Luke 2:22-40
Recently I read this very realistic description of the Holy Family – A betrothed man feels jilted – words at the child’s presentation in the temple cause anxiety – a political threat causes the family to seek refuge in a foreign country and hide out in Nazareth after their return – a child runs away in Jerusalem – a mother has difficulty perceiving her son’s plan in Cana – the family believes he is out of his mind and tries to bring him home – a son is arrested and executed in his prime -a mother is left by her dying son in the care of a non relative – – truly theirs was a family fraught with all of the ups and downs, joy and sadness of our own families.
As I said this is a realistic portrait of the life of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
I received a Christmas card from a former classmate of mine – he was one of my best friends in the seminary and in the priesthood. I was shocked when he left the priesthood. He married (they had three children – all adults now). His first son was born with only half of a left arm. In their late teens both his daughters were heavily into drugs – and in his Christmas card he tells me his wife has been under medication for the past ten years for clinical depression.
In my years as a priest I have been spared all his troubles – and I admire the commitment his has to his wife and family in his new vocation as husband and father.
That’s why I keep telling you – the saints of the church are in the pews of the church – someone has said the family is a little church – and it’s your life within your little church that brings you to holiness. Your struggles to keep alive and deepen your first love – your efforts to raise sons and daughters passing on to them the learned wisdom of your own lives – the way you deal with hurts and disappointments – your patience with teenage sons and daughters as they work their way through the insanity of those years – young people have to deal with feelings of not being understood or appreciated by parents – the anxiety of going on to college – trying to sort a career – good people have to face the loneliness of widowhood – the pain and anger of divorce – the struggles and hard work of being a single parent – good people are dealing with family illness, family alienations – all these mixed in with the joys of family celebrations of feasts and birthdays and anniversaries – new births and weddings – all these are part and parcel of family life – many of them were experienced in the family life of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
As I mentioned many times before, holiness is in the ordinary – we come to holiness in the ordinary living of our ordinary lives – being open to whatever comes our way with each new day – trusting the truth that God is with us every step of the way – trusting the promise of Christ, I am with you always even to the end.
This feast is your feast – as you come to holiness through all your efforts to live a positive, healthy and holy family life – and as you know so well – some days you win and some days you lose – but you never give up. This is what makes you the saints of the church – the heroes and heroines of the church. You are the ones who make the church holy.
As we continue to celebrate this feast of the holy family we pray as a parish family for all the families of our parish – the solid and the troubled families – that God’s peace and healing be found in every home in this parish family of St. Gabriel’s.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
