Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family, A

One year at the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, I was walking the children through Luke’s nativity. I had some cloth figures that I was using to illustrate the Gospel story. Mary and Joseph were making their way to Bethlehem. This particular set of characters included a donkey, so the donkey came with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Next, I brought out a manger, and then I placed the baby Jesus in the manger.

I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, December 28 @ 9:30/11:30 am

I will have Mass at St. Andrew next Sunday, January 4 @ 5 pm.

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. 

When the Magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled. Out of Egypt I called my son. 

When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, He was afraid to go back there, and because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken to the prophets might be fulfilled. He shall be called a Nazarean. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

One year at the Christmas Eve Children's Mass, I was walking the children through Luke's nativity. I had some cloth figures that I was using to illustrate the gospel story. Mary and Joseph were making their way to Bethlehem. This particular set of characters included a donkey, so the donkey came with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Next, I brought out a manger, and then I placed the baby Jesus in the manger. 

I said to the children, the baby has been born. This is such good news. We have to tell everyone about it. Who will tell the news? I was thinking, of course, of the angel. Someone had made a beautiful angel because this set, for some reason, did not include the angel. But before the angel could tell any news, one little boy shouted, It was the donkey! Too much Shrek. 

Christianity is a report, a gospel, good news. And news requires that someone bring the news to us. The first reason that a community of persons is essential to Christianity is that we need to hear the news from someone else. I first heard the gospel from my parents. All of us heard the gospel from others. Parents, teachers, pastors, families, friends, and relatives. All of us have received the gospel as a gift from other people. No one arrives at the truth of Christianity by themselves. 

The Church repeats this message in the 12 days of Christmas. The day after Christmas, December 26th, is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The word martyr means witness. Stephen proclaims the gospel in his very person. The next day, December 27th, is the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. John proclaims the good news in the fourth gospel. December 28th is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. This feast is not celebrated today because of the Sunday feast, but the Holy Family escapes to Egypt because King Herod is attempting to kill the infant Jesus. We honor the martyred infants of Bethlehem. Their deaths foreshadow Jesus' own death by another king, Herod. This is also a day of remembrance for child victims of violence and persecution. This year, we cannot help but remember the innocent children who have been killed in Gaza in the past two years. 

In the opening verse of the Bible, we read, In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light. The Hebrew words for formless void are tohu vabohu, which is better translated wild, chaotic, fluid, and unfixed. God doesn't take away the tohu vabohu, but God speaks light into that darkness. As we heard on Christmas Day, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 

The good news is spoken to a people living in darkness. God chooses the vulnerable ones to be instruments of God's peace by revealing mercy to and through them. The message starting in Exodus and culminating in Jesus is this. God chooses the outcast to rebuild the world on a new foundation of inclusion, not exclusion, connection, not estrangement. 

In Matthew's Gospel, the Holy Family journeys as refugees to Egypt to escape the brutal tyranny of the empire. The word flee in today's gospel is a translation of the Greek, pheuge, from which we get our word refugee, the one who flees. They arrive as strangers. Someone welcomed them. They had no food or shelter or clothing. Someone cared for them. 

Matthew is expanding our image of family. In the holy family, we catch a glimpse of the whole human family. At the end of Matthew's gospel, we'll hear this familiar passage. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. Hungry, and you gave me food. Thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. 

It's only when the human story is told from the position of the outcast that humanity can learn to live without casting anyone out. In Jesus, God becomes the outcast. 

Last month, the U.S. Catholic bishop spoke with grave concern about the way our country is dealing with immigrants. The bishops remind us that Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation's immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of goodwill work together. 

At Christmas, we see God's deep love for all the world. God became the most vulnerable, loving us in this way, that God gave God's own Son that we might draw near. Ordinary people like shepherds and travelers are the messengers of God, not just angels. It's all here, in our homes, in the pews of our churches, in our friends, in our families. God first loved us, and now we can imitate God by loving one another in the same way that God loves us.