(Liturgical Prayers of the day are included at the end)
A. In The House Of The Father
B. Busy With The Father's Affairs
It is perhaps hard for us to imagine that Jesus, God's own Son, was really human, that he grew up not only physically but matured as a person and discovered little by little who he was. Of course, the whole Holy Family sought to do the will of God but we see Jesus affirm today that he has become aware that he is especially close to the Father and that God's loving will is all that matters. Isn't that all that matters for us, too, and should also we not grow closer to God? Let Jesus here in this Eucharist help us to become mature in God's love.
We can divide the story into two parts – verses 41 to 50, and verses 51 and 52 – and meditate on each separately. Taken together, however, and understood as complementing each other, they give us a balanced picture of the role of authority in human life.
Prayer Reflection
Lord, we pray today for all those involved in the work of education
– parents, teachers, youth leaders, church ministers.
Young people come to stay with us and live under our authority for a time,
Increasing in wisdom, in stature and in favour with you and with men and women.
But they are not ours.
You are their father and they must be busy about your affairs.
Some have unusual vocations – in the Church perhaps, or in the arts, or in politics.
At times we will feel we have lost them
and we will be overcome with worry as we spend days looking for them.
Then, quite unexpectedly, we find them, at ease in their temple,
asking and answering questions,
quite surprised that we should be looking for them,
while we remain perplexed at what it all means.
Lord, bringing up children is a lofty calling;
Help us, like Mary and Joseph, to be faithful to it.
“It may be that the salvation of the world lies with the maladjusted.” …Martin Luther King
Lord, there are times in life when we must step out on our own,
knowing that dear ones will be very worried, looking for us,
wanting to bring us back to Nazareth where we can be subject to them.
Give us the grace to commit ourselves, like Jesus,
to what we know to be our Father’s business.
“The Church must be concerned not just with herself and her relationship of union with God, but with human beings as they really are today.”…Pope Paul VI concluding the Second Vatican Council, Dec. 1965
Lord, as a Church we tend to remain within our concerns,
safe in Nazareth where we know the rules of the game,
who is subject to whom,
and we can feel sure we are growing in wisdom, in stature,
and in favour with God and with the influential people in society.
We pray that your Church may take the risk of being lost for days at a time,
even though its leaders are overcome with worry,
so that Jesus can be among the learned people of our time,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and modern generations, like previous ones, can be astounded
by the wisdom of his message and of the replies he brings to the problems of our time.
“Only one ship is seeking us, a black-sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back a huge and birdless silence. In her wake no waters breed or break.” …West Indian poem
Lord, when we are young we have lofty goals for ourselves.
We are in Jerusalem, at the centre of things,
questioning the wisdom of our day
and astounding all by the intelligence of our replies.
Then another time comes when we find ourselves stagnant,
not going anywhere or achieving anything,
subject to the conventions and prejudices of society.
Teach us, Lord, that this too is a necessary stage
when, like Jesus in Nazareth, we can increase in wisdom,
in stature and in favour with you.
***********************************
Thomas O’Loughl
inIntroduction to the Celebration
1. One of the differences between being a follower of the Christ and being a follower of a philosophy or a religious guru is that we are devoted to a person, not to a set of ideas. We are interested in Jesus because he is the truth, not simply because he is the messenger. For Christians the messenger is the message; and the messenger is Jesus. We believe we are brought into the Father’s kingdom by the Son, not because we adhere to anything that might be said to be Jesus’s religious wisdom. Indeed, when one counts up the verses in the gospels that could be said to be Jesus’s teaching, and compare it with the number devoted to his life and the events of his life, it becomes abundantly clear that the kerygma is about the person of Jesus, of which what he taught is just a part. God’s ultimate revelation is a person, and not either a set of instructions or a body of philosophy. I am always surprised at the reaction of non-Christians (and indeed of fundamentalist Christians who think of God’s revelation as ‘the bible’) when I ask them to bear in mind that Jesus is the only founder of a major religion who left no writings – and indeed that the only reference we have to his writing anything was with his finger in sand and we do not know what he wrote! The reaction is usually one of complete shock: how can you found a great world religion and not write a book of wisdom. The nearest we come is a collection of sayings written down by his followers of which we have only an indirect record and over which we have been arguing as to the form and meaning ever since.
2. If it is the person that is the message, then at no point is this more obviously the case than when Jesus was an infant, long before he could be a wise, kind rabbi able to lead a band of disciples. Such devotion to the infant Saviour has been a feature of Christianity down the centuries. It must have been already present at the time Matthew preached his gospel (last decades of the first century) for he has the magi offer gifts to the infant and fall down and worship the infant. We see it even more plainly in the second century with the Protoevangelium ofJames, and it continues right up to the early twentieth century with devotions such as to the Infant of Prague or in religious names such as St Therese of the Child Jesus. It has fallen below the horizon in recent decades for a variety of reasons, yet it is in devotion to the infant we see some of the basic themes of our christology. Today is one day in the liturgical year when this theme of devotion to the child Jesus can be explored while being in harmony with the overall theme of day.
3. We worship Jesus because in his humanity – humanity with all the vulnerability of a child – we see our saviour. The infant’s coming among us is the good news of God being close to his people. Jesus is Emmanuel. We as his disciples, with our strength and wisdom and riches, must be prepared to lay itat his feet.
4. We can romantically idealise childhood or we can see childhood as really only the privation of adulthood. Most societies tend towards the latter view; contemporary western society tends toward the romanticisation of childhood. Devotion to the child Jesus is neither one nor other of these attitudes, but
the recognition in prayer that God came among us in every aspect of our humanity. Jesus is our gateway to the Father, not some set of abstractions or practices that we claim to derive from him.
5. It is easy to visit the crib if we do so to show it off to the children: the children wonder at the magical scene, the parents enjoy their children’s wonder. It is much harder for us as adults to recapture the wonder of the crib as a visible expression of the wonder of the incarnation:
‘In the wonder of the incarnation, your eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new and radiant vision of your glory. In him we see our God made visible And so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.’
6. It is easy to bring the children ‘to see the crib’; it is much harder for us to pray there – for the crib to cease to be a simple model and for it to become an icon to focus our worship. Yet unless we can find the means to pray at the crib – a physical reality functioning sacramentally – and there worship the child Jesus, we cannot discover true humility, nor understand the adult Jesus when he said: ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it’ (Mk 10:14-5/ Lk 1816-17).
***************************************************
Sean Goan
The story of Jesus being lost in the Temple is, like the story of his birth, all about his identity. At the age of twelve as a Jewish boy Jesus would have celebrated his bar mitzvah.
