Deacon Greg’s Homily 12-30-18

The Holy Family is so easy to honor, and yet so difficult to imitate. On the face of it, and with our sometimes flawed attempts and efforts, trying to be parents and children, like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph seems utterly just too unique to model.  In fact, it’s difficult not to think of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as living in a perfectly peaceful life, in holy isolation... But we forget two things. First, no family in first-century Palestine lived disconnected from their network of relatives, and second, that life was lived as part of the larger family of Israel's covenant life with God.  Covenant as in Abraham, Sarah, and their decedents (as many as the stars in the sky.)  The Israelite family life was considered an expression of covenant life.

What does that mean?  While a contact is an exchange of goods and services, a convent is an exchange of persons, where an oath is sworn, and the people are changed.  Marriage is that kind of covenant relationship, and the community around us is family, living with the same sort of commitment.  As God told Abraham, I will be your God and Father, and you shall be my children, many of us have vowed the same as we looked into the eyes of the new life of our own child... “Hey there... I’m your Daddy.  You’re gonna be the best kid ever!”  Suddenly, this amazing network of family kicks in... Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, well intended neighbors... Everybody begins to offer their help, their prayers and their opinions of course.  The Village is all in, and yes... your business is their business, your celebration is their celebration, your struggle is their struggle... Your family is part of The Family!  

Which adds this very important dynamic that we can all take to heart.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, like all the families in the land of Israel, had a sense that their relationships with one another were expressions of their relationship with God as creator and redeemer. With all of their neighbors, they knew that it takes a covenant community to be a family, and that their lives were the gift of God to be lived out in service of that God.

In 2018, the Thompson’s welcomed a new generation.  My eldest daughter Michelle and her husband Cameron welcomed their first daughter Adeline in May.  That’s Karen and I’s first grandchild, and my Mom’s first Great Grandchild.  Karen’s side of the family gathered for dinner the other night, and we took a picture of all the generations women, which of course included Adie, her mother, Michelle, her grandma Karen, her Great Grandmas, my Mother Terry, and Karen’s Mother Janet, and Adie’s Great, Great Grandmother, Karen’s Grandma, Ms. Evelyn, who began her part of the family just up the road, raising her own children in Harvest.

With that said, maybe we’re not too far removed from being like the Holy Family.   We too are called be a family within this covenant community.  We too are called to live out our relationships with one another as expression of our relationship with our God!  But I’m not sure that trying to be like the perfect family is the sole purpose for today’s Feast.  Yes, as Christians, we are called to be like Christ.  And as disciples, we do recognize the Blessed Mother as our pure example of prayer and commitment.  And like Joseph, we too need to dedicate ourselves to raising the Lord of our heart, to be a crucial part of the world around us... But first and foremost this day, we need to reconnect with the absolute Truth of our own existence... WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF A GOD WHO LOVES US, AND HE WILL NEVER ABANDON US!

We see this with Hannah… Hannah was truly loved, but in her barrenness she was also the brunt of much scorn, but in her faithfulness she continued her prayer to the Lord, and was given the gift of a son, Samuel.  In her joy, Hannah promised Samuel to God.  I guess, by definition, she made a covenant to God, exchanging persons, offering his life to Him.  He literally grew up in the Temple, under the care of his mother and the teacher Eli, and was allowed to sleep where the ark of God was.  His presence allowed him to grow and to truly hear the voice of God, prompting the much known response: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

As children of God, can we allow ourselves and our families to be brought up in and around the Church, becoming familiar with God’s Word and his long presence in the Eucharist?

In today’s second reading, John focuses on God’s LOVE.  The word LOVE makes up two percent of the total words used in the First Letter of John, using it more than any other Book in the New Testament.  The point is not just the frequency fwith which God uses the word, but love’s effects.  God’s love makes people “children of God” in the sense that they belong to God and share in God’s life as surely as natural children belong to their parents.  God’s Divine Project is to share His love with his children, offering us grace continuously, throughout the generations, reading into the hearts of each person in their own time and place!

As children of God, can we see the difference between what the world calls love in its competition for attention or its measurement of power, versus what God calls love, through His forgiveness and his sharing of His Son Jesus Christ?

Finally, in Today’s Gospel, notice the comparison with young Jesus’ presence in the Temple.  Like Hannah with her Son, notice how Joseph was pious enough to lead his family to the Temple for the Feast.  But also notice the true anxiety that Mary and Jospeh felt in not finding their Son, truly connecting us as parents who would feel the same emotion.  In fact, the original word used that was translated to “anxiety” is actually the same word used later in Luke’s Gospel to describe the “torment” that the rich man feels in wanting to warn his brothers to live a better life!  But it’s Jesus’ response to all of this that becomes to the true focal point for today’s Feast… “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  

While somewhat flippant in the face of the serious parental anxiety that comes with trying to find a lost child, Jesus, in his youthful voice, asks us all as God’s children to always live our lives being about our Father’s business...

So Merry Christmas and Happy Feast Day Kids!  We are children of God called to live as family, with one another’s families, so as to be ONE FAMILY OF GOD!

• As a child of God, be like Mary and say Yes to God’s Plan with HUMILITY & TRUST
• As a child of God, be like Joseph and dream dreams staying connected to generations past, saying YES TO LIVING AS A COVENANT COMMUNITY!
• As a child of God, allow Jesus’ Birth in our midst to empower us to SAY YES, YET AGAIN, TO BRINGING CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, INTO OUR WORLD!