5pm Mass
(8 minutes)
12pm Mass
(8 minutes)
10am Mass
(includes St. Therese's family of saints)
____________________________________________
“Called to Be Saints in Family Life Today” (With a
Special Appeal to Men)
Homily #114
SHORTER VERSION A
12pm Mass
Family. F.A.M.
– I.L.Y. Forget About Me – I Love You. (repeat 2x)
On this Feast of the Holy Family, there are 2 main
points for meditation:
1.)
The Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph –
is the “prototype and example” (FC 86) of all Christian families.
2.)
We too are called to be saints in family
life today.
The Holy Family is the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary,
and St. Joseph. In today’s Gospel, the
Holy Family eventually settles in Nazareth.
It is here in the silence of ordinary family life that Jesus “grew (up)
and became strong, filled with wisdom.”
They knew homelessness and fatigue. They had to find work and pay their bills, to
cook and put food on the table, do laundry, go to synagogue like a good Jewish
family and learn the Scriptures, and make ends meet. They very much went through things our
families do today, and they do so in all things but sin. Ordinary family life, when done with love for
God, becomes extraordinary and holy.
In particular, St. Joseph, an ordinary carpenter, had
the pressure and stress of having to provide for his family and his foster Son,
who was the Son of God. Joseph, a silent
man yet a just man who taught Jesus human manhood, felt unworthy to raise the
Son of God. He is also the patron saint
of a happy death, a death where one dies in the state of grace and friendship
with God.
But aside from being an earthly model, this Guardian
of the Redeemer is a spiritual model for us men, who offers us a spirituality
of Christian manhood: husbands, fathers, teenage boys, grandfathers,
godfathers, single men, uncles, stepfathers, and men who care for others. St. Joseph’s fatherhood is “expressed
concretely” (Redemptoris Custos #7) in not just serving others, but in sacrificial service, a total
gift of self, a total oblation of his heart. Joseph shows men in our confused, selfish
society which attacks manhood that a real tough man is a man who bends his knee
to God who is love.
Society – and even the Church – is in crisis because
the family is in crisis! Men, stand up
and fight for our families! Defend the
Church! We are spiritual leaders in
spiritual warfare, where prayer, the Sacraments, the Word of God and love are
weapons of love.
The family today is patterned after the Trinity, a
community of persons. The Father loves
the Son – and gives Himself to the Son – completely. The Son loves the Father. And the third person, the Spirit of Love,
gives Himself to the Father and Son. The
persons of the Trinity say to each other: Forget about me, I love you.
Likewise, within our earthly family, made in the image
and likeness of God, the person of the daddy gives himself completely to mommy,
and the mommy loves gives herself to the daddy, and from their love a third
person, love made flesh, a child, proceeds.
Children, in turn should honor their fathers and mothers. It is by focusing on the good of the other
that we ironically fulfill our own persons.
This image of the Holy Family and the Holy Trinity as
a self-giving communion of persons poured out in love means that we too are called to be saints, to be
holy, and we do so in our vocation. This is my second point. We are called to be saints in our own family
life – Yes! We are called to be holy in
our wounded, hurtful, and broken married family life. As St. John Paul the Great said, “We are not
the sum of our failures and weaknesses, but we are the sum of the Father’s love
for us…”
Here are some practical ways to sanctify or make holy
ordinary family life, so we, too can become saints within our own families. Since we cannot be good without God’s grace
and help, we need the Eucharist, the Sacraments, and prayer. Have we considered consecrating our family to
the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? Can you
and I be an Apostle to our broken families in the nuclear and extended family
today? If there are members in our
families that have not received the Sacraments, have we invited them? Are our adult children married in the Church
with the Sacrament of Matrimony? Do we
know people that need a convalidation of their civil marriages or an annulment?
If there is hurt and wound in the family that needs forgiveness, perhaps the
Sign of Peace during Mass can be a first step to heal and say, “I’m sorry” or
“I forgive you.” The Sacrament of
Reconciliation might help, too, esp. for the New Year. Maybe our New Year’s resolutions can focus
more on strengthening our families, and in living a more prayerful and
sacramental life.
In closing, we reflected on:
1.) the
Holy Family as the “prototype and example” (FC 86) of all Christian families,
especially St. Joseph who gave himself totally to his family;
2.) And
we reflected on practical ways to live out the universal call to holiness in
family life today.
Dear Holy Family of Nazareth, we love you. Be with us in our own family life and teach
us how to be a holy community of persons in our own family. F.A.M. – I.L.Y. Forget about me. I love you.
_________________________________
LONGER VERSION B
(10am Mass)
Homily
#114
Family. F.A.M. – I.L.Y. Forget About Me – I Love You. (repeat 2x)
On
this Feast of the Holy Family, there are 2 main points for meditation:
1.) The
Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – is the “prototype and example” (FC 86) of
all Christian families.
2.) We
too are called to be saints in family life today (like Martin Family).
The
Holy Family is the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph. In today’s Gospel, the Holy Family eventually
settles in Nazareth. It is here in the
silence of ordinary family life that Jesus “grew (up) and became strong, filled
with wisdom.”
They
knew homelessness and fatigue. They had
to find work and pay their bills, to cook and put food on the table, do
laundry, go to synagogue like a good Jewish family and learn the Scriptures, and
make ends meet. They very much went
through things our families do today, and they do so in all things but sin. Ordinary family life, when done with love for
God, becomes extraordinary and holy.
