Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
December 30, 2007
And let the peace of Christ control your heart, the peace into which you were also called in one body.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Today is the Feast of the Holy Family. The Holy Family is Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph. We cannot presume that children today know something so basic, but it is so essential to know those persons, who make up the Holy Family. They are displayed on the front of the Altar and on the front of the bulletin.
The family has been under attack since the Garden of Eden. The last 40 years have seen an accelerated attack. When there are attacks on the physical persons we get together and we have campaigns to eradicate this disease or that affliction. How many people are striving to stop cancer for example? Yet, when it comes to something attacking the family, we throw up our hands as if a solution is impossible. The same spirit or dedication that would help stomp out cancer with a cure, somehow throws up its arms at the thought of treating divorce as a social cancer.
This morning as I was preparing for the day, I tuned in to KRLD Radio, and there was a news item that the host seemed very cheerful about. I can’t believe anybody is that cheerful so early in the morning. He was very cheerful, because there was a new form of divorce. That is just what we need! I guess it is like the speed pass at the gas pump. I guess this is a “give your social security number” divorce and that is it. Making divorce so easy is to roll over about something, which afflicts the family. I can say this from my personal experience.
November 3rd, Pope Benedict met with a group of strong families. He addressed them about this topic just a couple of months ago. He said,
Strong families are a sign of hope and encouragement. Just weeks before he released his Encyclical, Spe Salvi, on hope, the Pope was talking about the way that this hope would be spread throughout the world through strong families.
"Before the many social and economic, cultural and religious challenges that contemporary society must face," he said, strong families that reach out to others are "a sign of hope and an encouragement."
When I began the homily I mentioned that we just presume that everybody knows that the Holy Family is Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph, we presume also that everyone understands what a family is. You couldn’t be more wrong! Today a family can be anything and still be named “family”. This is not to build up the family, but to weaken it.
The Holy Father has a very specific plan for helping the world with its many social, economical, cultural, and religious challenges, and it is not a government program or even a religious program; it is the family. He is very specific. He said that,
So, to be a privileged space where the beauty of placing Jesus Christ at the center, just as He is right now at the foot of the Altar, and as He will be in a moment here at the center of the Mass at the Consecration, and faithfully following the Gospel proclaimed through daily life. This is not a gimmick, it is not a bureaucratic plan, but an integrated way that Christ wishes to reach out to families, who are hurting, and there are many families hurting.The commitment of strong families helps Christian families live their vocation to be a privileged space where the beauty of placing Jesus Christ at the center and faithfully following the Gospel is proclaimed through daily life.
The Holy Father said that strong families reflect on the Gospel and daily experience to find ways to help people in difficult family situations including, young people, who are uncertain about their future. Do they make any other kind of young people? I don’t know. Then, there are separated and divorced couples, those who have been widowed, and children who have been abandoned. So, reflecting on the Gospel and daily experience are going to help strong families find ways to help people, who are in difficult situations.
Pope Benedict said that many threats families are facing are obvious. They are obvious, but they do demand our attention. The last thing the Pope said is that Divine Help is needed to keep us from becoming discouraged. He said that,
Christ has a commandment to love and forgive everyday, but the last 40 years have chipped away at this Second Reading, which in my opinion needs work. They took awayDivine Help is needed to avoid becoming discouraged. Your constant recourse to prayer, to listening to the Word of God along with an intensely Sacramental life are indispensable as is a renewed effort each day to live Christ’s Commandment to love and forgive.
Wives be submissive to your husbands.
Now it says,
Wives be subordinate to your husbands.
What does that mean? Over the past 40 years people have scratched their heads and asked how the Church can proclaim that. If we had Missalettes it would only offer us the opportunity of reading the first part and not the second part of the Reading, calling the second part the “long version.” You can even see the temptation of some in the Church to sidestep a difficult issue.
How many parents, who have a son get married, don’t pray that the wife be submissive to her husband? It is axiomatic, and yet, our society tells us that women should not be submissive to their husbands. As if St. Paul has left the husbands off the hook…..
Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church.
You see... the Second Reading is impossible to live out without Christ at the center. What has the world attempted to do over the last 40 years? It has attempted to take out the nucleus of the family, which is Christ, and still have a family. It is impossible, and you cannot do it because you are not strong enough. It will not work, and is doomed to failure.
What the Holy Father mentioned on November 3, 2007, is to place Jesus at the center of the family and faithfully follow the Gospel. One of the problems facing married life today is the expectation that there will be no problems, or the expectation that if I do this or that, if I add this or that, take away this or that, then our family will be free of problems. You really need to save this bulletin cover at home and every time you think that, look at it. What were they doing, was the Holy Family on a cruise? They were fleeing the persecution of King Herod.
St. Joseph was awakened in the middle of the night. No father has ever experienced that, right? The angel instructed St. Joseph to take the Blessed Mother and Jesus and flee to Egypt. St. Joseph didn’t roll over and go back to sleep, he listened to the angel. Just because they were the Holy Family doesn’t mean that they were free from difficulties and problems. The next time you think that your family can be problem free, look to the Holy Family. Why didn’t they have what you have? Who cares if we have problems as long as we have Christ? Christ will show us how He wants us to carry the Cross today. St. Joseph didn’t have to just flee to Egypt, but move back, too, and they couldn’t move back to where they had been, but to somewhere else.
Christ entered the world the same way we all entered the world, through a family. Just as you and I entered the world, through a family. We first experienced problems through our family. The rest of our lives will be that way too. But, with Christ at the center of the family…who cares! Families have problems only when one member or another take Christ out of the center and put someone or something else there, or just leave it vacant. That is what has happened over the past 40 years, and there are some people who say that this has been a good thing, and that the world is better for having taken Christ out of the center of the family.
This day is just moments away from January 1st, a time of resolutions. No program should be watched in your homes that don’t involve Christ; nothing on the computer should be allowed, unless it can also involve Christ. No music should be allowed into your homes if it doesn’t involve Christ. It is like the person who smokes that has to go outside because others do not smoke in the house. Since when do we tell Christ to go outside while we let the other team come inside with all the problems he (Satan) brings with him? Somehow turn off the TV, tell the other team to get out, and then Christ can come back in. This is ridiculous; this is fragmented, and yet it happens all the time.
Here we are on the doorstep of January 1st and these words from the Holy Father in November are very timely and encouraging. We look back at the past and see where mistakes that have been made. The mistake has been made whenever we decide in our daily life not to listen to this very wise counsel; constant recourse to prayer, to listening to the Word of God, and an intensely Sacramental life are indispensable. The Holy Father knows the way to answer many questions and solve many problems, which the world presents to us today. Or as St. Paul says to the Colossians,
And let the peace of Christ control your heart, the peace into which you were also called in one body.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen