The Holy Family: A school for Christian Living
Homily for the feast of the Holy Family year A 2013
For some of you who may have come from a big family, you might agree with me when I say that the expression: ‘The more the merrier’ is not always true. I would even say, based on my personal experience, ‘the more girls there are, the noisier’. I hope I don’t intend to sound like anti-girls or anti-women here but I’m just sharing with you how it is to be one of 11 children, how it is to be the sixth in the family, and how it is to be the eldest son with 5 older sisters before me. When I was growing up my sisters also had their own ‘girlish’ way of teasing me or ‘bullying’ me so to speak. However, the good thing about many girls in the family is that the girls were doing most of the household tasks like doing the laundry, washing the dishes, cooking, while I would just go with my father to the farm. It was a big family and still is by the grace of God. We’re not a perfect family as no family is. We’re not rich like many other families, yet we have each other, and there is no amount of money that can compensate this. And this makes me proud of my family.
I’m sharing with you a bit of my personal background because today we are celebrating the feast of the Holy Family- the example, the model, the ‘ideal’ of a Christian family or for any family for that matter. If at Christmas we focused only on the child in the manger, this time we broaden our perspective, we widen our horizon by looking at the parents of the child Jesus too: Mary and Joseph. But we are not only to gaze at them but to learn something from them. We are to learn from this simple, humble yet Holy family in Nazareth, how to live truly live out a Christian family life. We need this to help sustain our society. We need to look once again the status of our individual families. It is said that the family is the building block, the basic cell of the society, so as a family or as a member of any family we have the task to help uphold the values that our family holds. Let us contemplate and learn from the Holy family of Joseph and Mary and Jesus.
First, the Holy family is bonded by love. This love moved Joseph to take the extraordinary leap of faith by taking Mary home as his wife despite the extraordinary things and events surrounding Mary’s pregnancy. This love also moved Mary to trust Joseph even if she didn’t really understand what’s going on in her. Because of love, they welcomed the God-child into the world as part of their human family. Because of love for their child, Mary and Joseph had to seek asylum in Egypt to save the baby Jesus from imminent death by the hands of Herod. Their love together helped them to raise Jesus as part of the human society, introduced him to their obligations to the Jewish laws and traditions. It is love that motivated Mary and Joseph to search him when he was lost in the temple in Jerusalem. Love is the very important bond in the life of the Holy family. Looking at the many families around us, we find many families wherein love has slowly diminished or even worst gone. This leads to breakdown in the family, and if a family is broken down, any society would eventually collapse too. To stop this from happening, let us help one another especially if we know any families in the verge of breaking down. Let us help the people concerned to rekindle in them the power of love that binds them in the first place. It is a big challenge because we couldn’t really make this happen. God is the only one that can draw them back in love. What we can do however is to pray for these people that God may re-ignite in them the love that he shared with them in the beginning. We can also help these people by just being a leaning shoulder, a source of support and encouragement and by our lives showing them the dignity, the meaning and the value of love in the family.
Second, the Holy Family always had a space for God in their family. Mary and Joseph didn’t take for granted the fact that the arrival of Jesus as Emmanuel, God-with-us, in their lives would inevitably and certainly bring many blessings for them. Rather they keep the doors of their hearts always open for God. They always turned to God in prayers. We heard in the gospel that Joseph had a dream and it was in his dream that he heard God speaking to him about the things he should do. It doesn’t mean that when troubles came or when need arose, Joseph just slept on it hoping that God would tell him what to do through his dreams. It means that Joseph and Mary prayed about it. They put their trust in God. Their faith helped them see and understand that whatever happened to them and to the child is all part of God’s plan for salvation. What happened to Joseph and Mary, about the angel coming to them either in dream or in apparition, didn’t just happen out of the blue. It happened in the context of prayer. It happened because they allowed God to work in and through them. Thus, through prayers they were able to see God at work in every situation and circumstance they were in. So we can imitate the Holy Family in terms of their living and real relationship with God, in prayers and in contemplating the works of God for us. This is one secret to keep the family intact- prayer. And this is still true in our time, as Fr Patrick Peyton would say: ‘The family that prays (i.e. keeping God as part of their family) together, stays together.’
Third thing we can learn from the Holy Family is that despite all the trials, challenges, difficulties, threats, pressures, they remained together. They faced all those challenges in family life side by side. They stood firm on their commitment and in their faith even if things were not easily understood for them. They might be a Holy Family but they’ve got their own share of trials and challenges too. When Mary was in labor, they couldn’t find a room for her to deliver her child. Thankfully they found an inn for animals. When the child was born, Herod was after him to kill him. So the Holy family had to seek asylum in Egypt to save the child’s life. When Jesus was 12 years old and being introduced into the obligations of the law, Mary and Joseph lost him in the temple. When Jesus was doing his ministry of preaching, healing and service to the poor and the needy, he was in conflict with the religious leaders and the authorities. This might have caused so much stress for Mary being the mother. When Jesus was carrying his cross, a symbol of humiliating punishment then, Mary was walking with him all through till he breathed his last.