This meant he was allowed to read the scriptures in the synagogue and was recognised as taking his place among the community of adult men. As such it was right that he should go Jerusalem for Passover, but what unfolded there was an indication that his life would be given over to doing the will of his Father. For Mary this is another stage in her relationship with her son and another invitation to ponder how God is at work in her life.
Reflection
In a changing world, where the very notion of the family is under so much pressure, it is appropriate during the Christmas season to celebrate this feast. Some may ask, however, what can the image of Holy Family of Nazareth say to the modern world and to parents struggling in this climate of change? The women in today’s readings teach us a timeless lesson about faith in action. Both Hannah and Mary knew the experience of hardship and rejection, yet in all the circumstances of their lives they put their trust in God and acted according to his word. The second reading reminds us that the most potent image of God’s love is that of the parent for the child. We are the children of God and the place where we live that out first and foremost is in our families. Samuel and Jesus learned all about self-giving from their parents.
***********************
Donal Neary, S.J.
Various aspects of family life are highlighted in the readings today They are chosen with family life in mind – the old, the young and the child – and in praise of family life with both Elkanah and Hannah, and then Mary and Joseph coming close to God in their family life. Today is a day in praise of family marriage, sexuality, birth and of prayer for families. And in the family we learn about God – more by example than by words.
Most families manage well even in times of stress. Daily and ordinary love can overcome a lot else.
While praising the great efforts of parents today, and the strong family life which exists among us, we also look at contemporary problems: the stresses on the one-parent family; children unsure of the commitment of the parents; the effects of divorce on the children, and admitting that marriage breakup has a confusing or damaging effect on children; the long life of elderly who are very ill and require a lot of loving but difficult attention; the effects of addiction to drugs and alcohol; prison and crime.
Faith, prayer, Mass and the Church can bring us through a lot in bad days.
From the Connections:
THE WORD:
Today’s Gospel was probably a later addition to Luke’s Gospel, found in the rich oral tradition of stories told about Jesus. Like many childhood stories of famous people, this one is retold because it shows signs in Jesus’ boyhood of the qualities that will emerge in his adulthood that will mark his life forever in history. Luke clearly has the events of Holy Week in mind in the details he has included in the story: the journey to Jerusalem at Passover, the encounter with the teachers at the Temple, the three days Jesus is lost.
At the age of 12, a Jewish boy becomes a “son of the Law” -- he becomes personally responsible for following the Torah. The faithful Jesus reveals himself as the perfect servant of his Father from the time of his first legal pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
It was the Jewish practice for teachers to conduct classes not in a lecture format but as an open discussion in which participants were encouraged to ask questions. It is inaccurate to suggest, as old paintings suggest, that Jesus dominated the scene, overwhelming the teachers with the depth of his insights. As Luke tells the story, Jesus was listening to the teachers and eagerly searching for knowledge in his questions like a highly motivated and interested student typically much older than the 12-year-old boy from Nazareth.
Luke reports that Mary “kept all these things in memory.” Perhaps Mary confronted for the first time the reality that, although she was indeed his mother, her son did not belong to her.
HOMILY POINTS:
In Matthew and Luke’s stories of Jesus birth and childhood (which were later additions to those Gospels, drawn from the many stories about Jesus’ life that were part of the early Christian oral tradition that had developed), life for the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus is difficult and cruel: they are forced from their home; they are innocent victims of the political and social tensions of their time; they endure the suspicions of their own people when Mary's pregnancy is discovered; their child is born under the most difficult and terrifying of circumstances; they experience the agony of losing their beloved child. And yet, through it all, their love and faithfulness to one another do not waver. The Holy Family is a model for our families as we confront the many tensions and crises that threaten the stability, peace and unity that are the joys of being a family.
It is easy to welcome Jesus the innocent child of Christmas; much more difficult is to welcome Jesus, the humble Crucified of Holy Week and Easter. Luke's Gospel of the Child Jesus reminds us that the crib is overshadowed by the cross, that this holy birth is the beginning of humankind's re-birth in the Resurrection.
Jesus remains with us even when he seems most distant and farthest away, when he is nowhere to be found. He is with us in the love and compassion of family and friends, in the forgiveness we receive and give, in the generosity and healing we make happen even in the simplest and most hidden ways.
With Jesus, we must be about “the Father’s house,” bringing the justice, reconciliation and compassion won by the cross into our families and communities.
Imagine losing Jesus.
You work hard to provide for your family, but your work takes you away too many days and nights, and you lose Jesus.
You become distracted by all the demands placed on you; when you are finally able to look up, you lose Jesus.
You try to walk Jesus’ path, you want to live his Gospel — but you cut too many corners, you go along to get along one too many times, you take too many moral and ethical shortcuts, and you lose Jesus.
You assume that your position is the right one — because it works for you. But by the time you realize that your position is not right but convenient, safe but not just, good for you but bad for the common good, you lose Jesus.
You experience a separation too great, a betrayal too painful, a grief too dark. You lose Jesus.
God does not seem to hear you, so you stop praying.
Church becomes an empty cavern, so you disengage.
The darkness and cold of winter has gripped your spirit, so you fill the void in your soul any way you can — if only to forget for the moment.
You lose Jesus.
We know the anxiety and terror Mary and Joseph felt.
Where is Jesus?
But the reality is that while we may lose Jesus, Jesus is not lost to us.
He is there in our temples, traveling in our caravans, dwelling with our families.
All we have to do is look and we will find him.
The first reading reminds us of duties of children towards their parents, the duty of respecting and obeying parents, authority that stands in the place of God. As people under authority we sometimes like to question our superiors and their decisions, we feel we know better and perhaps we do. Jesus the son of God was the obedient son of Mary and Joseph. He was the obedient son of God. “My food is to do the will of my Father in Heaven”. In these days when authority is questioned there is still place for obedience in our lives.
An 80-year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow perched on their window. The father asked the son what it was. The son replied saying it was a crow. After a few minutes the father again asked his son what it was. The son showing signs of slight irritation said it was a crow. After a little while, the father again asked his son the third time what it was. At this time some more signs of irritation were felt in the son’s tone and he said to his father with a snub that it was a crow. After a little while, again the father again asked his son the fourth time what it was. This time the son shouted at his father and rebuked him for asking the same question again and again and not understanding anything. After a while the father went to his room and returned with a tattered diary which he had maintained since his son was born. On opening a page he asked his son to read that page. The following words were written in the diary: “Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My son asked me 22 times what it was, and I replied all 22 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked the same question again and again for 21 times. I did not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child.”
