On this Fourth Day of Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. “Holy” is one of those religious words that tends to make people wary. And so, it is tempting to keep our concept of holiness vague. Or, if not vague, then keep it at a distance.
We create this space to maintain our comfort, to have a cushion. We make holiness a mountain too high and a bridge too far. But the word “holy” in Sacred Scripture simply means, “separate,” “different,” or “set apart for a purpose.”
For a Christian, seeking holiness means recognizing the purpose for which you are set apart, that is, living in accord with the end for which God created and redeemed you. Christian life is a process of sanctification, of being made holy. It means striving for wholeness, for integration, in an increasingly fragmented world.
In Christian terms, the concept of purely and exclusively personal holiness is highly problematic. A person “who is obsessed with his own inner unity,” wrote Thomas Merton, “is failing to face his disunion with God and other men. For it is in union with others that our own inner unity is naturally and easily established.”1 Stated more succinctly, we need each other. Stated more truthfully, we are made for each other.
It is with members of our families that we live in closest proximity. In families we see each other at our very best and at our very worst. Our family of origin is so fundamental to who we are and how we see and relate to God, the world, and others that it is difficult to exaggerate its importance.
In our reading from Sirach, we hear what is likely a commentary on the fourth commandment, which bids you to honor your parents. In this passage, we find several practical and still-relevant ways of doing so. It bears noting that the fourth of the Ten Commandments serves as a bridge between the first three, which are about loving God, and the final six about loving your neighbor.
This puts the fourth commandment in a category of its own. It is also the commandment to which God attaches a promise- “Honor your faher and mother that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.”2 In God’s plan, parents are rightly situated between God and other people. This can be good or bad. For most of us, if we're being hones, it’s a bit of both.
This unique place parents occupy in each of our lives entails mutual responsibilities. Elders should be honored, even revered, because they are the repositories of life’s wisdom. Often it is their hard work, sacrifice, and suffering that have provided many of the benefits you enjoy. Hence, they deserve your respect and care.
In today’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph put aside their own plans to ensure the safety of their child. One would think that such selflessness is inherent to parenthood. However, the news is filled with stories that show us this is not always the case. Children should be cherished. Just as elders carry within the treasury of the past, children are the hope of our future. Without children, there is no future!
Marley's Ghost, by John Leech for the original 1843 edition of A Christmas Carol
In our reading from the Letter to the Colossians, we have a list of values that are to be nurtured in the family. It is in the family that children first experience compassion and kindness. It is within the family that children’s spirits are shaped by gentleness, love, and forgiveness so they can bestow these on others. This feast reminds us that every family, regardless of its composition and circumstances, is called to be holy. From a Christian perspective, the natural family is not an end in itself.
Being holy does not mean becoming a moralistic automaton or a self-righteous busybody. On the contrary, it means becoming more human. Being holy is to be fully human in imitation of Jesus Christ; “He Who is ‘the image of the invisible God’ is Himself the perfect man.” “It is Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”3
Near the beginning of his Apostolic Exhortation Gaudium et Exsultate [“On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World”], Pope Francis pointed out “The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance on God’s holy and faithful people.”4 Then, citing Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, he further explained:
it has pleased God to make men and women holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness5It is important to grasp the integral role the Church, God’s family, plays in making us holy. Of course, distracted, obligatory religious observance won’t make anyone holy. But then, neither will neglect of one’s religious duty. “We are never completely ourselves,” Pope Francis continued, “unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual.”6
As the lamenting ghost of Jacob Marley told a frightened Ebeneezer Scrooge:
Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!7Just as family relationships are sometimes very difficult, even vexing, so are relationships in the Church. It is by forgiving, seeking forgiveness when needed, cultivating forbearance, patience, and love that one grows into the image of Christ. Striving to be “holy means striving to surrender to God’s light within us when the darkness around us seems overwhelming. It means struggling day after day to bring creative order – if only a bit of it – to the chaos of our lives.”8
In other words, we embody holiness by striving to be hale and hearty, by striving to be resilient in combatting the powerful forces that threaten the family and the Church, and not by trying to conform to some hopelessly unrealistic ideal.
Bob Hope once joked about his comedy partner saying, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Bing Crosby and there’s nothing Bing Crosby wouldn’t do for me. But that’s the trouble. We don’t do anything for each other.” Let this not be the case with us. Let’s be eager in doing things with for and each other.
Dear friends in Christ, it is perfect love that became Incarnate for our sake in the person of Jesus. This season of Christmas and this feast of the Holy Family reminds us that God's Son, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, took on flesh because, as then-Bishop George Niederauer wrote to our diocese at Christmas years ago, He “wants to make a difference in our lives each day, in what we say and do, and especially in why we say and do it- out of love for him, who has loved us enough to come and abide with us now and always.”
1 Thomas Merton. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 209.↩
2 Exodus 20:12.↩
3 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et spes], sec. 22; Colossians 1:15.↩
4 Pope Francis. Apostolic Exhortation, Rejoice and Be Glad [Gaudium et Exsultate], sec. 6.↩
5 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [Lumen Gentium], sec. 9..↩
6 Rejoice and Be Glad, sec. 6.↩
7 Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, Stave One.↩
8 Mitch Finely- lost the reference.↩
No comments:
Post a Comment