Feast of the Holy Family

Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Col 3:12-21
Mt 2:13-15, 19-23

The Feast of the Holy Family comes at a time when it seems like you need it the most.  You kids have had a few weeks living very close to your parents and you Parents have had a few weeks living very close to your kids.  Spending a lot of good quality time together with relatives is producing what experts and Jack Nicholson (cf. The Shining) call, “Cabin Fever”.  And so at this point, you might be thinking: hey, I need a break from my family.  Well, since we are celebrating this feast of the Holy Family, Holy Mother Church says you’re wrong.

This special feast is really unique for us because it is the Lord’s Day and a symbolic of a mini-Easter and so we typically don’t celebrate any feast days of anyone on Sunday; unless they have to do with our Lord.  And this is an aspect – a side that we don’t often think about: our Lord had a family, a Holy Family of St. Joseph and St. Mary from Nazareth.  What does it mean to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family?  What does it mean for us?  The Holy Family serves as an exemplary model of how our family life should be.

Let’s look at the Holy Family, this exemplary model.  You have a St. Joseph, who’s engaged to this young woman and everything is great until she finds out he finds out she’s pregnant – didn’t know who the daddy was.  He was barely able to get a place to stay when his wife was about to give birth.  And now we hear today, that this new son of his is a wanted dead and the whole family becomes fugitives in an alien country.  When they moved back, they had to re-locate again and when they went to Jerusalem for a celebration they lost their son in the Temple.  This whole time in the scriptures, St. Joseph does not say a single word [the strong silent type, I guess; but I bet you know what he might be thinking…  You look at this Holy Family and you see that it is not a perfect family where everything is a white picket fence around your mud house with a tire swing around the Sycamore out front and a tree house in the back.

When we see the Holy Family and all of their struggles we realize something: there are no perfect families on this earth – every single one, even the ones that seem like it’s impossible that there could be any problems at all – there are no perfect families – at least in the sense of impeccability.  However, there are plenty of *holy* families – families that trust in the Lord and live together in holiness and overcoming their struggles through having faith in God.  And that is the lesson from in the Holy Family and bring into our own families.

Everyone is responsible for doing and being their part of the family.  But what does this mean?  This means that our individual faith comes first.  So as a as a single person (a teenager, college and beyond) before you even consider dating, you must take charge of your Catholic faith, know what it means to be a Catholic, and live it out daily – not just going to Mass on Sunday or on the day of your wedding. “Oh, my Catholic faith is important to me, that’s why I want to get married in the Church.” or “Oh, my Catholic faith is important to me, and that’s why I want to get my child baptized.”  Whatever....  If your faith is important to you and you are truly living out your Catholic faith, the priest that is marrying you or baptizing your kid can already tell if you are living your faith.  Believe it or not, you are preaching a gospel at all times, whether or not you are using words.  Hopefully it is THE Gospel of Jesus Christ and not YOUR gospel of relativity.  Personal sanctity and holiness is essential to a holy family – your parents can’t carry the faith for the family by themselves nor can your children can’t carry it alone.

Husbands, Fathers, and Men – it is time to man up and be the man that God has called you to be.  Learn and live what it means to be the man of the house.  I am not talking about the stereo-typical Neanderthal caveman, I am talking about the example of St. Joseph – a man that communes with God through the Angels.  That listens and is obedient to Him; that looks out for his family, provides for his family, has the prudence to be quiet in thoughtfulness, and the courage to protect his family.  Naturally, these are things that you are supposed to do; even the world out there knows to do that.  The difference between you men here and the men out there is that there is a life of holiness, spirituality and sanctity; a life lived in and through the faith, having that intimate relationship with God.  This isn’t something that your wife or Mommy does herself, this is something that involves you and demands that you lead your family into that life – you are the head of the Domestic Church; be a man, get on your knees and pray.  The Church needs men to do what they are called to do: defend her honor, work and labor for her, provide for her.  And in the domestic church this calling is no different; it is a form of gallantry and chivalry on a supernatural level, calling you to be greater to be better than the men out there.  When you can truly lead your domestic church in a spiritually healthy life, navigating the rough waters of life, and leading them towards safety – your wife will entrust herself to you, listen to you, and trust you to lead the family.  If it hasn’t happened, then it must be earned; not automatically given.