From ‘The Sunday Liturgy’
The Gospel narrates the incident of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the temple to offer him to the Lord. They meet two old people there, Simeon who had been waiting for the coming of the Lord and Anna the prophetess. While the focus is on Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the young family, Simeon and Anna too have their place, perhaps reminding us that old folks too, parents and grandparents have their role and place in our homes, especially within the lives of grandchildren. Often when we think of the Holy family, they are portrayed as the model family and we think that they had a very smooth, untroubled existence very unlike our own troubled families! Yet this is not true. The holy family experienced much of what we go through in our lives. They lived with insecurity! When they needed a home most they are homeless. They are emigrants in a foreign land. Just when their child is born there is insecurity again as they have to live with murder threats. They fear the murderous designs of Herod and they have to flee. After they have settled down they have to move again. As Jesus grows they lose him in the temple and they cannot understand why he has chosen to stay behind. There is misunderstanding. Later as He goes about his mission there is separation, loneliness and ultimately death that they have to cope with. Was the Holy family an ideal family? Was it not very much like our own? What helped them to live in the family is their mutual respect and reverence for each other. They are committed to one another and support each other even if they do not understand each other’s actions completely. Ultimately it is their faith that brings about the love that unites the Holy family. To live with others we have to love others! We will then discover that God is very close to us, He is at home with us, He dwells in our midst! We may think our families are different from others but God will come none the less!
The Family
E. V. Lucas wrote a very lovely kind of parable. “A mother lost her soldier son. The news came to her in dispatches from the war. He had fallen fighting nobly at the head of his regiment. She was inconsolable. “O that I might see him again,” she prayed, “If only for five minutes – but to see him.” An angel answered her prayer. “For five minutes,” said the angel, “You will see him.” “Yes,” said the angel, “but do think a little. He was a grown man. There are thirty years to choose from. How would you like to see him?” And the mother paused and wondered. “Would you see him,” said the angel, ‘as a soldier dying heroically at his post? Would you see him again as on that day at school when he stepped to the platform to receive the highest honour a boy could have?” The mother’s eyes lit up. “Would you see him,” said the angel, “as a babe at your breast?” And slowly the mother said, “No, I would have him for five minutes as he was one day when he ran in from the garden to ask my forgiveness for being naughty. He was so small and so unhappy, and the tears were making streaks down his face through the garden dust. And he flew into my arms, with such force that he hurt me.” The one thing that the mother wished above all to recapture was the moment when her son needed her. There is nothing more moving in life than to hear someone say, “I need you; I cannot do without you.”
Anthony Castle in ‘More Quotes and Anecdotes’
Have you lost him?
When I was growing up in the country, there was a man who was classified as being ‘simple’. He was to be founded in the front row of church, chapel, Orange hall, or ‘meeting house’. One day he was on the main street of the local town, listening to an evangelist preacher, who addressed all who cared to listen from the back to truck. He was talking about ‘finding the Lord’. Our friend was at the front of the crowd, and he had his usual vacant grin, which the preacher may have interpreted as some sort of religious trance! Anyhow, as he thumped his bible, he turned to our friend, and asked him “And you, sir, have you found the Lord?’ To which our friend replied ‘Naw. Have ya lost him?’ For once in his life, our friend was brilliant…
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel truth’
I’m walking in your footsteps!
It is always a busy day for any woman who is the mother of ten children. But one particular day, even doing the daily chores became difficult for Louisa because of one little boy. Bob, who was three years old, was constantly on her heels no matter where she went. Whenever she stopped to do something and turned back, she would trip over him. Several times, she suggested fun activities to keep him occupied, but he innocently smiled and said, “Oh, that’s all right, Mommy, I’d rather be in here with you.” Then, he happily went wherever his mother went. After tripping on him for the fifth time, she lost her temper and shouted at him. She said, “Why don’t you go out and play like other boys? Why do you follow me like this?” He looked up at his mother and said, “Well, Mommy, in the school my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. But I can’t see him, so I’m walking in yours.”
John Rose in ‘John’s Sunday Homilies’
Finding Jesus
A ‘puzzle page’ in a newspaper showed a drawing of an outdoor scene. Beneath it was this question “Can you find the girl in the drawing?” A close examination of the drawing showed the girl’s eyes and eyebrows concealed in a tree branch. Another branch hid her mouth and nose. A cloud revealed her flowing hair. After you discovered the girl, that drawing was never the same again. It is like that with Jesus. He is in our lives, waiting to be found. Once we find him, our lives will never be the same again. This raises a question: Why might I be finding it hard to find Jesus in my life?
Mark Link in ‘Vision 2000’
Family Prayer
Dorothy Day, whom the New York Times called “the most influential person in the history of American Catholicism,” says that one of her first attractions towards Catholicism came as a child when she saw an adult catholic at prayer. She writes: “It was about ten o’clock in the morning that I went up to Kathryn’s to call on her to come out to play. There was no one on the porch or in the kitchen…. I burst in…“In the front room Mrs. Barrett was on her knees, saying her prayers. She turned to tell me that Kathryn and the children had gone to the store and went on with her praying. And I felt a warm burst of love toward Mrs. Barrett.” That’s a beautiful scene, and I’m sure many of us can relate similar examples of adult Catholics at prayer.
Overcoming Absence
When an American playwright reflected on his childhood he told the story of how his father who was a telephone engineer sometimes worked away from home. At first, his father was away from home. At First, his father was away only a couple of days and this happened rarely, but then his absences became more frequent and also lasted longer. Eventually, his father never returned home. The telephone engineer had fallen in love with long distance and his son had to live his life in the felt absence of his father. There was no word, no call, no contact. Just silence and absence. It‘s impossible to have a relationship with someone who is always absent and always silent. Usually we overcome our separation from touch through phoning or writing. And Christmas has become a traditional time for keeping alive old bonds of friendship by a word of greeting. Of course the best way to keep alive the love of absent friends and relatives is to visit them. The visit is the traditional way of conquering distance and overcoming absence: so we talk of “Going to see” someone, “showing our face”, and “spending some time together”. And in the giving and receiving of hospitality, in being present to each other again, our relationship grows and deepens.
Whoever obeys his father and mother will….
I’m walking in your footsteps
Anonymous
1: Grandparents are a treasure: Pope Francis
said that as a child, he heard a story of a family with a mother, father, many
children and a grandfather. The grandfather, suffering from Parkinson’s
disease, would drop food on the dining table, drop and break bowls, and smear
food all over his face when he ate. His son considered it disgusting. Hence,
one day he bought a small table, a wooden bowl and spoon and set it off to the
side of the dining room so the grandfather could eat, make a mess and not
disturb the rest of the family. One day, the Pope said, the grandfather’s son
came home and found one of his sons playing with a piece of wood. “What are you
making?” he asked his son. “A table,” the son replies. “Why?” the father asks.
“It’s for you, Dad. When you get old like Grandpa, I am going to give you this
table.” (In the American version of the story, the boy was making a wooden bowl).
