HOMILY - Feast of the Holy Family (Year A)

Today, as we celebrate this Mass/Liturgy, we remember and honor families – especially the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) and also our own families. This Feast of the Holy Family started over 100 years ago, as an effort to counter society’s movement away from the Christian virtues and importance of the family, which is as true and important today as it was 100 years ago.
For Catholics, the household or family is the basic unit of the Church and so we call it the domestic Church. It is in THIS church – in the love between husband and wife and the love between parent and child – that we first form our faith in God; where we learn to know, love and serve God; and in which we receive our first glimpse or taste of the great joy God offers us. We can say with confidence that the joy we can experience in family life is just the tip of the iceberg for the joy God offers us in Heaven.
It is also in family life that we help others to accomplish this goal of our faith. Husbands and wives have as the goal of their marriage to help their spouse live a holy life and to get their spouse to Heaven. Parents are the first and best teachers of our faith to their children and make a promise at their child’s Baptism to do well in raising them Catholic so that their child will join them in Heaven some day.
Because of the value and importance of family in our faith life (not mention the social structure and stability of our communities and society), God blesses family life. This is God’s promise to us in today’s First Reading for those who live out the virtues of family life: atonement for sins and preservation from sin; that out prayers will be heard; stored up riches; will be gladdened with children; will live a long life; and will bring comfort.
But, as we know from our own families, family life is at times messy and complicated, a source of pain, hurt, difficulty and embarrassment. Family life is often NOT the Norman Rockwell picture of joy and happiness. In fact, we know from today’s Gospel that even the Holy Family had their challenges: the non-typical birth of their child, the dramatic flight into a foreign land, and living in fear.
So, as we live out our family lives and help others to do so, even in the midst of pain or fear, we must remember Paul’s words to us in today’s Second Reading: We are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. And so, we are called to live extra-ordinary lives; lives full of: heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. We are called to put on love, that is, the bond of perfection; to let the peace of Christ control your hearts, And be thankful.
This is how we are called to live as Christian men and women. This is how we know God’s love for us and how we are to love God and others in return.
We learn, experience and share these virtues in family. In family, we practice and perfect these virtues. In doing so, we can then take these virtues to our places of work, our community, and to those in need. In doing so, we perfect our relationship with God which allows us to accomplish our goal: Heaven.
May God bless your family and you.