December 28, 2025 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL
Sirach 3: 2-6, 12-14 + Psalm + Colossians 2: 12-21 + Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23
Many are away from us today having gone somewhere to be with their families. Some of you have come here to join family members for Christmas. There is no way to negotiate this holy season without thoughts of our families. We do so with all kinds of emotions from tender memories to painful ones of loneliness and sadness. Unlike the Holy Family fleeing Herod, we cannot flee our family memories. We have been shaped by them: good, bad, or indifferent. Families can be safe and comforting or fearful and angry, breeding resentment. Some are a mix of both.
We all navigate family waters as best we can. If our memories are positive, we have to listen to God’s call to share what we have known with those whose lives we touch. If memories are hurtful, we find a way to walk with God on a path of healing out of the heartache. If we are still living with hurtful individuals, we can listen to God’s voice that urges us to find tolerance, love, and safety.
A very real family is put before us today inviting us to wonder and imagine how and why they are so “holy.” Thinking that it was because of the Divine Nature of the son in this family boarders on heresy because his divinity never interfered with his real and true humanity. The holy ones here are the mother and the father. Two obedient children of God who know how to listen, ponder, and seek to do the right thing and the will of God.
The real story of this family is untold. We know nothing about their lives together except that they were faithful to the customs and practices of their faith. The only clues we get to what that family life was like comes from things Jesus said and did as an adult. We find him compassionate and tender with a widow whose only son has died. We find him comfortable in many homes, but seemly often at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. In that home we find him unbothered by a little spat between the woman. Of all the parables, the “Prodigal Son” presents a father who acts more like a mother than a wealthy patriarch. I do believe that he spoke that parable out of his own experience at home. Jesus became a human being revealing God because he was raised in a family made holy because they listened to God who called them to compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. That’s what made that family holy. They put on love which is the bond of perfection.
I wonder sometimes if in God’s plan this three-person family is not a reflection of the ultimate Holy Family which we call the Trinity. In that family there is a powerful exchange of love beyond human limits giving us the Jesus who reveals an unconditional and extravagant love beyond our imagination. Jesus was formed by that love, and his mission is to form us and draw us into that holy family.
Christmas is not over. It has just begun, and it will not end when the tree comes down. There is some light in the darkness of these times. It is a light that comes from God who must be hoping that we will allow the light of His Son to shine not just in this holy place but in our homes where we shall become holy as we were meant to be, Peace be with you, friends.