Holy Family: Traditions, Customs, and Prayers

Today’s Gospel reading from Luke is the only Scripture we have of the Holy Family together with Jesus older than just say as an infant or very young child.  In this story of the Holy Family going up to Jerusalem Jesus is 12 years old.  They were going up to the feast of the Passover, something they did each year as was according to their custom.  I would venture to say that our own families today are not much different and actually much more alike with families of the past, even though 2,000 years removed from this story.

Think for a moment on your own families and the things that we do in regards to our customs and traditions.  Much like the Holy Family, we attend the high Holy days with our families to Church or we may make a pilgrimage to Rome or Jerusalem or some other Holy place.  We do these things together as a family as we are doing right now in Church today.

We also do many other such things together as family or even extended family, it was Christmas just the other day, think on what we were doing, we were gathered with our families, opening gifts, sitting together, sharing food together, and most especially bonding in friendship and love.

No matter what it is we do together as a family the family grows stronger because it is time spent with one another, enjoying each other’s company, telling stories, having fun, and even praying together.  John Paul II would call the family a little Church and it is, because it is there where children learn all the customs I just mentioned, but most importantly where they encounter Christ, for it is in the example, the words, the living out of holy traditions that young people find our Savior even before they may enter into any formal schooling.

God created the family unit for many reasons, but the most important was that each and every one of us would receive faith, faith in others and most of all faith in God.  Eventually one learns that even one’s own family is a pointing towards our greater family, the family of God – the Church.  And when we realize that it is God who invites us here today, and puts in our hearts that longing to be with our greatest family, with all the angels, with all the saints, with each other and all of those who have gone before us, and most especially to be with our Lord, is a familial calling.  That calling comes from the Master of the house, our Father calling His children to come to His home each and every Sunday to rest, to be happy, to have joy fill our hearts, to share in the Holy meal of the Eucharist, for there is nothing better, there is nothing more fulfilling, there is no greater thing than to be present right here – right now in our Holy Family with the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

In the Least Expected Ways

You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel;  whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.  This how our first reading today began (from Micah chapter 5.)  I have personally always been drawn to these few verses.  They stand out for me for the obvious reason that this is prophecy of the coming Messiah, Jesus, but also for the often missed, “You, Bethlehem – too small to be among the clans of Judah,” should have been enough for those who were expecting the Messiah to be born to recognize that he it would not happen in great fan fare, pomp and circumstance, God does not work that way.

No one would ever have imagined that a young boy would be chosen over 9 other brothers, all more older, wiser and stronger than he, he just being a simple shepherd herder to become the greatest king of Israel if not arguably one of the greatest kings to walk the face of this earth, King David, raised up from nowhere and nobody.

No one would ever have guessed that the virgin who would become the Mother of the Messiah to be a poor, lowly girl from Nazareth, with no ties to power, prestige or resources and yet from all the great women of Israel a young girl in a corner of a place with no significance would become the Mother of God (Jesus).

Who then in their wildest imagination would have guessed that God’s Son would be born in a manager in a town too small to even be counted among the clans of Judah?  And yet, they should have since that is usually the way God works.  God does not call as we would call nor does He choose as we would choose.  He chooses those who are small to show His great power for if He chooses the powerful and the influential the outcome may be attributed to their persons but not in the case of when He chooses the small and the lowly.

This does not mean that those who are learned, rich or of great power do not bring about the kingdom of God, they do, but in my opinion not as much for the kingdom is not built on those things but rather on compassion, purity, being humble, no attachments to anything but God alone.

Yet, we all struggle in the in between, the love of what we have and aspire to – to that of the call of God which is to simplicity, lowliness, and humility.

Let me leave you with this and think honestly on this, if you were God for a day would you have chosen a small and weak shepherd boy to lead Israel, would you have chosen a young 14 year old girl to be the Mother of your Son who barely anyone knew, and would you have allowed your Son to be born in the midst of animals and all kinds of farm smells? “My ways are not your ways, for man sees the outside (appearances), but God sees the heart.”