After that day, the grandfather was given a prominent seat at the dining table
and all the help he needed in eating by his son and daughter-in-law. “This
story has done me such good throughout my life,” said the Pope, who celebrated
his 84rd birthday on December 17, 2020. “Grandparents are a treasure,” he said.
“Often old age isn’t pretty, right? There is sickness and all that, but the
wisdom our grandparents have is something we must welcome as an inheritance.” A
society or community that does not value, respect and care for its elderly
members “doesn’t have a future because it has no memory, it’s lost its memory,”
Pope Francis added. (http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/11/19/grandparents-are-a-treasure-says-pope-francis/).
Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
2: Cancer, heart disease and family relationship: A
few years ago, a study was undertaken to find the U.S. city with the
lowest incidence of cancer and heart disease. The winner was Rosetto,
Pennsylvania. Soon experts descended upon the city expecting to see a town
populated by non-smokers, people who ate the correct food, took regular
exercise, and kept close track of their cholesterol. To their great
surprise, however, the researchers discovered that none of the above was true.
They found instead that the city’s good health was tied to the close family
bonds that prevailed within the community. This suggests that there
is much to be said for a close and loving family relationship. (Robert Duggan
& Richard Jajac). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
3: Dying of loneliness: In an audience, Pope
Paul VI told how one day, when he was Archbishop of Milan, he went out on
parish visitation. During the course of the visitation he found an old woman
living alone. ‘How are you?’ he asked her. ‘Not bad,’ she answered. ‘I have
enough food, and I’m not suffering from the cold.’ ‘You must be reasonably
happy then?’ he said. ‘No, I’m not’, she said as she started to cry. ‘You see,
my son and daughter-in-law never come to see me. I’m dying of loneliness.’
Afterwards he was haunted by the phrase ‘I’m dying of loneliness’. And the Pope
concluded: ‘Food and warmth are not enough in themselves. People need something
more. They need our presence, our time, our love. They need to be touched, to
be reassured that they are not forgotten’ (Flor McCarthy in New Sunday
and Holy Day Liturgies). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
4. Shrewd girl: One
day, a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the
kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white
hair sticking out in contrast on her head. She looked at her mother and
inquisitively asked, “Why are some of your hairs white, mom?” Her mother
replied, “Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me unhappy, one
of my hairs turns white.” The little girl thought for a while, and said, “Momma,
how come that grandma’s head is full of white hair?”
5. Who can ever forget Winston Churchill’s immortal words:
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall
fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.” It sounds
exactly like our family vacation! (Robert Orben).
6. Sue your parents! In 1978, Thomas Hansen of Boulder
Colorado, sued his parents for $350,000 on grounds of “malpractice of
parenting.” Mom and Dad had botched his upbringing so badly, he charged in his
suit, that he would need years of costly psychiatric treatment.
7. Long Training: A mother goes to her pastor and explains
that her son seems very interested in becoming a priest. She would like
to know what this would require. So, the priest begins to explain:
“If he wants to become a diocesan priest, he’ll have to study for eight
years. If he wants to become a Franciscan, he’ll have to study for ten
years. If he wants to become a Jesuit, he’ll have to study for fourteen
years.” [This joke originated back when young men entered seminaries
right after high school.] The mother listens carefully, and as the
priest concludes, her eyes brighten. “Sign him up for that last one, Father —
he’s a little slow!”
35– Additional anecdotes:
1) “If you bungle raising your children…” In
a rare personal interview, granted not long before her death, Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis remarked: “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think
whatever else you do will matter very much” (Good Housekeeping, July,
1994). For a woman whose wealth, education, background, and connections could
have assured her a prestigious career in academia, politics, or diplomacy, her
statement may seem surprising. However, despite all the possibilities she could
have pursued for herself, Mrs. Kennedy was convinced that family was ultimately
the most important entity in her life; to her credit, she lived by that
conviction. (Sanchez Files) Because family is the resting ground where values
and virtues are inculcated and cultivated, healthy families are essential to
the well-being of society. As anyone can attest, however, during the past
quarter-century, a variety of factors have contributed to the progressive
fragmentation, isolation and structural evolution of the family unit, e.g. (1)
an ever-increasing rate of divorce (more than one million per year in the
U.S.); (2) a steady rise in the number of single-parent householders; one-third
of all school-aged children live with only one parent; (3) in more than 50% of
all households, both parents must seek employment outside the home; (4)
mobility: more than 20% of American families change their residence annually or
more often. These factors are compounded by what Dr. William Bennet has
described as a cultural disintegration. “We have ceased being clear about the
standards we hold and the principles by which we judge. As a result, we have
suffered a cultural breakdown of sorts, in areas like education, family life,
crime and drug abuse, as well as in our attitudes toward sex, individual
responsibility, civic duty and public services.” (The De-valuing of America:
The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children, Summit Books: 1992). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
2) “The Messiah is one of you.” The following
fable offers a powerful example of the contagious grace of change. The
membership of a once numerous order of monks had dwindled over the years, until
there were only five brothers left in what had been a thriving community. For
years, people from the surrounding area had been drawn to the monastery in
search of the learning and spiritual renewal they found there. Now, no one ever
visited as the spirit of the place and its inhabitants seemed to be slowly
dying.
One day, however, a rabbi happened by to visit. When he was
about to leave, one of the brothers asked the rabbi if he had any advice on how
they could revitalize themselves and make their monastery a spiritual center
once again. After a few moments, the rabbi replied, “The only thing I can tell
you is that the Messiah is one of you.” Flabbergasted, the brothers replied,
“The Messiah among us? Impossible!” As the weeks passed, the brothers puzzled
over the rabbi’s startling revelation. If the Messiah were here, who would it
be? Maybe, Brother Timothy . . . he’s the abbot and in his capacity as leader,
he could surely be chosen to be the Messiah. It couldn’t be Bro. Mark; He’s
always so argumentative, but, he’s usually right . . . Or maybe, it’s Bro. Pius
who tends the garden and the animals. He could probably nourish a troubled
world if he were the Messiah. Surely, it could be Bro. Dominic; he’s studious,
learned and familiar with all the great spiritual writers. It couldn’t be
Peter, could it? Certainly, the Messiah couldn’t be the one who cleaned
toilets, dirty laundry and scrubbed the pots and pans each day. Or, could it?
