Feast of the Holy Family

Colossians 3, 12-14 

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another, 
if one has a grievance against another; 
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love, 
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, 
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, 
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, 
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God the Father through him.

As Catholics we understand the value and importance of family. Our parish community is made up of families. What I have learned from the immigrant communities here in our parish is that the family is almost instinctively defended. It is interesting it doesn’t seem to matter if you are from Africa, Asia or South America but the family is central to your identity. Not only is family important, but it is also the way that many have immigrated to this country. I am sure that this is also true for those of us whose ancestors came to this country from Europe. We came here to preserve our families. So we look to the Holy Family, Mary, Joseph and Jesus and we think we get it. We understand what this is all about.

I think we can read the Gospel from this same level. We can understand parent’s going on a trip with friends and relatives and the father thinking the mother had the child and the mother thinking the kids were with their father. We can identify with Mary and Joseph’s anguish, we can imagine their joy in finding the child and we might even think, if I was Joseph I would give Jesus more than just a good talking to.

That is nice, but I dont think that today’s feast is about finding our family in the Holy Family. More importantly it is about modeling our families on the holy family. We are called to have families that are understood and lived out from the Gospel. What would a family inspired by Jesus look like?

The family, according to Jesus, has its origin in the mystery of the Creator that attracts the woman and the man to be «one flesh», sharing their lives in a mutual self-giving, animated by a free and gratuitous love. Obviously this is first and decisive. This love of parents is what gives birth to a healthy family. Children are both a gift and a responsibility. Parents hopefully see their children as a blessing, but blessings come with responsibiities. In the sacrament of baptism, we recognize that the parents are the first teachers of the faith to their children and we ask parents if they will accept this responsibility.

We celebrate this Feast of the Holy Family at Christmas time. Obviously it makes sense to focus on the family at the time of Jesus’ birth, but I also think that it makes sense for us to reflect on families during Christmas time because Christmas is about families. There are people who are not here this weekend because they are traveling to be with familly, and they are people here with us because they are visiting family. Fathers Aaron and Thanh just got home after spending Christmas with their family. Fr. Tony’s brother is here for the holidays, and Fr. Don and I are leaving tomorrow to be with our families.

It is natural for us to reflect on the Holy Family and to reflect upon our own families as well. Another tradition around Christmas is giving gifts. Not just because of the tradition of Saint Nicholas, but going back to the magi who came bearing gifts. So as we continue to celebrate our families I would encourage you to give more gifts to your family. Not the gifts that you can get at Mall of America or order on line though. But the gifts that are mentioned in today’s second reading from Colossians chapter 3: “Heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.”

We are about to begin a new year, and if we would just choose one of these seven gifts and work on sharing them in our families our families would truly be holy as well.

Heartfelt compassion is quite simply love. If we choose to make our families more loving that means we will experience all of these virtues within our home. It is first because it is the most important.

Kindness is a word that rarely appears in the bible but it is a word that we understand well. A kind word, a kind gesture is one that comes from the heart, it is the ability to see the good in another and to build the other up. Humility, a humble person is willing to help do the dishes, clean up not just after themselves but others as well. Gentleness is a sensitivity, knowing that someone is having a bad day, that they may need some time by themselves. Patience, parents of small children often talk about needing to be more patient, to be patient with childrens, but also with someone who is sick, grandparents and the elderly. Bearing with one another means being there with one another and for one another. To be with one another means that you can count on me and I can count on you. Finally forgiveness. We all know the difficulty of forgiving when we have been hurt. But we also know the joy of being forgiven.

Yes, our families are places of great blessings. We pray that the Holy Family will bless our families today, to make ours more like theirs, so the love and gentleness that Jesus experienced as he was growing up we may know and share as well with the people we most care about.