for Others

(1 Samuel 1:11, 20-22, 24-28; Psalm 84; 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; Luke 2:41-52)

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Traditionally, the Sunday within the octave of Christmas is the Feast of the Holy Family. This feast offers us an opportunity to reflect on the nature and importance of family life for us all. As the basic unit of society, the family gives life, nurturance and support throughout our journey. Families are the first and best place for God’s love to come alive in us.

Saint Pope Paul VI highlights three aspects of family life we can learn from the Holy Family: the importance of contemplative prayer from the silence of Nazareth, the importance of the family unit, and the sacredness of work and activity, even children doing their chores, as a family.

The second reading provides us with a very clear message that underlies this feast: Believe in Jesus and love one another.

In the first reading, we are presented with a strong model of faith and belief in God in the person of Hannah and her prayer “in the house of the Lord at Shiloh.” We were fortunate during our recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land to visit Shiloh, and learned that was where the Israelites built the first transitional “tabernacle” after wandering for forty years in the wilderness with a portable tabernacle they took apart and re-assembled every time they moved.

Hannah had prayed to God with great faith for a child, and her prayer was answered. Now in an even greater act of faith, she offered her child to the service of the Temple. What faith she had to make so great a sacrifice!

In a like manner, we are asked to place our faith in God, and more specifically, in Jesus as the Son of God, as the savior given to us that first Christmas, and as Risen Lord after his resurrection from the dead.

Today’s feast invites us to express our faith in Jesus as a family. One of the best ways to do that is to worship on Sunday as a family. Even if that involves some sacrifice, what a beautiful way to express our faith – to attend mass, to help out any way we can, to listen to the readings together, to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus together, and hopefully to share what that experience was for us afterwards as a family.

I remember how our family used to drive eight miles on gravel roads to attend the Eucharist in Delmas, the nearest parish. I recall especially the peace we experienced in the car as we travelled home together as a family after the Eucharist. Our family also used to pray the rosary kneeling around the kitchen table in May and October, the months of Mary. I recall again how there was always such a profound peace in the house after the rosary. In fact, I attribute that peace, that experience of God, to my vocation as a priest.

Another way that families can pray together is to read the bible and study it together. That is perhaps more challenging, and unfortunately rarely done, but what better way to grow in faith than to listen to and study God’s word together as a family?

The second part of the message from the second reading is to love one another. We can only imagine what the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was like – how great was their love for one another. That love is shown through the great anxiety they felt until they found Jesus in the Temple being about his Father’s business. We are called to model our family life after the Holy Family.

Interestingly, what children need more than parents’ love for them, is the parents love for each other. That obvious love for each other is what gives children security and confidence. I recall an incident when I was picking up a woman to go to a conference. Her husband was dropping her off at a designated place with their teenage son and daughter. As the father was about to leave, the girl asked her dad if he was going to give her mom a kiss. As he was about to give her a kiss on her cheek, the son blurted out, “On the lips, on the lips.” Those two young people needed to see the love their parents had for each other.

On their part, children must obey and respect their parents. There is nothing more hurtful than to see children disrespect and disobey their parents. I was visiting an elder in her home once when I actually witnessed one of the grandchildren come in, take money from her purse, and run out without even bothering to ask for it. The pained look on the grandmother’s face was so sad and unforgettable.

Above all, members of a family are asked to learn to forgive each other past hurts. Jesus taught us in Matthew 18:15 how to forgive: If someone hurts you, go to that person and let them know how you feel as a way of forgiving, then let it go.

Jesus also teaches us in Matthew 5:23-24 how to apologize if we have hurt another member of the family. We are to go to that person and ask them how they feel about what we have done, then listen to their pain, as a way of allowing them to begin to forgive us.

After both our parents had passed away, I invited my siblings to a family retreat. We went to the family farm where we had grown up and spent the day together as a family open to healing. Realizing we had drifted apart over the years, we first shared our stories about what we had done and where we were during those years. Then we did some family imaging, each one coming up with an image to describe our family. One mentioned we were like canoes drifting along, sometimes bumping into each other. Another spoke of a shattered vase of pottery being put back together. A third saw the family as a wagon wheel with no rim, just spokes going out in all directions. We then celebrated the Eucharist together, gave each other hugs at the kiss of peace, and made a commitment to keep on growing closer together as a family. Finally, we had a family meal to celebrate our healing work as a family. Now, we are much more affectionate with each other and closer as a family.

The Eucharist on this Feast of the Holy Family is our faith family meal. We are all brothers and sisters, children of God, and so we can eat at this common table.

May our celebration today strengthen our family life, and help us to live out the message of this feast, to truly believe in Jesus and to love one another from the heart.