Since the monks were unable to determine which one of them was the Messiah,
they began to treat one another as though each were the one. Moreover, just in
case he himself might be the Messiah, each monk began to treat himself with new
respect and to conduct himself with greater dignity. Within a few weeks, the
monastery’s occasional visitors were awed by the love, goodness and revitalized
spirituality they experienced. They returned again and again and brought new
friends along. Soon, a few young men asked to be admitted to the order and the
monastery thrived again. Imagine the possibilities for growth and renewal if
each family were to take to heart the rabbi’s words, “the Messiah is one of
you.” How much more might spouses love and cherish one another . . . how much
more might parents value their children, protect them, teach them, and lovingly
attend to their needs . . . how much more might children honor and appreciate
their parents. If each member of every family were to reverence all the others
as the Messiah, i.e., as Jesus who is our Savior and brother, how much might
that strengthen and secure those familial bonds that are the infrastructure,
without which our society has no future. (Sanchez Files). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
3) “Daddy, could you please sell me one hour of your
time?” A little boy greets his father as he returns from work with a
question: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?” The father is surprised and
says, “Look, son, not even your mother knows. Don’t bother me now, I’m tired.”
“But Daddy, just tell me please! How much do you make an hour?” the boy
insists. The father finally gives up and replies, “Twenty dollars.” “Okay,
Daddy,” the boy continues, “Could you loan me ten dollars?” The father yells at
him, “So that was the reason you asked how much I earn, right? Now, go to sleep
and don’t bother me anymore!” At night the father thinks over what he said and
starts feeling guilty. Maybe his son needed to buy something. Finally, he goes
to his son’s room. “Are you asleep, son?” asks the father. “No, Daddy. Why?”
replies the boy. “Here’s the money you asked for earlier,” the father said.
“Thanks, Daddy!” replies the boy and receives the money. The he reaches under
his pillow and brings out some more money. “Now I have enough! Now I have
twenty dollars!” says the boy to his father, “Daddy, could you sell me one hour
of your time?” Today’s readings have a message for this man and for all of us,
and the message is that we need to invest more of our time in our family life.
Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
4) “Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana noon Tuesday. All
is forgiven.” In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, a Spanish newspaper
carried a poignant story about a father and his son. It goes like this. A
teen-aged boy, Paco, and his very wealthy father had a falling out and the
young man ran away from home. The father was crushed. After a few
days, he realized that the boy was serious, so the father set out to find
him. He searched high and low for five months to no avail. Finally,
in a last, desperate attempt to find his son, the father put an ad in a Madrid
newspaper. The ad read, “Dear Paco, Meet me at the Hotel Montana
noon Tuesday. All is forgiven. I love you. Signed, Your Father.
On Tuesday, in the office of Hotel Montana, over 800 Pacos showed up,
looking for love and forgiveness from their fathers!! What a magnet that
ad was. Over 800 Pacos!! The feast of the Holy Family reminds us that we need
more loving, forgiving fathers and mothers. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
5) Don’t humiliate them! As a student, Daniel
Webster (US Senator, noted 19th century American political
orator) was particularly marked for being untidy. Finally, the teacher, in
exasperation, told him that if he appeared again with such dirty hands, she
would thrash him. He did appear in the same condition. “Daniel”, she said,
“hold out your hand.” Daniel spat on his palm, with an intention to clean it,
rubbed it on his trousers and held it out. The teacher surveyed it in disgust.
“Daniel”, she said, “if you can find me another hand in this school that is
dirtier than that, I will let you off.” Daniel promptly held out his other
hand! –Many children with an eccentric trait blossom into geniuses. The
teachers and parents should not underestimate them or humiliate them. (G.
Francis Xavier in The World’s Best Inspiring Stories). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
6) “Am I not a family valuable?” Rabbi Neil
Kurshan in his book Raising Your Child to be a Mensch (a
Yiddish word for a person having admirable characteristics such as fortitude
and firmness of purpose), tells this real story: A young woman about to be
married had come to the Rabbi for counseling. When she told the Rabbi that she
hoped she would not make the same mistakes her parents had made, he pressed her
to elaborate. The woman explained that each summer her wealthy parents traveled
to Europe while she remained behind with a nanny. One year, when the girl was
11, the housekeeper suddenly quit just shortly before her parents’ annual trip
to Europe. Upset that their vacation might be jeopardized, the parents quickly
found a replacement. A few days before their departure, the girl noticed that
her mother had wrapped the family jewels and silverware and placed them in the
safe. Since this had never been done before, she asked why. Her mother
explained that she could not trust the new housekeeper with the family
valuables. Though certainly not intended, that insensitive remark so shocked
and hurt the little girl that she never forgot it. Wasn’t she a family
valuable? Didn’t she have more value than silver knives and silver forks? That
is a question all of us could ask about our attitudes toward dependent family
members, young, old or in-between, this Holy Family Day. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
7) “I never hugged my dad”! In his book My
Father, My Son, Dr. Lee Salk describes a moving interview with Mark
Chapman, the convicted slayer of Beatle John Lennon. At one point in the
interview, Chapman says: “I don’t think I ever hugged my father. He never told
me he loved me…I needed emotional love and support. I never got that.”
Chapman’s description of how he would treat a son if he had one is especially tragic,
because he will probably never get out of prison and have a family of his own.
He says: “I would hug my son and kiss him…and just let him know…he could trust
me and come to me…and (I would) tell him that I loved him.” Dr. Salk ends his
book with this advice to fathers and sons. It applies equally well to mothers
and daughters. “Don’t be afraid of your emotions, of telling your father or
your son that you love him and that you care. Don’t be afraid to hug and kiss
him. “Don’t wait until the deathbed to realize what you’ve missed.” (Mark Link
in Sunday Homilies). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
8) “We are all equal in the eyes of God:” Former
President Jimmy Carter recently decided to leave the Baptist Church to which he
had belonged for sixty years. The reason was doctrinal disagreement. The
Southern Baptist Convention had just codified that women are responsible for
original sin and hence subservient to their husbands. President Carter
disagreed. He said: “This was in conflict with my belief – confirmed in the
Holy Scripture – that we are all equal in the eyes of God. … This view that
women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or Faith.
Consequently, they are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many
Faiths and led to some of the most pervasive, persistent, flagrant, and
damaging examples of human-rights abuses.” So, Jimmy Carter’s conscience could
no longer allow him to be part of his lifelong Church. The Feast of the Holy
Family challenges the spouses to love and respect each other. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
9) Grandfather’s wooden bowl: (American version
of anecdote #1): A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law,
and four-year-old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was
blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the
elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas
rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on
the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We
must do something about father,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled
milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.” So the husband and wife set a small
table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family
enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served
in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes
he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had
for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The
four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father
noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child
sweetly, “What are you making?” Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am
making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up.” The
four-year-old smiled and went back to work. The words so struck the parents
that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks.
Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the
husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table.
For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some
reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was
dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
10) “Have you ever seen a Saint praying?” St.
