Feast of the Holy Family 13 Jan 2019 Sermon

Holy Family 13.1.19 Blessing for curse 

The Holy Family sets a high standard to imitate, but this is not meant to discourage us, rather to help us rise to better things.

There were no raised voices in that family, no insults, no snide remarks.

So we think: my house is not like that! Can we become so? Can we reach that level of concord and charity?

God wants us to be like the Holy Family. The New Testament is full of references to mutual charity, forgiving each other, inspiring each other to the best behaviour. Such as today’s epistle: forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col 3, 13-14)

Perhaps best summarised with this: Love one another as I have love you. (Jn 15, 12)

This love is to be complete on our side even if it does not come back in the same form.

We repay evil with a blessing ( 1 P 3,9).

This part we find really hard. It is easy to love those who love us, but what if they do not love; or if they even hate us?

We look to where Love originates – God Himself, the Blessed Trinity, another model of Family.

There is no discord there, either. Total unanimity, total harmony.

We may not know how to live in peace in our families, but we know we should be doing so. This is some progress at least. To know where we are heading is a major step in getting there.

My peace I give to you, says Our Lord (Jn 14,27). He will enable us to overcome whatever obstacles there are to family unity.

The basis of it all is to be united with Him. We have a much better chance of loving our neighbour if we also love God.

We derive our values, our desires, our aspirations from Him. We want to be like Our Lord.

(Or like Our Lady, or St Joseph. It would come to the same thing in practice.)

We want what God wants. Thus we understand that God loves each other person, and how can I not love those whom He loves?

How to do this? How do we love when not loved in return?

We learn bit by bit, piece by piece, to be less preoccupied with self; more able to be concerned for the other person, particularly as regards his spiritual needs, such as the salvation of the soul.

It is Christ’s way replacing the world’s way. We start with His perspective rather than our own. It is all about Him rather than all about me.

Christians under provocation will often simply throw off their Christian beliefs like an outer garment and act like anyone else.

Then we are sorry for that, and we put the garment back on. And then it happens again!

We have to go deeper into Christ, into the Blessed Trinity, into deep unity with the source of Unity. Unity, deep enough that we will not be alternating with worldly mentality, but always habitually doing things Christ’s way.

We plant ourselves deeply in the right soil, to draw heavenly grace deep inside.

The heavenly wisdom will permeate and take hold. Angry thoughts will evaporate; charity taking its place.

Local and universal family will benefit; the Church will benefit; societies will benefit.

Till it be so, and to make it so, Lord have mercy on us; Mary and Joseph, pray for us.