Family
I woke up this morning to a pop-up on my phone saying it was my cousin’s birthday. In a large extended family, there is always someone to learn from; he will be older than me for 10 days.
And today is the celebration of the Holy Family.
My family even though not perfect in so many ways, we are a holy family. My family is my grandparents, mother and father, in-laws, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins and not the least of all my wife, children, and grandchildren.
I have been part of worshiping communities all my life, which are families of faith. That’s why St. Lawrence is so important, it is a family of faith.
When you put all those together you get a pretty big extended family. Some are fallen away, some are broken, and all are sinners. Yet, all have touched my life to make me who I am today.
Believe it or not, all of them have made me a better person; and hopefully, a holy person.
Think about Jesus’ family.
There is the Holy Family the Church celebrates, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus; but, in Jesus time a family would have been enormous and quite extended. Joseph and Mary had family and relatives in Bethlehem. They probably had relatives in Egypt that helped them find refuge. And in Nazareth, probably everyone was part of Jesus’ extended family.
A family that was an extended Holy Family. It was an extended family that was part of the fully divine and fully human Jesus’ fully human life. Jesus, a descendent of King David, lived out his destiny influenced by this family.
That is true for all of us.
Our family is who we are. A family can be the source of our greatest joy and our greatest source of disappointment. A family can be the source of our greatest contentment and our greatest source of drama. A family can be a well of empathy and a pit of apathy. A family can be one extreme or the other.
Family is where we can experience profound sufferings, great heroics, and even our most significant encounters with God. Family is the place we come from and people we know and love.
Family is were we find patience, humility, the courage to forgive, the comfort of kindness, and it is were most first encounter God.
But in the modern world the definition of family is changing. Family may not always include a father or mother. In our culture, family is not always the important thing. Instead, the world has become so self centered families get in the way.
We see it in:
The man who should be a father but is more in love with self than family. He forgets his promise to God to love and protect the one he has chosen to be his wife. He forgets the children that are part of him.
The couple who thinks careers, belongings and sex is more important than a child.
The horror of abortion, where the self (both in the man and woman) is more important than the life of a child.
The woman who should be a mother but is more in love with self than family. She forgets her vow to God and to her husband and children that she carried in her womb.
The self centered ego turns its back on family and turns its back to God.
This ego destroys family with abandonment, abuse, hate, and endangerment. It is suffering Jesus experienced for us. God does not want anyone to know that suffering. And, sometimes families fail.
That is the importance of the extended Holy Family; because, family influences our destiny. Family comes together to make us who we are in this life. It is relationship and responsibilities That extends from parents to child; from child to parents; from the old to the young; and, from the young to the old.
That is why the community of faith is so important. As a family of believers, we are all part of each others extended Holy Family. This community of St Lawrence is our Nazareth.
Men be holy in your role as a father. Women be holy in your role as a mother. Children be holy. As an extended family be holy as uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, and godparents.
Friends pray and realize we are the family that brings Christ to the world through our family. It is done through a Holy Family. It is done through an extended Holy Family.
Be good, be holy, and preach the Gospel beginning with our family by the way we live our lives and love one another. Amen.
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