In
particular, St. Joseph, an ordinary carpenter, had the pressure and stress of
having to provide for his family and his foster Son, who was the Son of God. Joseph, a silent man yet a just man who
taught Jesus human manhood, felt unworthy to raise the Son of God. He is also the patron saint of a happy death,
a death where one dies in the state of grace and friendship with God.
But
aside from being an earthly model, this Guardian of the Redeemer is a spiritual
model for us men, who offers us a spirituality of Christian manhood: husbands, fathers,
teenage boys, grandfathers, godfathers, single men, uncles, stepfathers, and men
who care for others. St. Joseph’s
fatherhood is “expressed concretely” in not just serving others, but in sacrificial
service, a total gift of self, a total oblation of his
heart. Joseph shows men in our confused,
selfish society which attacks manhood that a real tough man is a man who bends
his knee to God who is love.
Society
– and even the Church – is in crisis because the family is in crisis! Men, stand up and fight for our
families! Defend the Church! We are spiritual leaders in spiritual
warfare, where prayer, the Sacraments, the Word of God and love are weapons of
love. [IF TIME ALLOWS: Church ain’t just for the cute, sweet little old
ladies. Church is also and especially for
men. So dudes, come to church—and keep
coming to Mass with your families.]
[IF TIME ALLOWS: Like St. Joseph, let us lay down of
lives for our beloved brides, for our children, for the weakness members of
society, for the poor, for the neglect, and it starts with our family first. Forget about me, I love you.]
[Joseph, along with Mary, shows our troubled
society the need to have both a mother and a father to raise children. It takes both a mother and father to raise a
child. Children need male role models
who bend their knees and serve God.]
The
family today is patterned after the Trinity, a community of persons. The Father loves the Son – and gives Himself
to the Son – completely. The Son loves
the Father. And the third person, the
Spirit of Love, gives Himself to the Father and Son. The persons of the Trinity say to each other:
Forget about me, I love you.
[Likewise, within our earthly family,
made in the image and likeness of God, the person of the daddy gives himself
completely to mommy, and the mommy loves gives herself to the daddy, and from
their love a third person, love made flesh, a child, proceeds. Children, in turn should honor their fathers
and mothers. It is by focusing on the
good of the other that we ironically fulfill our own persons.]
This
image of the Holy Family and the Holy Trinity as a self-giving communion of
persons poured out in love means that we too are called to be saints, to be
holy, and we do so in our vocation – our calling to holiness in wounded and
fallen and hurtful, broken married family life.
As St. John Paul the Great said, “We are not the sum of our failures and
weaknesses, but we are the sum of the Father’s love for us…”
Vatican
II called the family the little “domestic church” (LG 11). (The family is not the universal Church, or
the particular Church (a diocese), or the parish church, but it is the domestic
church, a church in miniature.) {ADD: The domestic church is the first school of faith, a school of prayer, the first school of virtue.] The members of the domestic church are
called to be great saints! This is the
second point. And the more families
are broken and wounded, the more they are called to be holy.
Here
are some practical ways to sanctify ordinary family life: Since we cannot be good without God’s grace
and help, we need the Eucharist, the Sacraments, and prayer. If there is hurt and wound in the family that
needs forgiveness, perhaps the Sign of Peace during Mass can be a first step to
heal and say, “I’m sorry” or “I forgive you.”
The Sacrament of Reconciliation might help, too, esp. for the New Year. Maybe our New Year’s resolutions can focus
more on the family, [prayer,
and sacramental life].
If
there are members in our families that have not received the Sacraments, have we
invited them? Have our grandkids received
baptism and their First Communion? Have
our teens received Confirmation? Are our
adult children married in the Church with the Sacrament of Matrimony? Do we know people that need a convalidation
of their civil marriages or an annulment? [IF TIME ALLOWS: For those who
are lay leaders at the parish, are our marriages in good standing with the
Church? And are our children receiving
religious instruction either in a Catholic school or parish religious education
program? Have we encouraged vocations in
our own family?] Have we considered
consecrating the family to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? Can you and I be an Apostle to our broken
families in the nuclear and extended family today? What are we doing to build holy Catholic
families in the midst of attacks on the family?
Living
modern-day examples closer to our time are St. Therese and her own parents, St.
Louis and St. Marie-Zelie Martin. As a
family, they attended Mass and helped the elderly and sick. St. Louis was a watchmaker. He had strokes and Alzheimer’s. His wife, Zelie, came from a military family. She battled breast cancer and lost babies in
infancy four times. St. Zelie wrote, “We
live only for them.” Their daughter, St.
Therese, whom we may be more familiar with, was considered one of the greatest
saints of modern times, and is also a Doctor of the Church. St. Therese herself
not perfect. She was known to have
suffered from separation anxiety and scruples.
She lost her mother at a very young age.
She was very sensitive as a child.
She sometimes fell asleep at prayer.
Her very own limitations and weaknesses did not stop her from becoming
holy or a saint. They were what she used
to draw her closer to God; they led her to an unshakable confidence in God’s
love for her and in her total offering of herself for the love of God and for
others. St. Therese, together with her
parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, real modern-day examples, give us hope
that we, too, can be holy in family life today, and can become great saints!
In
closing, we reflected on:
1.)
the Holy Family as the “prototype and
example” (FC 86) of all Christian families, especially St. Joseph who gave
himself totally to his family;
2.)
And we reflected on practical ways to live
out the universal call to holiness in family life today, as real modern day
examples: St. Therese and her parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie, became a family of
saints.
Dear
Holy Family of Nazareth, we love you. Be
with us in our own family life and teach us how to be a holy community of
persons in our own family. F.A.M. –
I.L.Y. Forget about me. I love you.
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