Teresa of Lisieux and St. Teresa of Avila have their own stories about the
influence their fathers had on their lives as role models. The Little
Flower used to ask an innocent question of her first grader classmates: “Have
you ever seen a Saint praying?” She would add: “If you haven’t, come to
my house in the evening. You will see my dad on his knees in his room
with outstretched arms, praying for us, his children, every day.” She
states in one of her letters from the convent: “I have never seen or heard or
experienced anything displeasing to Jesus in my family.” St. Teresa of
Avila was admitted against her will, by her father, to a boarding house
conducted by nuns in the final year of her high school studies, as soon as he
detected bad books and yellow magazines hidden in her box. They were supplied
by her spoiled friend and classmate, Beatrice. St. Teresa later
wrote as the Mother Superior: “But for that daring and timely action of my
father, I would have ended up in the streets, as a notorious woman.” The feast
of the Holy Family challenges Christian fathers to be role models to their
children. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
11) “Those God makes six-eight have to look out for those
He makes three-three.” (Jesse Jackson tells the story of a visit he
made to the University of Southern Mississippi). While touring the campus with
the university president, he saw a towering male student, six-feet,
eight-inches tall, holding hands with a fidgety coed barely three-feet tall.
What a contrast, six-feet, eight-inches tall and only three-feet tall. His
curiosity piqued, Jackson watched as the young man, dressed in a warm-up suit,
tenderly kissed the tiny coed, and sent her off to class. The president said
that the student was a star basketball player. Both parents had passed away when
he was a teenager, and he made a vow to look after his sister. Many
scholarships came his way, but only Southern Mississippi offered one to his
sister, too. Jackson went over to the basketball star, introduced himself, and
said he appreciated the way he was looking out for his sister. The athlete
shrugged and said, “Those of us who God makes six-eight have to look out for
those He makes three-three.” (3) Don’t you wish every young person could have
that kind of love for his or her siblings? We live lives of Faith and we look
out for those we love. (Rev. Duncan). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
12) The morning after. A cartoon in the New
Yorker magazine says it all. In the middle of the floor is a dried up,
withered, Christmas tree. The calendar on the wall reads December 26. Dad is
sitting in his chair with an ice pack on his head. Mom is in a bathrobe and her
hair in rollers. The floor is a virtual mountain of torn wrappings, boxes, and
bows. Junior is reaching in his stocking to be sure that there is no more
candy. In the background we see a table with a thoroughly picked turkey still
sitting there. The caption on the cartoon reads simply: The morning
after. It is to normalize our lives in our families that we celebrate the
feast of the Holy Family and invite its holy members to our families. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
13) “Scatter my ashes in the local Wal-Mart”: A
single mother who raised her only child lavished her whole love on the girl,
spending her health and wealth, time, and talents on the child’s upbringing.
But the daughter dated and married a drug addict against her mother’s warnings
and wishes. As a well-employed girl, she never cared to visit her mother. So on
her deathbed the mother instructed her attorney to cremate her body and to
scatter the ashes in the local Wal-Mart of the city where her daughter lived.
He enquired why. The mother said: “Then I will be able to see my daughter
visiting me every week!” Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
14) “Louis, this morning you met your real self.” Rabbi
Gafni recalls one of the first bar mitzvahs he ever
performed. (bar mitzvah is a coming-of-age ritual for Jewish
boys. When a Jewish boy reaches 13 years old, he becomes accountable for his
actions and becomes a bar mitzvah, a son of the Law). This bar
mitzvah was for a boy named Louis. Louis was awkward and
sad. His insensitive parents did little to encourage his
self-esteem. They implied that he was too dumb to learn the traditional
Hebrew passages a boy recites for his bar mitzvah. Gafni was
determined to bring out the best in Louis. He spent extra time teaching
him the songs and prayers. He discovered that Louis was smart and had a
fantastic singing voice. On the day of his bar mitzvah, Louis
performed beautifully. At the end of the ceremony, Rabbi Gafni stood and
spoke directly to Louis. He said, “Louis, this morning you met your real
self. This is who you are. You are good, graceful, talented, and
smart. Whatever people told you yesterday, and Louis, whatever happens
tomorrow, promise me one thing. Remember . . . this is you.
Remember, and don’t ever lose it.” A few years later, Louis wrote to
Rabbi Gafni. The boy whose parents predicted that he was too dumb to
perform a traditional bar mitzvah was studying for his medical
degree at an Ivy League university. He was also engaged to be
married. Louis ended his letter by saying, “. . . I kept my promise—I
always remembered my bar mitzvah morning when you said that
this is who I am. For this, I thank you.” [Marc Gafni, The
Mystery of Love (New York: Atria Books, 2003), pp. 123-124.] I wish
all of us could have an affirming adult like that in our lives. Some of you
know about that kind of love. That was the kind of love you experienced from
your parents. And you know how precious it is. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
15) “My mother told me that I was the ugliest little girl
she knew.” A few years ago, Rabbi Marc Gafni gave a talk at a
children’s camp in New York. At one point in the afternoon, Rabbi Gafni
asked the children, “When was the last time someone told you that you were
beautiful?” The children’s response devastated him. Few of them
could recall true, encouraging words from their parents. So many of them
heard only words of condemnation and shame. One young girl said, “My
mother told me on Saturday that I was the ugliest little girl she knew.”
Another boy related a heartbreaking conversation with his mother. He
said, “My mother was in the Holocaust. And she says that if she had known
that I would be her son, she wouldn’t have worked so hard to survive.”
[Marc Gafni, The Mystery of Love (New York: Atria Books,
2003), pp. 120-121.] Parents like that need to stop and consider the impact of
their words. It is hard to imagine a more hurtful thing to say to a
child. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
16) 60 years of separation: The story of Boris
and Anna Kozlov is very touching. Boris and Anna Kozlov were married in 1946.
After three days Boris had to ship out with his Red Army unit. By the time he
returned, Anna was gone, consigned by Stalin’s purges to internal exile in
Siberia with the rest of her family. Nobody knew where the family was, or what
had happened to Anna… Boris became frantic. He tried everything he could to
find his young bride, but it was in vain. She was gone. After 60 years, one
day, Anna Kozlov caught sight of the elderly man clambering out of a car in her
home village of Borovlyanka in Siberia. There, in front of her, was Boris. An
extraordinary coincidence had led them both to return to their home village on
the very same day. 60 years of separation has made their reunion inexpressibly
joyful. In today’s Gospel we heard Mathew’s account that Jesus’ family had to
be separated from their kinsmen due to Herod’s decision to annihilate Jesus.
