I’d like to welcome our visitors to Christ the Good Shepherd, to all of you who are spending the holidays here with family and friends. It’s especially good to have you with us this weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, when the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Those who are “regulars” at CGS know I always begin my homilies with a question … although, I admit, it’s been a while since my last question for you. My question is this: What is a Holy Family?
Is it a holy family when a teenage mother gives birth to a child and her husband is not the father? Is it a holy family when they are hounded by civil authority and … to escape death … have to emigrate to a new country? Is it a holy family when they can finally return to their homeland but must settle in a strange city in order to escape further persecution? Is it a holy family when the child leaves his home to pursue his calling elsewhere but is finally willing to return with his parents and be obedient to them. Is it a holy family when the husband dies and leaves his beloved wife in the care of a son, who shortly, thereafter, leaves her alone – so he can wander the countryside with his friends and teach them that they should live as free as lilies of the field or birds of the air? Is it a holy family when his every-suffering, ever-loving mother sees him thrown into jail, and hung, naked on a cross, accused of being an enemy of the state and a blasphemer of his God? If any of this happened in 2014, we might say this is a dysfunctional family and urge them to seek counseling.
Yet, it is just such a family we honor today with a special feast day, a day of celebration and remembrance. A family who suffered much … yet rejoiced greatly. A family who heard the words of a righteous and devout man called Simeon … who said to the Lord God that he could now die in peace, since he had seen the Salvation of the Chosen People of God and the light for the revelation to the Gentiles. A family who was told that they would suffer much, but one who, nevertheless, had heard the voice of angels and received gifts from magi from a far-off land.
Just what is a family and, in particular: what is a “holy” family? First of all, a family can be composed of the typical mother, father and a single child. A family can also have a single parent … mother or father … with one or more kids. A family can have birth children, adopted children, foster children or no children. A family can have stepparents and half-brothers or sisters. A family can have grandparents raising their grandchildren with their own child seldom in sight. In fact, there can also be families without even parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles around. There are some who work in an occupation where the members call one another “family.” Each of us can be part of the “family of Christ the Good Shepherd.” We can be part of the “family of humanity.” From time to time we even hear about a “family of nations.”
So, what is a family? A family is a set of relationships, not relatives; not merely those linked by blood or marriage, but by a relationship – a union of hearts and souls. The purpose or goal of a family is to seek harmony … harmony with one another, harmony with God. A holy family is to seek mutual salvation … a oneness with God, himself: with God the father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The question now becomes: how do we accomplish this? How do we become a family who seeks mutual salvation; how do we become a “holy family?” Of course there are many ways to become a “holy family.” But for now, let’s consider the opening line of today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. We heard Saint Paul’s statement: “By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.”
“By faith” … he listened intently to the Word of God and followed what the Lord God directed him to do. He listened and believed that the Word of God would become true. In our first reading from the Book of Genesis, we heard how Abraham wondered if his childlessness with his wife Sarah would lead to his steward, Eliezer, gaining all of his inheritance. To this concern, the Lord God responded: “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so … shall your descendants be.” And shortly afterwards, his 90-year-old wife Sarah, gave birth to their son Isaac. Abraham became the patriarch for the extended family of Jews, Christians and Muslims.
All of this came about because Abraham and Sarah listened intently to the Word of God. They were “obedient” to the Word of the Lord God. For you see, this is what the word “obedient” really means: to listen intently. To listen intently and undertake what has been heard – not by the ears but by the heart.
In today’s modern world it is very difficult to listen intently … to be obedient. Our modern technology forces us to hear … but not to listen. We hear events reported on television. We hear about violence in the world, but we seldom listen to the deeper meaning and feel compassion for the victims of this violence. We receive “tweets,” but we do not listen to the song of the birds-of-life around us. We hear the voices of our spouse but do not listen to the words they speak. The noise of surrounding chatter muffles our listening to family and friends who plead for help and desire our unconditional love. We ignore the “listening” that is demanded for us to become a holy family. We perceive the noise of living, but we ignore the angels of our dreams, our messengers from God … the messages given in our prayers … in our own conversations with God and within our families.
Recently we’ve been hearing about the Synod of Bishops who met to discuss the topic: “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” Their discussions about family life and spreading the Good News will continue to be held throughout the coming months. The bishops of the world will convene for their final session in September 2015 in Philadelphia. Pope Francis will be in attendance. Part I of their interim report bears the title: “Listening: the Context and Challenges of the Family.”
The importance of listening, of listening intently, of true obedience to family life cannot be ignored. We must go beyond merely “hearing” one another. To become a “holy family” we need to listen to all members of the family. We are taught repeatedly that each family is truly a “little church” … a domestic church. Together we become the gathering, the ecclesia, the universal Church.
In its message accompanying their interim report, the Bishops included several petitions … among which were the following I’d offer for our on-going prayers within our families:
● “Father, grant to all families the presence of strong and wise spouses who may be the source of a free and united family.
● “Father, grant that parents may have a home in which to live in peace with their families.
● “Father, grant that children may be a sign of trust and hope and that young people may have the courage to forge life-long, faithful commitments.
● “Father, grant to all that they may be able to earn bread with their hands, that they may enjoy serenity of spirit and that they may keep aflame the torch of faith even in periods of darkness.
● “Father, grant that we may all see flourish a Church that is ever more faithful and credible, a just and humane city, a world that loves truth, justice and mercy.”
Finally, we need to recall that although a Synod is an ecclesiastical assembly, the word, itself, comes from a Greek word meaning “to journey together.” In the coming months, may all of our domestic churches, the family churches of God – may we journey together with our clergy to seek out and to support the holy families among us. When the world’s bishops meet in their Synod in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, may all of us listen intently to the Word of God and remember that, according to John, it was not the voice of God, not the sound of God, which became enfleshed; but rather the Logos, the Word of God, that took on human form for our Salvation. It is this incarnation, we continue to celebrate throughout the Twelve days of Christmas. And so to each of you: a merry, a joy-filled Christmas and the best of wishes on this Feast of the Holy Family.
Feast of the Holy Family; December 28, 2014
Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Lk 2:22-40