The life of the Holy family wasn’t the perfect one in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of faith, it is the ideal one in that, despite all hardships, trials and difficulties, they kept up in love, in trust, in hope, in loyalty, in dedication and in service to one another, and in their amazing way of making God a strong part and giving Him a prominent place in their family life.
As we contemplate on this Feast of the Holy Family, let us pray for the many families and many children who have to suffer the loss of love, the loss of respect, the loss of dedication, commitment and trust between their mothers and their fathers. Let us also pray for those families who have set God aside, or have never allowed God to be part of their family that like the Holy Family they may welcome God with open hearts and soul. It is an urgent call and an important task that we have to attend to because it is happening around us today. We don’t have to go far. It is so true today that Catherine de Hueck Doherty laments: ‘I cry for parents so engrossed in giving their children all the material benefits of our affluent society that they neglect the give the only thing that matters- God.’ Amen.
We are on special: not as discounted but as PRICELESS
Homily for Christmas Mass year A 2013
I went to the supermarket today to buy some chocolates for the children in this mass, and I could see there are many things on special. In fact the ones I was looking for were quickly selling because they are on special too. It made me think, that actually one reason we have Christmas or celebrating Christmas is because we are special too, not ON SPECIAL as discounted but SPECIAL as in PRICELESS.
If we realize this, then our Christmas celebration must be really a meaningful one. We are special, not in the eyes of the World but because God makes us to be so. The world would say to us, we can only be special if we have this thing, or live in this kind of house, or have this pretty face, or drive this very expensive car. But God looks through our hearts. We are special for him not because we are rich, or have the things that we wanted to have, but because our true value is in our hearts not on the externals. For God, we are worth every penny, we are worth risking for and we are worth dying for.
If we were not special, he wouldn’t bother to be born like one of us so that we would become like him- a resident of his heavenly kingdom. If we were not special for him, he wouldn’t take the risk of stripping himself of his glory and majesty and chose to be born in a very humble condition, from a poor and simple family of Nazareth. If we were not special for him, he would have just left us completely groping in the dark of our sins and sinful human condition.
Yet, he loves so, that he sent his only Son, Jesus– the one who would save us from our sins. We are that special, that St Paul could say in our Second reading tonight: ‘God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us…to give up everything that does not lead us to God.’ This means that because we are special, God even didn’t withhold for us the source of his graces and the fountain of his riches.
If we were not that special to him, we wouldn’t have heard the ‘news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole world: THAT GOD is born for us, that God has come in the flesh to show us that there is more to life than our sinful nature.
If we are special and if God gives us a special gift of himself as we have remembered and re-lived tonight, then this calls for a celebration and rejoicing. We are to celebrate our value, we are to be rejoicing as we received the gift that the God has given us- Jesus our Lord.
To appreciate this gift all the more too, calls us for a careful reflection and gaze at the child in the manger. As we have seen, he was not wrapped in a fancy wrapping. He was not born from a rich family. He was not born in the Children’s hospital wherein he could get all the comfort he needs. He was born in a poor, simple family, and wrapped only with a swaddling clothes. But, in the new-born child in the manger, we could see that the value of the gift is not on the fancy wrapping, or the size of the gift, but on what’s inside and what does it mean for us. Jesus has come, though in poverty, as God who saves us from our sins, and this is one good reason why we celebrate Christmas.
To receive the gift of God for us is to acknowledge our sins of poverty too. This means that we accept the fact that we need God, that we need one another, that we need a saviour, that we are weak, vulnerable, that we can’t whatever we want, and that not everything is beyond our control.
Another way to receive Christ this Christmas is to open our hearts to the other Christs in the streets, in the homes, in our workplaces, everywhere- i.e. the people who like the child in the manger are weak, helpless, vulnerable, simple, and hungry for our love, our care, our support, our time and our compassion. I’m thinking particularly this time the many children in the world who are caught up in the socio-political conflict, and for those families and lives perished due to the many disasters (natural or man-made) that had happened around the world this year. This Christmas is an opportunity for us to realize that Christ is born for everyone, so we also have the task to look for him in everyone, and to let everyone know that God cares for them, that God is Emmanuel, He is with all of us, among us.
