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Feast of the Holy Family

Added Jan 01, 2018 •

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over the past week I was fortunate enough to go and visit some of my family members in Cincinnati and it was a blessed trip especially visiting with my family but also celebrating Mass with them here on this first Christmas for me as a priest and later in the week my mother looked at me and asked the question are we giving you enough homily material I just looked at and smiled I think we both knew but I need to be careful because some of my family members are in the habit of listening to the All Saints homily podcast so I can't get away with too much here but I think it's fitting that the church in her wisdom would give us this Feast of the Holy Family and such proximity to Christmas because For Better or most of us have spent drive time with our family members over the last week and even if you're like me and you love your family very much spending that much time with one another can begin to wear we begin to wear on one another during that extended time so the church gives us this great feast this the reading the image of a holy family Jesus Mary and Joseph they do so so that they would be a witness to us we need not look at the pulley family or as in these readings as something altogether unattainable rather we should look at the whole family as that Exemplar that model and that source for us of restored family relationships and so we begin here with the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians St Paul has beautiful words for us today in for our families great advice and so I just encourage us all to let these words minister to us this is where is St Paul starts to the clock brothers and sisters put on as God's chosen ones holy and beloved heartfelt compassion kindness humility gentleness bearing with one another and forgiving one another and over all of these put on love that is the bond of perfection so st. Paul has this beautiful image of us putting things on ourselves putting these virtues on but if we're going to put things on we first have to take things off we have to rid ourselves of those things that would hinder us and Saint Paul just assumes this today so to be able to put on kindness we need to take off bitterness to put on humility we must first take off fried and selfishness to be God's chosen ones to be his holy and beloved we need to take off harshness in patients on forgiveness so that we would then have the room to put these virtues on that I love where Saint Paul goes next this is a bit of an aside but he talks about singing together I love that image of a family singing together actually my family one night when I was visiting home we sing karaoke for 2 hours together just gathered around the fireplace in my parents living room had YouTube pulled up on the television screen so I think this is a great inside St Paul has for us that singing together as a family can bring great joy and great laughter he says things Psalms hymns spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God so maybe 10 I didn't even celebrate New Years Eve you sing a song together as a family this can be something very healing and very joyful for us that's the aside then Saint Paul launches into this somewhat of a bombshell calls out each member of the family wives husbands and children and so maybe today you were in Europe you throw in some see you know at each line only to been catching elbow right back because steep all spares no one in calling us through this great ideal we see in the witness of the Holy Family ideal live perfectly that these verses aren't unattainable for us there's certainly not derogatory to any member of the family but they must be interpreted in that ideal which Saint Paul intends them to be interpreted that all three of these relationships wives husbands and children would work together in this system it would be like a three-legged try if we remove one of the legs then the whole system is compromised so that it's each relationship doing their part that the whole system would live this ideal so first Easter with wife this is what he says why be subordinate to your husband's as is proper in the Lord this is perhaps the most inflammatory command you know it can make us squirm little it can make us uncomfortable even suspicious St Paul might mean or interpret this word subordinate at this is because the word SOB the has been hijacked it's been interpreted as lower as less important than not what Saint Paul intense today when he say wives be subordinate to your husband's it would be like interpreting going under a bomb shelter as well I'm less important I'm lower than this bomb shelter because I'm placing myself under it no one would interpret it in that vein and so St Paul intends us to interpret this as literally putting yourself under the order of your husband and what is the order of the husband but love put yourself under this love wives this is what Saint Paul intends for you that you would reproduce you would be protected like putting yourself under that bomb shelter that you would put yourself under this love and Mary our blessed mother lives this perfectly when Saint Joseph has I dream of the Angel telling him to take the family into Egypt that they would be preserved and protected Mary listens to him she places herself under the protection under the care the supervision of her husband and then the whole family is protected next team news on the husbands husbands love your wives and avoid any bitterness towards them so a wife can only have total trust she can only put herself under the care of her husband if he loves in this manner this is the great charge of spends that they would love in a total self-giving way that they wouldn't be interested in their own thing but interested in their beloved Brides in St Joseph shows us this perfectly St Joseph has this completely Chase and disinterested love he loves Mary he would we would never say that Mary is dominated by Joseph loves her and covers her with this Chase disinterested love which is a great image for us both for husbands and for wife and thirdly children listen up kids children obey your parents in everything for this is pleasing to the Lord it can be hard to see this as a child as a kid I know it was for me but for the most part. have the best interest of their children in mind and if we believe it if we truly accept this then it would be easier for the child to obey and this is the case that our parents love us they will are good and their four children can more readily obey their parents and the Child Jesus is a great model for this Jesus who was Obi not only to Mary and Joseph his Earthly parents but certainly obedient to his heavenly father that obedience led him to the cross for our Salvation And so children can then more readily. mediant to their parents brothers and sisters this way of perfection laid out for us in the letter to the Colossians is fulfilled in the gospel when the Holy Family presents themselves in the temple they present themselves they offer themselves holy to the Lord that the Lord would make them sacred consecrate them and so each of us in this holy man we are called to come in to present ourselves to offer ourselves to take those hindrances off of ourselves that we might put on the virtues that would truly make us at Holy Family and there can be pain in taking off the things that hinder us there can be uncomfortability but it's worth it that each member would be a part of this system that each member the family would be able to live in this love that there would be greater Unity greater peace that we would live this ideal together so brothers and sisters urge you as God's choice 10 ones in the Lord asked the Lord today for that Grace to be holy as he and his family are holy

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Feast of the Holy Family

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