(Fr. Bobby). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
17) “But…But…..you tell better lies Mum!”: A
mother was shocked to hear her son tell a lie. Taking the youngster aside for a
heart-to-heart talk, she graphically explained what happened to liars. “A tall
black man with red fiery eyes and two sharp horns grabs little boys who tell
lies and carries them off at night. He takes them to Mars where they have to
work in a dark canyon for fifty years! Now” she concluded, “you won’t tell a
lie again, will you, dear?” “No, Mum,” replied the son, gravely, “But…But….you
tell better lies Mum!” – Children learn to tell lies from the elders. With them
it does not work to say, ”Do as I tell and not as I do.” (G. Francis Xavier in
Inspiring Stories; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
18) Attachment: In the middle of the night a young boy
wakes up in a hospital bed. He feels very frightened and very alone. He is
suffering intense pain: Burns cover forty percent of his body. Someone had
doused him with alcohol and then had set him on fire. He starts crying out for
his mother. The nurse leaves her night-post to comfort him; she holds him, hugs
him, whispers to him that the pain will go away sooner than he thinks. However,
nothing that the nurse does seems to lessen the boy’s pain. He still cries for
his mother. And the nurse is confused and angry: it was his mother who set him
on fire. The young boy’s pain at being separated from his mother – even though
she had inflicted such cruelty on him – was greater than the pain of his burns.
That deep attachment to the mother makes separation from her the worst
experience a child can undergo. (Denis McBride in Seasons of the
Word; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
19) The Cosby Show: One of TV’s highest
rated program of all time was The Cosby Show. It was a weekly sitcom about
an upper-middle-class black family, which for all practical purposes, had
become America’s First Family. In a feature article about Bill
Cosby, Newsweek magazine said that his show about the Huxtables is
endearing not cutesy, its parents are hassled but never hapless and there is
clowning but no guff. The Cosby Show was popular because the family
situations it portrayed had an air of universality and reality about them. Any
family could identify with both the irritations and misunderstandings that
arise on the show, and with the truly humorous and heartwarming things that
happen. While Dr. Cliff Huxtable, his lawyer- wife Clair and their four
children may not be the perfect counterpart of the Holy Family, they do picture
for us in modern terms what some of the qualities of family life should be. The
seven ‘C’s of family life are: commitment, communication, compatibility,
compassion, confession, conviviality, and children. They sum up today’s
readings about how to become a holy family instead of a broken family. (Albert
Cylwicki in His Word Resounds; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
20) “We wanted to stay together…”: In his new
book, All Rivers Run to the Sea, Elie Wiesel recalls the
terrible moment when his family had to make a critical choice. The war was
coming to an end, but the deportation of Jews continued. Elie, his parents and
three sisters faced deportation from their village in Hungary to the
concentration camp in Berkenau. Maria, a Christian and the family’s
housekeeper, begged the Wiesels to hide in her family cabin in the mountains.
At first the Wiesels declined, but Maria persisted. The family gathered at the
kitchen table for a family meeting: should they go with Maria or stay and take
their chances. The family decided to stay. Elie Wiesel remembers: “But why?”
Maria implored us, her voice breaking. “Because” my father replied, “a Jew must
never be separated from his community. What happens to everyone happens to us
as well.” My mother wondered aloud whether it might not be better “to send the
children with Maria.” We protested: “We’re young and strong. The trip won’t be
as dangerous for us. If anyone should go with Maria, it’s you.” After a brief
discussion, we thanked Maria. “My father was right. We wanted to stay together,
like everyone else. Family unity is one of our most important traditions… the
strength of the family tie, which has contributed to the survival of our people
for centuries…” The war did not end soon enough for the Wiesels.
Only Elie and two of his sisters survived. His mother, father, and youngest
sister died in camps. (Quoted in Connections Newsletter). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
21) Obedient Child Jesus: A few centuries before
Christ, Alexander the Great conquered almost all the known world through
military strength, intelligence, and diplomacy. Legend has it that one day
Alexander and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly defended,
walled city. Alexander, standing outside the walls, raised his voice, demanding
to see the city’s king. The king, approaching the battlements above the
invading army, agreed to hear Alexander’s demands. ”Surrender to me
immediately,” commanded Alexander. The king laughed. “Why should I surrender to
you?” he called down. “We have you far outnumbered. You are no threat to us!”
Alexander was ready to answer the challenge. “Allow me to demonstrate why you
should surrender,” he replied. Alexander ordered his men to line up single file
and start marching. He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff that dropped
hundreds of feet to rocks below. The king and his soldiers watched in shocked
disbelief as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right
off the cliff to their deaths. After ten soldiers had died, Alexander ordered
the rest of his men to stop and to return to his side. The king and his
soldiers surrendered on the spot to Alexander the Great. Even on a human level,
obedience is powerful. But when the one we are obeying is God Himself, our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, obedience is truly a life-changing virtue. It
leads not just to temporary victories here on earth, but to the everlasting
victory of the Resurrection, as Jesus himself proved by his obedience unto
death on a cross. (Adapted from Hot Illustrations; E- Priest) Fr.
Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
22) Child Jesus guided by Mary & Joseph: On
October 14, 1943, Jewish slave laborers in Sobibor concentration camp, on
the border of Poland and Russia, executed a well-planned revolt. Of the 700
prisoners who took part in the escape, 300 made it through the minefield
between the barbed wire fence of the prison and the dense forest beyond. Of
those, fewer than 100 are known to have survived the Nazi
search parties. One of them, Thomas Blatt, was 15 years old when his family was
herded into Sobibor. His parents were executed in the gas chamber,
but Thomas, young and healthy, was sent to slave labor. Thomas and two
companions made it out and started their long journey through the dense woods
after navigating the minefield. At daybreak they buried themselves in the woods
to sleep. At night they made their way through the trees and thick brush. After
four nights of wandering through the cold forest, they saw a building
silhouetted against the dark sky in the distance. With smiles on their faces,
they eagerly approached it, hoping for sanctuary from their enemies. As they
got closer, they noticed that the building they had seen was a tower – specifically,
the east tower of the Sobibor concentration camp! They had made one giant
circle through the woods and ended up exactly where they started. Terrified,
the three boys plunged back into the forest. But only Thomas lived to tell
about their awful experience. When we reject the guidance of God’s commandments
and the teaching of his Church, we are like those boys wandering through the
woods at night without a guide, and we make no lasting progress to the
happiness we long for. (Hot Illustrations; E- Priest). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
23) Dorothy Law Nolte wrote, “Children
Learn What They Live”
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for
themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like
themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to
have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn
respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in
themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is
a nice place in which to live. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
24) Satan’s seven-steps strategy: Dr. Peter
Kreeft a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a well-known author and
speaker, gave a talk in Ohio, USA. In his talk, he outlined what he calls,
“Satan’s spectacularly successful seven-steps sexual strategy.” This is his
explanation of how the devil is working in our world right now to destroy
families and even the whole human race. Personally, I think Dr. Kreeft is right
on target in his analysis. Here it is:
Step 1 in Satan’s strategy – this is the devil’s ultimate
goal: winning souls for hell.
