Homily
for December 30, 2007
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
The Holy Family
By Fr. Andrew Moyo Topic:
The Holy Family
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Reading
I
Sir 3: 2-6, 12-14 God sets a father
in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her
sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself
from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres
his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and,
when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long
life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care
of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he
lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him
not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be
forgotten, firmly planted against the debt of your sins—a house raised
in justice to you.
Reading
II
Col 3:12-17 Brothers and
sisters: Put on, as God’s
chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and
forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against
another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And
over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And
let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which
you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and
admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do,
in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Gospel
Mt 2:13-15, 19-23 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 through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be
called a Nazorean.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holy Family A Catholic priest was chatting with an
old high school
friend that he had not met for a long time. At a certain point during
the
conversation, the priest put this question before his friend. “How come
you
never got married?” “Well” said Peter,
“to tell you the truth, I spent my youth looking for a perfect woman.
In Cairo,
I met a woman who was beautiful and intelligent, with eyes like dark
olives,
but she was unkind. Then in Rome I met a woman who was wonderful and
charming,
blond, a generous soul but we had no common interests. One woman after
another
would seem just right, but there would be always something missing.
Then one
day, I met her. She was beautiful, intelligent and kind, we had
everything in
common. In fact, she was perfect.” “Well”
asked the priest, “what happened? Why did you not marry her?” “Well” he
responded: “it is a sad thing. It seems she was looking for the perfect
man”. Perfection is hard to find in this
life. There are no
perfect individuals. The same is true for our families. No family is
perfect
and no marriage is perfect- No perfect individuals. No perfect church.
If you
find one, join it. It will not be a perfect church! Even after
celebrating a
Golden Jubilee, you still do and sometimes say things that annoy or
anger the
other person. Isn’t this true! You know it much better. Whenever human beings live together
under the same roof,
misunderstanding and conflicts are bound to occur. The Chinese
have a proverb which says: Nobody
can hang out the sign: Nothing the matter here! The most important
thing is we
have to know how to deal with them and how tocope with them? Let us look at the holy family: When
they discovered that
Jesus was lost, they did not waste time blaming each other, they united
in a
prolonged and pain staking search. And even when they found him safe
but
unapologetic, they did not erupt in anger or try to heap accusations of
guilt
on him. Surely, they were upset but they did not focus all their upset
feelings
on him. Surely, dear friends, like Mary
and Joseph, we can weather the storms of life by working together,
letting love
overcome guilt and anger and placing our needs before the Heavenly
Father. The Holy family is a model of love.
Joseph was faithful
to Mary even though the child she carried was not his own. He took all
the
trouble to protect the child. I have witnessed incidents whereby step
fathers
or mother hate they step children, and some, to the extent of killing
them. Paul says to the men: “Love your
wives!” Then he exhorts the women to submit to their husbands. I know
many
women do not like this part of St Paul. They object and ask “Why does
he not
tell the husbands to submit to their wives too? Do they not need this
advice
too? Men always do what they want and woe to us if we ask for an
explanation.” As I see, even though Paul
did not use the word submit/subordinate explicitly to the men.
The word submit/ subordinate is summed up in
love. He knew that when women love, they love wholeheartedly. If
a man truly loves his wife, he will also
be submissive to her. Parents the best gift that you can give to your
children
is loving one another. Children are advised to honor their
parents.
Obey your parents: For
this is pleasing to the Lord.
This does not mean that the parents
are free to do what
they want with their children. What it
means is that they should be realistic about what they expect from
their
children. When parents expect their children to implement their own
unrealized
dreams, they lay a heavy burden and they set themselves up for a lot of
disappointment. There are some children who are very
disobedient and very
lazy. They do not show any respect at all either to their parents or
elders.
These lazy children expect their parents do everything for them:
prepare them
dinner and do the dishes; to make up their beds, clean the house. When
parents
ask them do some house chores, they get angry! Come on guys! Your
parents do
not hate you; but they want you to be responsible. They are preparing
you for
the future. Parents love their children dearly and some give up their
employment for some time, in order to be with their children. Hey boys
and
girls! Your parents love you dearly. The best gift you can give to your
parents
to show your love and appreciation, is being obedient. Start today! It must be remembered that the Holy
Family shared the
normal struggles and tensions of any family life. They had to go
into exile. You can imagine how difficult it is to stay in
a foreign country. The story of Mary and
Joseph searching for their twelve-year-old son, who had not bothered
telling
them that he would be staying behind, had to have been troublesome.
For all of Mary and Joseph’s holiness, they
struggled like any other family, to deal and cope with these problems,
to take
care of each other and be a happy family.
In view of all this, no one can claim that the Holy Family lived a
sheltered and trouble free life. Let us offer our families today to
Jesus. Let us ask him to teach us how to live with
the same faith, love and trust that Mary and Joseph have shown.