Homily for Feast of the Holy Family - December 26, 2021

 

Homily for Feast of the Holy Family

December 26, 2021

The Holy Family: A Model for Families

 

            This year I received a Christmas card from a dear family, and the photograph was the family posing as the Holy Family. It was very cute – their two-year-old was in a wooden manger, their older kids were shepherds and wise men, and the parents were Mary and Jesus. But as I looked at it, I thought…little Joey is never that peaceful. He’s a two-year-old terror. How long did it take to get this photo right? And then I turned it over on the other side and saw the outtake photos – there was Joey throwing a temper tantrum, and the kids looking all disheveled and disorderly, and the parents screaming at the kids…that was more like the family I knew!

            Doesn’t that sometimes feel like life in our families? We want our family to look like the Holy Family, but it ends up looking like a mess. We think it’s too much of a struggle to be like that picture-perfect family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But today’s Gospel shows us a scene from the Holy Family that is less-than-perfect – they lose their kid for three days! Even messy and imperfect families can be good and holy families. But how? Let’s turn to the Gospel.

            First, we see parents who love the Lord and center their lives on Him. Notice how this Gospel begins by saying that “each year” the family went to Jerusalem “as was their custom.” It was expected that worshipping God would be the centerpiece of this family. I’m sure they kept the sabbath, went to synagogue, taught the child Jesus how to pray and read the Scriptures.

            It is beautiful to hear stories of people who say, “My mother and father are the holiest people I know.” That is true in my case – if my father ever asked me to get something off of his dresser, I would have to search for it amidst a sea of prayerbooks and Rosaries, all of which were well-worn from daily use. If parents have a personal, daily friendship with God, keeping Him at the absolute center of their lives, the children will realize this.

            Ah, but here’s the critical piece – all of us want to believe that Jesus is the center of our families and our lives, but is He? How many times have I heard, “I sent my kids to Catholic school, and we went to Mass most Sundays, why did they abandon the Faith?” Because that’s passing the buck. Christ at the center of a family means that we keep God in every aspect of our life. We go on vacation – and we look up where to attend Mass. We pray about whether God is calling us to be more generous with our family size, or with our money. We are willing to be countercultural and not let our kids have smartphones, or at least put strong parental controls on them. We make it clear to our kids that their souls are more important than their grades or getting into a good college. We live in a culture that screams, “There is no God!” for a hundred hours a week – one hour on Sunday is not enough to counteract that message unless our family is completely living for Christ! It takes sacrifice, but so did an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem on foot…God was worth it for the Holy Family, and He is worth it for yours.

            Did you notice Jesus’ response after this dialogue between himself and Mary? It says that He went home and “was obedient to them.” Pause for a minute and let that sink in. The creator of the Universe, the all-Holy God, was obedient to a mere human being? Yes, and that is the way God ordered families for their holiness. Children under 18 grow in holiness through obedience to their parents! Consider if you had two pens. One didn’t function well and was moody; you had to hold it a certain way to write, and sometimes the ink didn’t flow properly, and it only worked if the room temperature was over 70…and you had another pen that worked any time you needed it. Which would be your favorite? In the same way, God wants young people to develop that total obedience to their parents – not when they “feel like it” or only in things that are convenient – because God wants to mold us to become HIS obedient sons and daughters. The goal isn’t, “Oh, I turn 18 and now I can do anything I want!” – the goal is, “Oh, now I am 18 and have been well-trained in obedience so I will become a good, docile son of God.” Our obedience doesn’t stop when we get older, it becomes given over to God so He can entrust us with greater tasks.

            It is true that over 18, we don’t have to obey our parents, but we must always respect them. I know many of us struggle because we have to take care of ill or aged parents. But it says in Scripture that “kindness to our fathers will never be forgotten by God.” Considering every way our parents were there for us, we learn to love by taking care of them in return. Do not abandon them in the time of their need!

            A final insight into a Holy Family is in this great exchange between Mary and Jesus. Mary asks Him, “Where have you been?” And Jesus gives a seemingly snarky response, “Don’t you know I have to be about my Father’s business?” (Anyone with teens has heard this kind of sarcasm!) But really, Jesus is teaching us that there is one thing more important than family – and that is our relationship to Him.

            King St. Louis IX of France had a very holy mother, Queen Blanche, who would tell him frequently as a young boy, “I love you my dear son, as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should commit a mortal sin.” Shocking words – but not really, if you realize that she was just teaching him to love the Lord more than anything, including more than loving her. And King St. Louis IX took that instruction to heart – he never did commit a mortal sin, and kept his soul as pure as it had been on its baptismal day.

