-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-Christmas homily was lost in space
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 on Sat and 9:30 on Sunday
Perfect Family - Got One?
I'm thinking about the universal "neurosis" that I am thinking is the enemy to our good functioning and peace.....imperfect family/dysfunctional family grief. The holy family is not a perfect family - in fact their family origins, relations, and agreed upon arrangement don't really fit into what I hear people longing for or the church recommending.
But the holy family has something better than family-systems psychology going for them. They have their divine vocation dominant in their lives, consciousness, and daily living. To love god above all things and your neighbor as yourself is the divine vocation that drives them together and drives them through life unto death. No death bed regrets in the holy family. Why not? Because they all did what God was calling them to do before responding to what they might have preferred.
Think about the biggest sadness in your life. I'm thinking it is going to be the result of you or someone you loved or someone who was suppose to love you NOT doing what God was asking. That never happened in the holy family. Thus, no regrets.
The five regrets of the dying....all have to do with failing to do what God asks of us.
So, we can stop grieving over our imperfect families and stop insisting on perfect relationships in the family. Like the holy family we could start realizing that our joy will come in looking for God's will in our daily lives and striving to live it perfectly. The family relationships will fall into place. And then no regrets when it's over.
4 comments:
Wow, Father this is the most beautiful, most profound writing on "Family" I have ever read or heard. How so beautiful your message.
I come from a family of nine children and our family was always a place of love, peace, and joy with a sense of belonging. I feel very, very blessed to have such a wonderful family from God.
I would like to share a little poem that my sister wrote about twenty years ago about our family:
"A happy family is but an earlier Heaven"
Our Family:
God has blessed us abundantly with the gift of each other,
It began with the blessing of a loving father and mother.
Dad and Mom ansered God's call to join and become one,
To have many children so that His Will would be done.
Mary was the first one that God decided to send,
A bundle of love whom Mom and Dad would attend.
Joseph was then born, a little baby boy,
God sent him next because from him came great joy.
Patricia was the third one to be sent from above,
On a cloud that was filled with much happiness and love.
Rose was the next one to be sent from on High,
To be a cute little apple in God's Holy Eye.
Andrew was the fifth child that our God would bring,
And that day from Heaven the angels did sing.
Margaret was to be a very special part,
Because she was born with the love from God's Heart.
James arrived from Heaven with great love,
Sent with the joy that only comes from Above.
Dorothy was sent from Heaven's Holy Gate,
To be the next one, child number eight.
Theresa was the ninth one to join our big clan,
To be the completion of God's Holy Plan.
God smiled on the day that each one of us were born because He knew we would love one another in the way that He said.
When your days seem to be filled with great suffering and strife,
Allow Jesus Christ to be center of your life.
For when you do this He will smile upon you,
And miraculously turn your days into new.
So, let us remember that we will always be,
A loving example of what He calls: FAMILY.
. . . Hope you enjoy the poem.
I like the Matador's thinking on the Holy Family. I agree with the description of the Family not meeting the longing and recommendations of what is typically considered ideal – and then I love the centering of attention on the Family’s focus on God’s will in their lives. That is the “perfect love.” It comes down to letting go of the ego, doesn’t it? Because, even within the family, that interest in self can dominate motivation for actions – and self-interest doesn’t grow perfect love. A line from Joy of the Gospel that helps me further appreciate the reference to the “divine vocation” is, “We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.” I think it’s that “attaining the fullest truth of being” that makes the Holy Family so holy.
Dear Father Ed,
All you said resonates deeply within me. Especially the part about God's will. This enveopes the whole as a cohesive gentle force that helps me make sense of even that which I can not undestand. Dios Sabe: esta bien. Todo es bien.
Paz, sister miriam fidelis
Love it, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!! You know the joke of why the Holy Family is so holy??? Cuz they only have one child, no sibling rivalry! No, no perfect families in my family or extended family...but I do realize that the family we are surrounded with is part of God's Will in perfecting us, having us grow more human.
Interesting thing you bring to mind & conversation in my home today... kind of working our way backward... if I was on my death bed, what would I do differently? Good perspective on how to live.
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