Finally to make Christ alive and born in our hearts, we must always remember the child in the manger in our Christmas celebrations and parties. Let us always bear this in mind that Christ is the one who helped us realize again that we are special in the eyes of God, and that we are sons and daughters of God. If we forgot him the Christmas, we are missing the point of this celebration, and we are just like lost in the middle of the desert, in the oasis with no water at all.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET US RESERVE A SEAT FOR CHRIST IN OUR DINING TABLES and in OUR HEARTS.
With peace and the blessings from the Most High, I wish you all a blessed and a solemn Christmas celebration.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Is Christ the Spirit of our Christmas?
Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent year A 2013
Someone asked me just very recently” ‘Brother do you believe in God?’ I readily answered without thinking: ‘Of course, I am a priest for God’s sake.’ However, that particular question made me think deeper on my faith. It reminded me of what my former Spiritual director in the seminary in the Philippines, reminded us seminarians in one of our retreats. He said to us: ‘If you really wanted to be a priest, if you really wished to live your life as a priest, you’d better believe in God, otherwise, you’d never get there. I took that recommendation by my Spiritual director seriously and here I am, a priest. I am not saying that those who didn’t become priests didn’t believe in God at all. It is just that it is not enough just to believe in God, without living it out in our lives, in our words and in our actions, without taking it seriously.
It is true too that at times, our belief caused us to doubt or even brings out ‘troubles’ or challenges in our lives, yet this must not discourage us, rather this must motivate us to keep up the faith, keep the relationship with God going, and hang in there. Yes, at times, things might be unbearable, or very hard to understand, but if we have God in our lives- as the saying goes: ‘He may not make the mountain smaller, but he could make the climb easier.’ Our problems, burdens and troubles might still be there, but with God in our lives, we can cast all of them to him, and in him we can have a rest.
Christmas is fast approaching. It is an opportunity for us to reflect again on our belief in God, NOT as someone who is far and distant, but someone who is so close to us, as a God-with-us, the God who is coming through and coming to stay.
So the question for us to reflect on: ‘Is the Spirit of Christmas, i.e. Christ, Our God and our Saviour, in our hearts’ as we gather with our family and friends, as we exchange gifts and cards, as we catch up with one another over Christmas parties and dinners?’
To answer this, we can learn from St Joseph and Mary as to how they prepare themselves for Christmas. How are they preparing for the coming of God-made-man into their lives as part of their human family? What was the quality of their response to the presence of God among them?
First, Joseph, though caught up in a bit of trouble and reluctance there, he still believed and trusted that what happened to him and to Mary is part of God’s plan for them, that it is God’s will for both of them. We heard that Joseph was thinking of cancelling his marriage with Mary because she got pregnant, and he knew he wasn’t the father of the child she bore. We can only imagine Joseph’s reaction when Mary told her of the news. ‘You’re what?’ he could have said. ‘And by whom?’ In our lives too, there might be things that are too good to be true, or too hard to believe, but this is how God works at times. He is a God of surprises one Christian writer would say.
Mary too, could teach us a way to respond to the presence of God among us especially at Christmas. She makes herself completely available for God, no matter what it takes, and no matter what it means for her. ‘Let it be done unto me according to thy Word’, she’d say to the Messenger. She could do this because of her humility, her faith, and her openness to God. Like Mary and as Christmas is coming fast, we are also invited to make ourselves completely available for God. To make this happen is to ‘see others’ through the eyes of Christ. Christ sees each one of us, not just one of the sinners, but one who worth saving and worth dying for.’ So when we are walking on the streets, especially this time, or as we are driving around, and being caught with the Christmas frenzy, let’s show to others that CHRISTMAS is making Christ present in our lives and in our world today by being ourselves instruments of Christ’s love, care, compassion, generosity and support for one another. Let us give love this Christmas. Let us give Jesus to those who haven’t heard of him or those who have started to forget him and to those who longed to see Him but NO ONE is showing them the way. We are to remember always CHRISTMAS is not just about waiting for the baby in the manger, it is also about the ‘CHRISTS’ on the streets asking for loose change, the old lady in the supermarket pushing her trolley, the old man and woman in the home with no family to celebrate Christmas with, the young family across the road who are struggling with their mortgage, the child in the neighborhood who is being bullied, etc.
It is important to put this in mind too, that no matter how beautifully wrapped the gift is or how lovely the wrapping paper is, what matters most is what’s inside. So no matter how much fun we have this Christmas or how many gifts we have received, if CHRIST –the true meaning of Christmas is not there in our hearts, we would just end up being empty and feeling drained…for no reasonable reason.
As we come closer to Christmas, let us ask ourselves: ‘Has Christ got a place in our dining table and in our hearts this Christmas?’
Junjun FAITHBOOK 