            Our family is a great gift from God, but it’s not the most important relationship in our lives. So when our sister-in-law doesn’t want us to pray before our family dinner because it “offends” her, or when our uncle asks why we’re such religious fanatics that we go to church every week, we smile and tell them that we love God before all else. Even Jesus had to obey His Heavenly Father over His earthly parents!

            Finally, we can all recognize that family life is messy. Jesus was born in a stable, and got lost for three days. God doesn’t wait until your family is Hallmark-perfect to become a holy family. Rather, seeking the intercession and imitation of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, God wants to make even our messy families into a holy family.

Homily for Advent 4, 2021 - Kerygma Homily 4 of 4

 

Homily for December 19, 2021

Advent 4 – Kerygma 4 of 4

Will You Follow Him?

 

            Catholics are really bad at praying out loud. I know that’s a huge generalization, but I’ve found it to be true. When I teach my freshmen and sophomore theology classes, I have one of the kids start off with a prayer…and not a pre-written prayer, either. They usually say something like this: “Dear God…um…um…thank You…um…and help us in this class. Amen.”

            Why do I bring this up? Because this fourth part of the kerygma, the basic Gospel message, is to have a daily, living relationship with Jesus Christ. And a living relationship is about more than just reciting pre-written prayers – it’s about sharing your entire life with the Lord Jesus.

            We’ve heard over the last few weeks the core of the Gospel message: that God loves us deeply, personally, passionately; but that all of us have sinned and have strayed away from Him; but that Jesus Christ paid the price for our reconciliation by His death on the Cross. But that salvation is only applied to our souls if we receive Christ through faith and a living relationship with Him.

            This same Jesus Who was born in a manger is still alive, forever and ever. Because He is alive, we can have a relationship with Him. But what does that look like, practically? Our response to His incredible love involves four things.

            First, we accept Jesus into our life. In the 1850s, a man named William Hunt painted a famous painting of Jesus knocking on someone’s door – you may have seen it before. It was based off of Revelation 2 where Jesus says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” But when the painting was unveiled, some people objected to the artist and said, “You painted the door wrong. There is no door handle on the outside.” The artist responded, “Exactly – you can only open the door to Jesus from the inside.” Our Lord is a gentleman and He will never force His way into our life. He waits for us to surrender – a simple prayer such as, “Jesus, I am Yours, do with me as You will” can invite Christ in.

            Second, we take time daily to speak with Him in prayer. More than just reciting words, it means putting our heart and soul into a conversation with God. Think of how stilted it would be if a husband says to his wife, “Hi Honey…I love you…very much.” She would say, “Do you even mean it?” Prayer from the heart means speaking to Jesus as you would speak to a friend – tell Him your joys and sorrows, share your burdens and worries, ask for His forgiveness, tell Him how much you love Him. It’s fine to say pre-written prayers as long as we mean them from our hearts, just as a man might quote Shakespeare passionately towards his wife, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways…” We can make the prayer “our own” – “Our Father…yes, Lord, I know that You are my Father…Who art in Heaven…my true home is with You in Heaven forever…hallowed be Thy Name…yes, Lord, let your Name be praised for all eternity…” The important thing is that we are truly speaking with God Himself!

            Third, we re-orient our lives toward His will. This means obeying Him and His teachings through the Church. At the end of our lives, either we have said to God, “Your will be done” and we enter Heaven – or God will say to us, “Your will be done” and we enter Hell. There is a beautiful, powerful story told by Fr. Karl Goldmann, an Army chaplain during World War II who was imprisoned along with his brigade in a Prisoner-of-War camp. One of his fellow soldiers was a man who really wrestled with the faith – he would meet with Fr. Goldmann after hours and question him endlessly, searching for the truth. One day, the sad news came to the camp that this soldier’s hometown had been bombed heavily and his whole family, wife and kids, were found dead in the rubble. The soldier, upon hearing the news, went back to his barracks…but a few hours later, no one could find him. Everyone feared that he had killed himself in despair and sorrow. Fr. Goldmann joined in the search for the soldier – and much to his surprise, he found the man in the tent that had been serving as their makeshift chapel. He had flung himself on the altar and was gripping the crucifix as if his life depended on it. Fr. Goldmann compassionately approached the man and asked him if he could pray with him. The soldier responded, “Yes, Father. I need you to help me pray those words from the Our Father: Thy Will Be Done.” Together, they recited the Our Father for hours together, until the man could say those words with complete serenity of heart: “Thy Will Be Done.” He walked out of the chapel-tent with a sorrowful but peaceful heart – having surrendered everything to God. When we have a living relationship with Jesus, we surrender everything to Him.