Wives, Mothers, and Women, you’re not off the hook either.  The intimacy that you have with your children is unmatched because you mothers know your children nine more months than your husbands do.  The time that you spend with them, the way they nurse and eat.  All these are natural womanly things. But when we look to the Blessed Mother, we see a woman of obedience, of trusting in her husband’s directions and protection, and spending her love on her child – all these under the foundation of her solid faith in God’s providence – this is the supernatural calling.  How many times have you women tried to make things perfect, through your scheming and planning, and then have it failing and falling apart? How many projects and hobbies have you tried to take up and then have it come to just collecting dust somewhere with almost nothing to show but a ceramic pencil holder or fruitbowl?  How have you tried to trust in God – to lead you to what God has called you in finding a good husband, finding a good home, raising your children?  Or how have you trusted in God when your children go off to college, you feel like you have to call every moment to make sure they are okay?  If you are finding yourself so busy with keeping the house in order that you forget about God, remember then that you must be a Mary, not a Martha: Mary sat at the foot of Christ and listened to Him.  How have you helped lead the family in holiness?  Have you inspired your husband to grow in holiness?  Have you led him to think of God more?  These things cannot be accomplished without you yourself having that personal relationship with God.  You cannot give to your spouse what you yourself do not have in yourself.

Although I live a celibate life, I still have a family and I often get to experience the joys, sorrows, and difficulties in the family of our parishioners all the time.  Often I see the whole Church like a giant puzzle and there is much time I spend in prayer pondering and thinking about how I fit into His plans to save the world.  The family is falling apart, divorce is high, and we are in a disposable culture – which includes not only material things, but people too.  The Holy Family is something that I am starting to see as a necessary devotion: for us to ask in intercession, to pray in meditation, and to emulate in example.  The Holy Family did not have a perfect life, rather it lived the perfection of Holiness.  The Holy Family lived by the Faith and lived in faith – trusting in God to provide for them always and without fail. Let us find inspiration and example in the Holy Family to lead us to Him, so that we too may live by that rock solid foundation of Faith.

IV Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

Is 7:10-14
Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Rm 1:1-7
Mt 1:18-24

This is not the first time that a husband and wife found themselves in a difficult situation.  The Blessed Mother is no liar and yet I think Joseph found the story just as hard to swallow.  I love how Matthew’s gospel just sorta skims over it and that’s alright, we don’t need to know details.  How many times have you faced a situation – a difficult situation in your marriage – it could be as bad as infidelity (doesn’t matter how small or how big – infidelity is infidelity) or not being attentive to your spouse’s needs;  or it could be something as silly as forgetting to buy the organic gluten-free low sodium no transfat free-range chicken eggs.  The bottom line is that the Holy Family had a problem and something had to be done.

Before we get into the Gospel today: How many of you have had dreams?  How many remember the dreams?  How many dreams have told you to do something and you go and do it?  I have some pretty strange dreams and one of my more notable ones is me driving around in Eastern Europe in a military jeep, with Pope Benedict in my back seat.  [Don’t laugh, we were going to go do missionary work… in the Philippines.]  Chances are dreams aren’t usually very helpful – they’re fun to recount and sometimes they give us some deeper insight into life.  So anyways, Joseph gets this blessed dream from an angel and this incredible message that speaks directly to this crisis situation:

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 

 This tells me two of the three things: The first is that this man Joseph was attentive to God – open to God.  He probably had a close relationship with God in personal prayer, and not just Temple worship.  God is always speaking to us, always giving us signs and showing us the way.  “Are we listening? Are we attentive to His promptings?”  It’s not because one is “holy” that you get special treatment, but it is because holiness comes from being attentive to His will – practicing the faith and living it out.  How many of you *celebrated* Advent?  I’m not talking about Christmas decorations, but where you are spiritually preparing.  Where you prayed together as a family – asking the Lord to come in a special way this season?  We are going into the homestretch of Advent – start celebrating now and preparing now.

