Homily for Holy Family Sunday

Holy Family in Egypt by Kazuya Akimoto

Homily for Holy Family Sunday, December 30, 2007
Readings for today's liturgy

Holy Family Sunday!

I’d like to tell you that this is the universal Church’s way
of honoring our parish, but that wouldn’t be true.
I’ve always found it difficult to preach on this day:
“family” is such a loaded word!
As soon as you say the word “family” you are bound to have
at least as many reactions as there are people within earshot.
Preaching about “family” can be like walking through a minefield:
you never know what your next word or turn of phrase
might trigger in someone’s mind or heart.
For many, family is a burden and not a joy
and we need to pray for such families on a day like today.

If you look at the original holy family:
Mary, Joseph and Jesus,
you find a very different kind of family, indeed.

The mother was born without a trace of sin,
original or otherwise.

The foster-father made major decisions about his family’s life
by listening to what angels told him in dreams.

The little boy was a super-hero:
King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Prince of Peace!

This is not a family easy for us to emulate.

But there’s a fourth in this family, God,
and if we look at how the family members relate to God
then we may have something to go with.

MARY:
God invited Mary to share in delivering a savior to humankind.
Overcome by God’s gracious Spirit
she conceives what none had dreamed.
God asked for her help and her response, “Let it be done…”

JOSPEH:
Joseph wasn’t sure of what God wanted of him
and was confused: so he took a lot of naps!
But God wouldn’t leave him alone.
He sent Joseph angels with messages and finally Joseph said,
“OK, God. I’m not sure how this is all going to work out
but I’m going to trust you.
I’m even going to trust what I dream you are telling me.”

JESUS:
Well, Jesus may seem to have had a kind of head start.
He was, of course, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
But when he was born, he was born fully human: an infant!
The Word of God became flesh as an infant, hungry,
crying for his mother’s milk and needing his diapers changed.
And having waited 9 months in his mother’s womb,
he waited about 30 more years before it became clear to him
as man and as God, what was his Father’s asked of him.

To accept the Holy Family as a model for our families or for our parish
demands a deep acceptance of the truth
that God is present, moving and active in our lives
and asking things of us that we might not dream of being asked,
or asking things that only come to us in dreams.

A family or parish that wants to be like the Holy Family,
must cultivate an openness, a desire
to know how God seeks to be welcomed in our lives,
the lives of our families and the life of our parish.

God doesn’t want to just “drop in” and pay a visit now and then.
God wants to make his home with us 24/7, 365 days a year.

God is present and active and living and moving and speaking
to our family of faith here this morning.

As God asked Mary,
so does he ask to share in delivering his gospel and grace
for the life of the world.

As God asked Joseph,
so does he ask us to trust in the ways he cares for us,
even when we don’t fully understand.

As God asked Jesus,
he asks us to break open and pour out our lives
in love and in service of one another.

God certainly makes his home among us here in Holy Family Parish:
God’s word is the one we just heard in the scriptures;
God’s table is the altar where we gather in prayer;
God’s life is the one we share in the bread and cup of Eucharist.

God desires to make of us and our parish
a family that is, indeed, holy.

-ConcordPastor