            Fourth, we seek to imitate Him. As St. Gregory of Nyssa once said, “A Christian is another Christ.” There’s a famous story of a young boy watching Michaelangelo carve his famous statue of David. As the statue started to take shape, the boy asked, “Wow! How did you know he was in there?” And the great artist replied, “I just took away anything that wasn’t him.” Having that deep, personal friendship with Christ means chipping away everything in ourselves that isn’t Him.

            Now, after hearing the Kerygma – the Gospel message – for the past four weeks, we are left with a choice. Some of us have already chosen to follow Jesus. Some of us may be sitting here and thinking, “I was baptized and confirmed, that’s good enough!” Baptism and confirmation may make us Catholics, but they don’t necessarily make us disciples, followers of Jesus – both Hitler and Stalin were baptized and confirmed Catholics! It takes a choice to follow Jesus. And now the choice is yours. Some of us may be unsure of what we believe – that’s okay, just bring those struggles and doubts to Jesus. But wherever you’re at, Jesus is ready to meet you there with healing, mercy, forgiveness, joy…salvation.

            So we’re going to take a few moments of silent prayer. If you’re already a follower of Christ, reaffirm your desire to follow Him. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, in the silence of your heart, welcome Him into your life. If you’re not sure, tell Jesus honestly. But the Kerygma, the Gospel message, demands a response. Will you say yes?

Homily for Advent 3 - Part 3 of 4 - Homily Series on the Kerygma

 

Homily for December 19, 2021

Advent 3 – Kerygma 3 of 4

The Death of Jesus Is His Love

 

            About nine centuries ago, a great theologian named St. Anselm wrote a book called “Cur Deus Homo?” – “Why Did God Become Man?” He concluded that the very reason why Jesus Christ took on flesh at Christmas is so that He could die on the Cross.

            Often during Advent and Christmas we don’t think about Christ’s death – but that is the whole reason for God becoming man. He had to have a body in order to die. And He had to die in order to reconcile us to God.

            We’ve been diving into the kerygma – the core Gospel message – during this Advent season. We started out looking at God’s great love for humanity, but our betrayal of that love by sin, which turned us away from God. But God was not finished yet – He provided the solution to our wretched exile. The solution was the Cross.

            But why death? Wasn’t there some other way? Consider this – imagine you were back in school as a student. What would be the consequence if you punched a classmate? Probably detention, maybe getting suspended. But what would be the consequence if you punched a teacher? You’d get expelled. What would be the consequence if you punched the President? You’d get arrested and put in jail. The same action, when done against someone of a higher dignity, requires a more severe consequence.

            Then what would be the consequence if we were to offend God? He who is All-Holy, the Perfect One, the Creator, the Omnipotent and Majestic King? The natural consequence would be death – both physical death, and spiritual death as we would be separated from Him for all eternity. This was the natural consequence for every sin, no matter how small, since it goes against the august majesty of God. It says in Scripture that even the moon, the stars, and the angels are not spotless in the sight of God! Nothing with the least stain of sin can stand in His presence – hence, the consequence of our sin is to be banished from His presence for eternity!

            Consider, too, that God is the source of all life. If sin means turning our back on God, then we are rejecting the Source of Life, and we are instead choosing death. St. Paul echoes this in Romans: “The wages of sin are death.”

            We owed a debt to God that we could not pay back. We needed someone who could pay it – someone who was infinite, since we offended the Infinitely good God; someone who was human, since they had to die; and someone who was perfect, since he needed to offer a perfectly pure sacrifice to God. Where in the world would we find a human being like that? Nowhere. Among us humans, there has never been a perfect person to offer their life as a ransom for man.

            But…God’s love for us is too radical, too persistent to give up on us. Since we could not find a victim that fit all the criteria, He would have to become man! Such reckless love!

To ransom us sinners, He gave away the Sinless One. To take away our shame, He was willing to be spat upon and humiliated. He was willing to take on our weak humanity so that He could refashion the Image and Likeness of God within us.

            There was once a young boy, the only son of a widow, who could be quite troublesome. One day he was very bad, and his mother tried to swat his backside with a belt, but the boy by this time was much faster than his mother, so he ran outside the house and called back to his mother at the door, “You’ll never catch me! I can do as I please!” The poor mother, worn out with the struggles of poverty and raising a wild son, sighed and said, “I feel ashamed of myself for having brought up a son who is so naughty. I must be a bad mother – and so I will punish myself.” And she started to whip the belt on her own back. The boy was so moved at seeing his mother taking on his punishment which he justly deserved, and so came back crying and begging for forgiveness.

