Homily for the week of December 26, 2010

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, 2010

Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14

Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

Today there are about 214 million international migrants in the world, a number that has doubled in the last 30 years. We hear a lot about those from Mexico and Central America who want to come to the United States, but we hear very little about the Catholics in Iraq and in China who are leaving those countries so that they can practice their Catholic religion without being afraid of being killed in church or on the streets.

In a sense the Holy Family was also migrant family. Today’s Gospel tells of Joseph’s dream in which he is told that Herod intends to kill the baby Jesus. Joseph and Mary flee with Jesus to Egypt, a traditional place of refuge for Jews. They faced a treacherous desert crossing. The Gospel does not give us the details, but we can only imagine Mary and Joseph’s fear as they travel under the cover of darkness and all the hardships they endured. When they arrived in Egypt they had to navigate an unfamiliar language and culture. Who helped them along the way? How did Joseph find work? When could they get back to Nazareth?

We know very little about the Holy Family. Matthew tells us that Mary and Joseph returned with Jesus and live in Nazareth. Luke tells us about the family going to Jerusalem for the Passover, and they lost Jesus in the Temple for about 3 days. This is all!

This weekend we have come to Mass and church to honor the Holy Family of Nazareth -- the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and to honor all families -- to honor your family. Certainly the Holy Family was very different than any of your families, but in many ways it had the same daily needs as your family.

Each of us have a different experience of family depending on the family in which we live or were brought up, or we are forming. We have all sorts of understandings of family. Families come in a lot of shapes and sizes. The so-called traditional family is becoming a smaller and smaller majority. Single parent families, foster families, and blended families make up a large percentage of families in today’s society. In addition to all of these families, for many people family can mean more than those to whom we are biologically related. Some of you may understand family as those group of closely-linked, mutually supportive persons with whom you frequently interact. However, regardless of your understanding of family, the Holy Family of Nazareth can give us something to consider. It can be a model for the Christian family.

The life of the Holy Family was unique in the world. Its life was passed in silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution and exile. The family faithfully practiced their Jewish faith, The Holy Family glorified God in an incomparably exalted and glorified way.

Fortunately, most of us value our family and understand its importance for the formation of good and deceit children. Unfortunately, at times we can get caught up with the routines and demands of daily living and do not take the time to take care of this treasure known as family.

Experience tells us that our religious development is based on the type of family relationship in which we grew up. Our image and understanding of God and what God is like is patterned closely on our image of and our relationship with our own father. A child rejected by a father, a child for whom a father is only a punisher, a child who has never known a father, may find it hard or nearly impossible to believe that God loves this boy or girl. The Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, would be hard to understand.

Often kids do not find the models of family around them, and unfortunately they model themselves after actors they see in the movies, or even the other kids in school or on their school bus. Children watch; they listen; they learn. For good or bad, what parents have patterned in their own lives will be mirrored back in their children. Often at an early age parents have lost any influence on their children.

Children and teenagers, for the most part, are not harmed by the small nagging and quarrelling that may go on between their father and mother. But if they see or sense that their parents or stepparents has no real love for them, it is almost impossible for them to believe or accept the basic truth of our religion that God loves us, and that God cares for us, and even forgives us.

On this feast of the Holy Family, recall the times members of your family have cared for you, have hugged you or held your hand or showed other signs of caring. Think also of someone in your family who needs your forgiveness. Think of someone you know who looks up to you. How can you help them to see that they too have good qualities and are looked up to by others? How do you treat others? How do you behave in public or when you think no one is looking? What is one way that you try to grow in holiness? Let the images of family in our bible readings for today find an application to your understanding of family -- your family.

As we gaze upon the Nativity scene, ask Joseph and Mary and Jesus to help us to be holy parents, holy husbands, holy wives, holy children, holy grandparents. This may well be the best contribution we could ever make to our society and to our family.