Homily for 27 Dec 2015

27 Dec 2015

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

One of the verses of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” goes like this: “O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.”  In Advent we prayed for Wisdom to come to us, and it did come to us (and keeps coming to us) in the person of Jesus.  Jesus is many things, of course, but one of those is Wisdom.

On this feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it’s good to see that Wisdom (among other things) is at the core of their life together.  And that isn’t necessarily wisdom in the sense of “being smart.”  It’s Wisdom in the sense of there being a partnership at work.  Obviously, if Wisdom is to passed along, there has to be a teacher and a student; there needs to be somebody who knows and somebody who’s learning. 

At the center of the “holiness” of the Holy Family is Wisdom.  Each person there: Jesus, Mary and Joseph is putting into practice that Wisdom which says: God alone is God.  Jesus is kind of a special case, of course, because he is God.  But, nonetheless, his relationship with the Father is such that he knows he doesn’t exist without God the Father.

The Holy Family is holy because God lives among them and teaches them how to love each other.  They’re not holy because they’re perfect; they’re holy because they’ve set themselves down to be real students and children of God.  And this relationship between God the Teacher, and the Holy Family the children is seen in a smaller scale right in the family itself.  As God the Father teaches Mary and Joseph, so Mary and Joseph teach their son, Jesus, what they have learned from God.

And, ideally, this is what happens in every family.  You know, there’s a husband and a wife, 2.5 kids, a dog, a cat, and a mini-van.  And they go to Church every Sunday and pray the rosary together every night, and they sit down for supper where they pray and share their lives together.  There are never any disagreements, and the children follow the parents’ perfect example of Christian living, and everything is always happy and well.  The kids are eager soak up all the wisdom and knowledge their parents want them to know.  That’s how it works, right?  Well, no, not exactly.

Again, the Holy Family isn’t holy because they’re perfect.  They’re holy because they’ve dedicated themselves to learn from God who is Wisdom itself.  Our families don’t need to be perfect to be holy; but the people in the family do need to have God as their Mentor and Guide. 

Now, here in the parish when a couple decides to get married, we connect them up with a married couple who’s been together for a number of years.  Of course, the idea is to let the engaged couple learn from the wisdom of the older couple.  And after that young couple gets married, they can also turn to their own parents for advice, or to other couples who they see as having a “good marriage.” 

And this is an image of the Holy Family in a slightly broader scale.  It isn’t just individuals in a single family; it’s one holy family trying to help another holy family come into being.  When the Church talks about “the family being the nucleus of society,” this is what the Church means.  Out of the family, comes more families.  And out of those families, come more families.  And so on, and so on.  But this isn’t just in a biological sense, it’s in the sense of values, beliefs, and practices.  Out of the family comes more families.  But out of holy families, more families of faith in God are born.  

And so, broadly speaking, the idea of “the family” is a group of people with shared beliefs and ideals.  And in that family there are “elders,” you know, people who have wisdom and experience, and there are the “students” or the “children” who are learning and picking up on beliefs and practices and traditions.  And so, obviously, the parish is a family.  The Church is a family—not necessarily in a sentimental sort of way, but because we pass on what we have received. 

And all these “families” become “holy families” when they’re working toward seeing God as their ultimate Mentor and Guide.  We heard in the Psalm: “Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord!”  Blessed are they who live under the umbrella of God’s love, God’s wisdom, God’s peace, and so on.  Blessed are they—happy and holy are they.

Even in my short time as a priest, I can say without hesitation that no family is perfect, no parish family is perfect.  In the confessional, I’ve heard a lot of the big sins that we do with regard our families—whether that’s at home, or with fellows parishioners, or even friends and mentors we consider part of our “family.”  Every family has its problems.  But, at the same time, there are a lot of families (and people in those families) who are learning from their mistakes; families who are learning to bring God’s wisdom and love and mercy into their homes; into their hearts.

And that’s what makes for holiness, at least, here in our fallen world.  Holiness in individuals, holiness in families, holiness in the parish and Church happens when we commit ourselves to let God be our Teacher.  And an instrument of God’s Wisdom that he’s given us is the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Each of us as individuals, each family here, and we as a whole parish are given the Holy Family as our mentor family.  We don’t have to pray to them for help; we don’t have to see them as a guide or mentor.  But Wisdom would tell us otherwise.  And God who speaks in the growing holiness of our mind and heart would tell us otherwise.  The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us.  Pray for us children of God.