The second thing I noticed about St. Joseph is that he is familiar with the sacred scriptures and the sacred tradition of the Jewish faith.  So he is not only attentive to God and his promptings in personal prayer and worship, he is also familiar with his faith.  It is not just spiritual, it’s also religious.  The Scriptures come alive and St. Joseph knows that he must have Mary as his wife because he is an heir to David and the scriptures says the Messiah will be an heir to David.  So by process of elimination, if St. Joseph ain’t it, it was gonna be this baby.  Joan Osborne sang, “What if God was one of us? ...Just a stranger on the bus?” Would you have the knowledge of Scripture and our Tradition behind you to know what was going on when trumpets blare and the sky turns dark with a bright light from the heavens.  Would you know what to do or would just walk away and chalk it up to UFOs and weather balloons?

I am willing to bet that most of you have not studied any the writings of the prophet Isaiah, and yet we have been hearing from this prophet for weeks at our Masses and liturgies.  We hear about this Ahaz guy, in the First Reading, not tempting the Lord and not asking for a sign and yet there it is… Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.  Can you imagine if the folks back then did not know their scripture – how would they have recognized the Messiah?  They wouldn’t have; it would be just another crazy guy… being born of a Virgin and WALKING ON WATER.  A relationship and attentiveness with God and the familiarity of scripture is essential to this crucial point in history… otherwise it is just a dream about an angel.

Finally, having said that, we are at a crucial point theologically.  In the Gospel of Luke, it is the Blessed Mother Mary that cooperates with God, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.  Here in Matthew we find St. Joseph about to do something great or in some sense, something “normal” and expected.  If we go back to the Garden of Eden and we go back to the story of the serpent and Adam and Eve, you will notice that Adam is nowhere to be found as the Serpent is conversing with Eve. Nowhere. Gone.  Vamoose!  My take is that Adam was hiding out under a rock or behind a tree… like a coward, a complete and utter coward, for his wife Eve.  She’s battling this serpent by herself!!  [It would be like me calling my Mom to kill this cockroach because I’m too chicken. Well kinda.]  Whereas Adam totally drops the ball and does not defend his spouse, St. Joseph steps up to the plate and takes it on – scandal and all.  He knows the situation, he knows what’s at stake, he knows he has to protect and maintain honor to his spouse, he knows that he must be obedient to God.

But wait, wasn’t he about to divorce her quietly?  My personal answer to that is that what he was doing was legal and the right thing within their culture, but look at allegorical lesson here:  This relationship is greater than the relationship of husband and wife – this involves the salvation of mankind, this relationship involves God Himself.  God keeps them together because it is not about them – it is about His love for all mankind.  This holy relationship – this Holy Family – is the model for us my brothers and sisters.  For your sacramental marriage, every one of your baptized here, points to a reality beyond yourselves: a witness to God’s love for His people and a free full faithful fruitful witness to all.

As we move into the final days for Christmas – keep the preparation strong, imitate the Holy Family and prepare your hearts for our Lord.  Our Lord comes quickly, He is the King of Glory, coming to us in the stillness of night.  Let us rejoice and be glad.

II Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

Is 11:1-10
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
Rm 15:4-9
Mt 3:1-12

The message is very simple this Sunday.  John the Baptist is the central figure here in the Gospel proclaiming and exhorting everyone to Repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand!  He was the one Isaiah had prophesied this voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.  What are you doing to prepare for the Lord’s coming?

Last week I preached about putting on your “Christmas To Do List” to prepare for the End of the World.  The End comes sooner for some later for others, but it will come.  When you think about it, Christmas is commemorating what?  Our Lord’s Birthday?  It’s commemorating His Coming into the world – His Holy Incarnation.  That is why we bow in the middle of the creed “For us men and for our salvation… “all the way to and he “became man.”  We acknowledge that He comes. He comes in history to open salvation to the world; to die for our sins and the sins of the whole world.  He came for a very specific purpose: to save us and to bring us into a new relationship with Him and our Heavenly Father.