            And so it should be for us who behold the Cross. God did not want to chase us down with punishment, so He took the punishment Himself and hoped to win us by love. Will you let Him?

            One profound way to let Him win us by love is through Confession. Next week will be one of our Confession weekends where the Sacrament of Confession will be offered after every Mass. Please come and take advantage of the forgiveness He won for you. It was purchased at a tremendous cost – the cost of the Blood of the Son. It was this Cross that won reconciliation for the human race – and He waits for our response of repentance and gratitude.

Homily for Advent 2, 2021 - Kerygma Sermon Series Part 2 of 4

 

Homily for December 5, 2021

Advent 2 – Kerygma 2 of 4

Sin Is the Cause of All Unhappiness

 

            We’ve been preaching a series this Advent on the Kerygma – the core of the Gospel message. There are four parts – God loves us, we sinned and brought death and destruction upon the world, but Christ took our sins upon Himself and reconciled us to God, and we can have access to salvation through our living relationship with Jesus Christ. Last time we spoke of God’s immense love for us – but now we turn to the bad-news part of the Good News!

            When I was a teen, I used to attend a wonderful Catholic retreat in the summers – but it had the most awkward name. It was called “Catholic Familyland” – and despite how much fun it was there, I couldn’t ever tell my friends where I was going – such an embarrassing name!

            But at Catholic Familyland, I remember the priest always telling us, “Sin is the cause of all unhappiness in the world!” I have never forgotten those words, and I think they are profound! How much misery is caused by sin!

            You see, every human being is searching for happiness. But sin is choosing a counterfeit happiness over the real one. When I lived in Maryland, it was a big deal for us to make a trip to NYC. One year when I was a seminarian, I accompanied the 8^th graders at the local Catholic school to New York. On the way home, a kid named Alex came up to me on the bus and said, “Hey, look at this great Rolex I got for only $10!”

            I laughed and said, “Where’d you get it?”

            “Oh, some guy in Battery Park was selling it from a blanket on the sidewalk.”

            “You know that’s not real, right? It’s a fake knock-off.”

            “No, no! Of course it’s real! The guy selling it told me it was real!”

            “Okay, Alex. Whatever you say.” About ten minutes later he came back to me, all despondent, and said, “This is terrible. My Rolex stopped working.”

            “Well, yes, that’s what happens when you get a counterfeit.”

            And isn’t that the way with sin? It promises happiness – and it provides misery. It makes us happy for ten minutes, and then when that wears away we feel a greater emptiness than ever before.

            Think about the way we have been hurt by sin, both ourselves and others’ sin. Maybe it was because of our parents’ lack of love. Maybe it was because we were bullied growing up. Maybe we fell into the shame of addictions to drugs or alcohol or impurity. Maybe we broke relationships, or others broke them with us. Maybe we lived selfishly, and are reaping what we’ve sown.

            Even natural sufferings like sickness, poverty, and death are made more bitter by sin. If we truly loved God, we would rejoice at sickness, because it is an opportunity to share in Christ’s Cross. Poverty, in the light of faith, allows us to serve God unfettered by possessions. And death is the door to total union with God in Heaven. These natural sufferings, which are meant to bring us closer to Christ, end up being bitter due to sin. Besides, these sufferings are a result of original sin – so one could truly say that sin is the cause of all unhappiness in the world!

            Consider – a bird is happiest when it is flying; a fish is happiest in the water. So we are happiest when we are doing what we are meant to do. And what is the meaning of our lives? To know, love and serve God here on this earth so we can be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. To sin is to act against the very meaning and purpose of our life. Much like a bird underwater or a fish in a tree, we are unhappiest when we sin!

            All parts of the human person suffer because of sin. God initially intended us to live forever; but now, because of original sin, our bodies suffer sickness and death. God desired our souls to live in intimate union with Him; but now, sin separates us from Him. Our intellect was meant to know truth, but sin blinds us and makes us believe in errors (most atheists I know started down that path because they were living a sinful life and didn’t want there to be a God!). Finally, our free wills have become corrupted because of sin – we now desire things we know to be harmful. Before Original Sin, broccoli would be more delicious than chocolate; praying would have been more enjoyable than Netflix; we wouldn’t have to struggle to do the right thing. Now, our wills are weak and flabby, and we have to exert serious effort to pray or live good lives. Sin corrupted all of us – body and soul, intellect and free will.

            But – here’s the good news – sin is not the final word. There is hope – and hope is named Jesus Christ.