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THE HOLY FAMILY

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and it is a  good time to stop and reflect on the meaning of the Christian Family. In past times the family unit consisted of the Mother and Father and the children and these days the family unit consists of maybe one parent and we have the same sex marriages which are a recent thing. We stop and remember exactly what the Christian family should mean for us who are people of Faith. We in Ireland have a particular reason for celebrating the Holy Family this year as we will be hosting the world meeting of Families here in Ireland in August 2018 and as we prepare for this great event it is a good to reflect on Family and what it means and these days there are more than one meaning for the word Family. This Sunday, we commemorate a family in deep stress because their Son is seen as a threat to a jealous king as Joseph and Mary are running for their lives from Herod the Great. Tradition says that after three years in exile, another angel informs Joseph that Herod is dead.

The Holy Family returns to their homeland, not to Bethlehem, since the new king who reigns in his father’s place is also a barbaric ruler. Joseph brings Mary and Jesus to his native town of Nazareth in Galilee. There, they lived a simple ordinary life, Joseph as a carpenter, and Mary as his wife and mother of Jesus. Jesus grew in holiness and in knowledge of God’s will in the same ordinary ways that families do in our day. We  also remember the care that Mary and Joseph gave to Jesus. We recognize the sacrifice they made for Jesus, in the same way as we recognize the sacrifices our parents made for us  and many more  are making for their children today in our I want I get world.    As the world continues to change so too the idea of what the family means is constantly under fire. For us who have come together to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the feast is a reminder of all that the Christian Family has meant to us, and all that he continues to mean to us.  We remember that we have come to know Jesus  through the guidance and the love and support, of our parents! 

In the friendship of many other family members and of many other friends and significant people in our lives! And in things that have happened to us good and not so good!  We have also met Christ in the sacraments we have celebrated as a community and as individuals. In this Sundays  Gospel reading Simeon makes his prophecy about Christ’s destiny and as it says, ‘the child’s father and mother stood there wondering about him. Every parent wonders about their children and every parent is full of hope for their children. Over a period of time this might turn in to fear and anxiety, but the fundamental feeling of hope is still there. We hope that everything will turn out well for them; we hope that they will make a success of life; we hope that they will be safe and keep out of trouble; and that they will be happy.  As we think about family life and what it is now we pray that the great ideal of the Family  will continue to be cherished and not diminished and that we will celebrate it in our own lives and the lives of our families as we prepare for the World Meeting of Families In August 2018.

4TH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

This weekend we celebrate the 4^th Sunday of Advent and we hear the story of the Angel Gabriel coming to tell Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. But as we listen to this story we should stop and spare a thought about how Mary felt when she got the news that she was to have a child who was the Son of God. Luke tells us that, ” she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” In that uneasy world of Galilee, a place of conflict and struggle, Mary’s personal response showed confusion and doubt and that was why the angel reassured her. Mary did not get a roadmap of the future – neither do we. All her questions weren’t answered – nor are ours. Gabriel announced the conception and birth of the Son of God. Mary’s child would be “great”. He would be Son of the “Most High” a title for the greatest God, the highest concept of divinity one could have at that time. Mary made room for God in her life do we make room for God amongst the general hustle and bustle of life and living not forgetting the Christmas preparations that are part and parcel of this time of year.

Mary and the saints are more like us than the arts or literature about them tell us or we might like to think. They are amazingly human that is like you and me and it is among us, in all our human limitations, that God wants to dwell – among people who despite struggle and doubt, say “Yes” to him. Scripture suggests God wants to enter more fully into our lives; our not-so-neat and orderly lives but our messy untidy lives with all the good and bad and happy and sad times that are part and parcel of our lives. Mary accepted, and proclaimed, God’s will in her life. She placed her future completely in the hands of the Father and we are called to do exactly the same. Her example should be our inspiration to stand firm as Catholics in today’s world of ever-changing fads and fancies especially as we face up to the secular razzmatazz that we see in the run up to Christmas. Remember, the words of Mary when she said ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ May we accept the word of God and try to put it into action in our lives this Christmas Time.

1ST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

This Sunday we begin the church’s new year as we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent. At the beginning of the Liturgy we bless the Advent Wreath  and light the first purple candle we also place the first symbols on the Jesse Tree. In the secular world Advent seems to begin the season of Christmas and the measuring of Christmas-time profits in the business sections of our newspapers. We will hear happy, silly jingles in stores and malls. While at church, this season’s sounds will be different sober hymns and Scriptures, that help us “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  Though the vestments are purple and there is a certain penitential feel running through the next few weeks there is also a sense of joyful expectation as we await the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.   The main theme for our readings this Sunday is  waiting and watching in hope. Hope is the basis for a watchful and vigilant spirit.

In our anticipation for the Lord’s coming, we hope that our faith will help reveal the Kingdom and prepare others as well as ourselves for eternity. Our efforts alone will not bring about the Kingdom, but, God, acting through us, will reveal the Kingdom.  Blessed John Henry Newman reminds us in a homily for the Advent Season: “Advent is a time of waiting, it is a time of joy because the coming of Christ is not only a gift of grace and salvation but it is also a time of commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance. This ‘vigilance’ means the urgency of an industrious, living ‘wait’. To make all this happen, then we need to wake up, as we are warned in the Gospel reading to stay awake for we do not know when the master will return.  Advent poses some basic questions to us today: do we still trust that God is in charge, is faithful to us and will finally draw us into a loving and lasting embrace?

The Advent liturgies and scriptural texts encourage us to trust in God. They keep our hope alive, despite national and international headlines of gloom and doom and closer to home reports of family arguments and break ups and many other things. Advent doesn’t look back to a former time when things seemed better. Advent really is the time to look forward. What do we have to look forward to? We look forward to the birth of Jesus the son of God, the child in the Manger who is the light in the darkness of our world and our lives. I hope that at the end of this Advent when Jesus arrives at Christmas he wont be the stranger in the Manger but a welcome friend for all of us.