I do not know about you, but when someone is coming over to visit me – doesn’t matter if it is my family, my friends, or strangers – I want to prepare for their coming.  I want to tidy up the place and make a suitable offering of hospitality to people if they visit; especially if it is a special occasion.  This is just common courtesy, but I think it stems from something deeper inside our souls.  An insecurity and an uneasiness exists inside us – perhaps a feeling of unworthiness or perhaps wanting to hide behind the façade that I am a good holy and clean person on the outside, but hardly presentable within.

This is where John the Baptist's words for the Pharisees and Sadducees apply for us: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? … every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire…. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’  The Pharisees and Sadducess were not getting an earful because they were the authority and hierarchy, but because of their complete lack of authenticity and integrity.  They put on the holy face and holy works wanting to be baptized too, but deep inside it was just a show – a façade; there were not willing to repent of their ways and truly change their ways.  What does John the Baptist say? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.  Therefore I ask again, "What are you doing to prepare for our Lord’s coming – the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire?!?!"

What is the first thing you should do to prepare?  Pray.  Pray and examine yourself, your conscience.  Take a good hard look at yourself, make no excuses.  As adults we tend to make all sorts of excuses: because of this, that, and the other, I do this.  By mankind’s standards you might be doing well, but mankind is not your judge – God is.  He is a merciful God, but He is also the God of justice.  Therefore, when you go to confession, make a good confession.  If the sin is great, the mercy will be great.  You are confessing your sins to God and putting yourself at His mercy and judgment. He will always rule in your favor if you make a good honest confession.  In confession, you must resolve to change your life and begin a renewed life of holiness.  There is no sense in confessing a sin if you do not have any resolve to change and repent.  It's hypocrisy!

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is indeed for your benefit, for the spiritual life and health of your soul.  The Holy Father, Pope Francis, goes every two weeks.  He is a sinner as much as we all are sinners.  We struggle with our sins and bad habits – but that does not mean we wallow in them!  It means that if we are truly Christian, we should ask God to help us to repent, to change, and to fall in love with our Lord in a deeper way.

In a world where hedonism is the ultimate driving force, we are really cornered in a bad way.  The world has discovered that the irrational appetites of our bodies, our senses, and our emotions can be fully manipulated and controlled because we have not properly developed our sense of sin, knowledge of right from wrong, knowing what is virtue and what is truth, and just a general lack self-control.  We are completely reactive and act on reflex: This one offends me, so I get angry.  This food looks good, I eat it.  This situation is bad, I get upset.  This has been the case for ages – but now the world is getting better at manipulating us and we have not developed past an infantile level of spiritual maturity.

It is time to repent, it is time to get our act together and prepare a way for the Lord: a direct route, right into the very core of our being, our very heart and soul.  Do not say that, “There is no room at the Inn of your heart!!”  There is room, you just have to start emptying your sins and vices, get rid of anything that might might impede your relationship with God, empty yourself so that He may fill you up.  If the man in the wilderness wearing camel’s hair shirt, a leather belt and eating locusts and honey is not enough for you to change, believe the man with no hair on his head wearing a white dress and a purple poncho!!  Let us continue on this holy pilgrimage to our Lord changing our sinful ways and turning to Him, preparing for His coming, where on Christmas day we will see Him, behold Him, and adore Him.

I Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

Is 2:1-5
Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Rm 13:11-14
Mt 24:37-44

If you haven’t already, I am sure many of you are preparing your Christmas to-do lists: things to buy, places to shop, things to do, this that, and the other.  If you will indulge me, I would like you to add one little item to the top of your list; just a small simple little thing really.  I simply ask that add to your list: “Prepare for the end of the world”.  Actually you should probably put that item on your to-do list every single day.  But especially in this season of Advent, it is a season of preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.
In a sense, I’m really giving up here because from the pulpit you hear it time and time again from protestant pastors and priests alike.  Stop the commercialism, stop the materialism, stop the buying frantic frenetic frenzy of running around the city finding the perfect gift for that special someone, and to put “CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTMAS.”  I knew I was facing a losing a battle; the inertia is too great. I can’t fight it.  So, I am hoping that if you don’t listen to the “don’ts,” MAYBE you will listen to the “do’s.”

Our second reading comes from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  This is one of my favorite passages because it is literally a wake-up call:  You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep…. The night is advanced, the day is at hand.  It is time to wake up! and realize that you will one day die, the world will one day end.  There should be no surprises here… I don’t need a medical degree to know that and let you know that.    The only thing that is certain is that we are uncertain when that it is, but it will certainly come to pass. Therefore, let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; …let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, …promiscuity and lust, rivalry and jealousy.  Our Lord says in the Gospel that we do not know on which day the Lord will come.  Therefore everyday should be lived as our last; we should not be caught off guard, but spiritually awake and ready.

Yes, this season is saturated with consumerism and materialism, but it does not mean that your heart has to sell out too.  Imagine what would happen if you were to take time out of your busyness and call somebody whom you have not spoken to for a while?  What would it mean for them?  The act becomes that much more valuable.  What does it mean to yourself and to God to take time out of your busy-ness to come to daily Mass, to adoration, to sit in the chapel in silence, to go to the sacrament of Reconciliation and Confession, to participate in some of our Advent meetings and classes?

These next four weeks is an intense period of preparation.  If life is already busy, it will get busier; that’s life.  But do not squeeze out what is the single most important thing in your life: our Lord Jesus Christ.   I have said it time and time again:  “If you truly want to do something, you will make time to do it.”  Only when this happens is the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled, All nations shall stream toward [the LORD’s house] ‘Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths….’ and ‘Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.’  The LORD will reveal Himself to us if we set our hearts to Him.

There are countless ways to prepare in Advent, the Church is not chaining up the Bible, she is not chaining up or holding back any resources – it is there for the taking.  If you don’t take it, it simply means you don’t want it bad enough and that is unfortunate, because I won’t force you and you will continue your empty somnambulant life.  I will always be inviting and welcoming you, but it is up to you to respond!
Preparing for the End of the World is synonymous with the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is liturgically synonymous with the celebration of Christ the King and the celebration of Christmas reminds us that He will indeed come again.  We are reminded of the many comings of Christ; all linked together in a mystical way:  the Incarnation of Christ at Christmas, the Second Coming of Christ at the End of the World, and finally, the coming of Christ into our very hearts.  This is what we are preparing for ultimately.  If you are preparing for the End of the World, then you will be already be preparing for Christ’s other comings.  Saying that it is the End of the World, however true it may be, just seems a little more urgent. =)

Therefore my dear Brothers and Sisters, when I said to “Prepare for the end of the world” on your to-do list it was not some dark morbid fear-mongering tactic.  I meant it.  How are you going to prepare for the End of the World?  It is not about building your bomb shelter and stocking a bunker with canned goods and aluminum foil hats.  It is definitely not getting ready for the Zombie Apocalypse.  “Preparing for the End of the World” is about preparing your complete heart for Him who comes to us in the dead of winter night; at the darkest time of the year to bring us His magnificent Light.  It is about scheduling times of prayer throughout your day where you shut off your phone, your television, and everything else and focus on Him.  It is about filling your heart with the Love that He desires to give you so that you may give yourself freely to others.  It is about quitting those fleshly vices and sins.  It is about forgiving people in the malls or parking lots and forgiving your family, friends, coworker, and neighbor.  It is about doing that extra act of kindness and charity in the midst of your life, especially when you are busy.  Each time you set about those tasks of throwing off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, you are preparing for the End of the World.  Let us bear this in mind as we go rejoicing to the house of the Lord, the altar of God in the Eucharist.