I pray for you and for me that we will make ourselves small, like the little town of Bethlehem, like a young virgin girl in the corner of nowhere, and like the Messiah Himself born in a manager because there was nowhere else, I pray that becomes our Christmas, just some days from now, God bless you, Fr. John

Filled with Holy Spirit and Fire

In today’s Gospel the verse that jumped off the page for me was, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  John’s Baptism was for persons acknowledging their sinfulness and for the remission of their sins, the difference with the Baptism that would be commanded by Christ, is that it was not only for the remission of sins, but one would also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I take it most of us here, besides any catechumens or visitors were baptized and many of us were more than likely baptized as infants, again except for those who converted later in life.  This beautiful gift that John speaks of and that Jesus eventually commands, “Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” has been given to us.  It began with the Incarnation.

The Incarnation of Christ is that moment when Mary said, “yes,” to the Angel and she conceived Jesus in her womb.  The Son of God took on flesh.  This is a profound theological statement, one that has been studied, examined, written about, and reflected on for the last 2,000 years.  The Incarnation and eventually the birth of Christ has incredible meaning, that God would come close to us.  In that coming close to us He shares everything with us.  In our Baptism we in a very deep and intimate way are united to Christ’s Passion on the Cross as well as His Resurrection.  We die and we rise with Him that is the gift that is given to us through the Holy Spirit.  There is no greater intimacy that a person can share with another; we share death and life with our Lord.  The only thing that would come close or resemble this profound intimacy is marriage.

We become one flesh with our Lord, for as St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”  Baptism is our marriage (so to speak) to the Trinity, the One God.  So, please think for a moment, if Jesus has given us this gift and this fire as John the Baptist says then are we not moved by knowing that Jesus reaches out to me?  Jesus comes close and remains close no matter what.  And yet, what about this fire?  My coaches would say to us, “You got to have fire in your belly!”  They were basically telling us that you have to have a passion for what you were doing, a motivational drive that went beyond just simply winning and losing, but a love for the game.  God has lit this fire in us, He has put the fire in our bellies.  The question becomes, “Do you feel it?”

The drive, the motivation, the desire was given to us when the Spirit filled us and we became born again and made new in Baptism.  My goodness, what a gift!  I pray that as we have been moving through Advent that you are realizing this gift more and more, the gift that is inside of you, that gift my friends is none other than our Lord Himself and there is no Christmas present in the world that can be its equal.  My dear friends, God has come close to us more so than we could possibly ever imagine.  God bless you and keep that fire burning!

Advent Week II: Splendor, Glory and Justice

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever: wrapped in the cloak of justice from God . . . (Baruch 5:1)  Just in this one verse we could reflect on for hours.  What beauty is in this verse, what a promise, what great words of encouragement, what great words of love!

This splendor and glory is God’s own glory which He wishes to shower upon us.  If that is the case what does that say about our worth, dignity, and value?  I believe it says a lot!  God became one of us, obviously to save us, but also to simply be with us, to come close to us, not out of compulsion or need, but simply out of love.  If God is close to me do I understand that I have been cloaked by Him in His very splendor and glory?  If so, do I show it?  Do I live it? 

The following sentence says, “Wrapped in the cloak of justice from God.”  We have splendor, glory, but also God’s justice.  He takes care of us, loves and treats us fairly.  We have His justice, but this also means that we must be just to others.  As Plato would put it, “Do I respect and give a person their proper due that is owed them simply because of who they are a human being?”  Justice in the bible is described in many ways, being fair, honest, judging rightly, not denying the widow and orphan or the poor, the alien, etc.  All of it however comes back to treatment of people, the 2^nd commandment of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

As we continue through Advent it is good to remind ourselves, that the Christmas story which is coming soon, is a reminder that when Jesus was born we literally put on the splendor and glory of God, and it becomes a reality in our Baptism, but through that Baptism we are to also put on the justice of God otherwise the gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection in our lives loses meaning.  I pray that the opposite is true that we live lives that give a fuller sense to that meaning that Jesus increases in each of us more and more each day.  I pray that you believe that, because as the Psalmist says, “I said, 'you are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.” (Psalm 82:6)