Step 2: in order for Satan to win many souls for
hell, society must be corrupted.
Step 3: to effectively destroy society, family life
must be undermined – because strong families are necessary in order to
have strong societies.
Step 4: in order to destroy the family, you must
destroy its foundation – stable marriage
Step 5: marriage is destroyed by loosening its glue which
is sexual fidelity.
Step 6: fidelity is destroyed by promoting and defending the
sexual revolution.
Step 7: the sexual revolution is promoted and defended
by the media – through which the seeds of destruction are sown into
the minds of millions of people every day. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
25) Statistics and Commentary: The evidence is
convincing that the better our relationships are at home, the more effective we
are in our careers. If we’re having difficulty with a loved one, that
difficulty will be translated into reduced performance on the job. In studying
the millionaires in America (U.S. News and World Report), a picture of
the “typical” millionaire is an individual who has worked eight to ten hours a
day for thirty years and is still married to his or her high school or college
sweetheart. A New York executive search firm, in a study of 1365 corporate vice
presidents, discovered that 87% were still married to their one and only spouse
and that 92% were raised in two-parent families. The evidence is overwhelming
that the family is the strength and foundation of society. Strengthen your
family ties and you’ll enhance your opportunity to succeed. (Zig Ziglar
in Homemade, March 1989). Fr. Kayala. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
26) Top traits of successful families: According
to a study of more than 500 family counselors, the following are the top traits
of successful families: *Communicating and listening *Affirming and supporting
family members *Respecting one another *Developing a sense of trust *Sharing
time and responsibility *Knowing right from wrong *Having rituals and
traditions *Sharing a religious core *Respecting privacy. (Focus on the
Family Bulletin, December 1988). Fr. Kayala. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
27) Profile of a strong family: From a national
survey of strong families conducted by the Human Development and Family
Department at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, a profile of a strong
family:
a. Appreciation. “Family members gave one
another compliments and sincere demonstrations of approval. They tried to make
the others feel appreciated and good about themselves.”
b. Ability to Deal with Crises in a Positive Manner. “They were willing
to take a bad situation, see something positive in it and focus on that.”
c. Time Together. “In all areas of their lives–meals, work,
recreation–they structured their schedules to spend time together.”
d. High Degree of Commitment. “Families promoted each person’s happiness
and welfare, invested time and energy in each other and made family their
number one priority.”
e. Good Communication Patterns. “These families spent time talking
with each other. They also listened well, which shows respect.”
f. High Degree of Religious Orientation. “Not all belonged to an
organized church, but they considered themselves highly religious. (University
of Nebraska- Lincoln). Fr. Kayala. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
28)Family Statistics: Families in 2000 will
average 1.81 children, down from 1.84 today. Some 60 percent of kids born in
the ’80s will live for a time with one parent; 1 kid in 4 will live with a
stepparent by age 16. One third of all households will be childless. . .
Supporting a teenager still at home will cost $12,000 a year against $7,000
now. Kids who head to college in 2000 will need upwards of $100,000 for each
bachelor’s degree. (U.S. News and World Report, Dec .25, 1989). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
29) Rudyard Kipling once wrote about families, “All of us
are we–and everyone else is they.” A family shares things like dreams, hopes,
possessions, memories, smiles, frowns, and gladness…A family is a clan held
together with the glue of love and the cement of mutual respect. A family is
shelter from the storm, a friendly port when the waves of life become too wild.
No person is ever alone who is a member of a family. (Fingertip Facts). Fr.
Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
30) Threats to the families: Parents rate their
inability to spend enough time with their children as the greatest threat to
the family. In a survey conducted for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
Corp., 35 percent pointed to time constraints as the most important reason for
the decline in family values. Another 22 percent mentioned a lack of parental
discipline. While 63 percent listed family as their greatest source of
pleasure, only 44 percent described the quality of family life in America as
good or excellent. And only 34 percent expected it to be good or excellent by
1999. Despite their expressed desire for more family time, two-thirds of those
surveyed say they would probably accept a job that required more time away from
home if it offered higher income or greater prestige. [Moody Monthly,
(December, 1989), p. 72.] Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
31) Disintegration of various cultures with the parallel
decline of family life: Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in
his 1947 book, Family and Civilization, recorded his keen
observations as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the
parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of
domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman
studied.
*Marriage loses its sacredness…is frequently broken by
divorce.
*Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.
*Feminist movements abound.
*Increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general.
*Acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion.
*Refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities.
*Growing desire for and acceptance of adultery.
*Increasing interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex-related
crimes.
(Swindoll, The Quest for Character, Multnomah,
p. 90). Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
32) “Wow! Wow!” One of Winston
Churchill’s biographers, William Manchester [The Last Lion (Boston:
Little Brown and Co., 1983)] once wrote that the eminent statesman’s feelings
about his family were unquestionably warm and intense. Churchill regarded his
home as an independent kingdom with its own law, its own customs, even its own
language. “Wow!” was the family’s traditional greeting. When Churchill entered
the front door, he would cry: “Wow! Wow!” Upon hearing him, his wife would call
back in answer, “Wow!” Then the children would rush into his arms and his eyes
would mist over. (Wow!) A statesman in his own right (many scholars think he
may have served for a time as Israel’s ambassador to foreign courts), Jesus
ben Sira, the second century B.C. author of today’s first reading (Year
A: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14), also valued the special love and language
that unites the members of a family. To that end, he invited his readers to
cultivate a love that honors, obeys and cares for the other while speaking the
language of comfort, kindness and consideration. Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
33) “Family is a place where people want you and love you
and take care of you.” On a recent television “talk show”, the host
had invited about two dozen children to appear as his guests. All of them,
ranging in ages from three to thirteen years of age were wards of their
respective state’s Children’s Services Program and were being cared for by
foster parents. Some had been in the foster care system since birth; most had
been passed from home to home. Every child expressed the same desire: to be
permanently adopted into a family. When asked by the show’s host what “family”
meant to him, one small boy summed up the feelings of the other children.
“Family”, he replied, “is a place where people want you and love you and take
care of you.” Most of us can be grateful that we have not been similarly
deprived of that special place called family. But our gratitude for the gift of
family must also be matched by a desire to preserve and strengthen the bonds
that unite us and, when necessary, to expend whatever effort is needed to
repair and renew those bonds when they are strained. To that end, the author of
today’s second reading (Year A: Colossians 3:12-21) offers sage
advice, advising women to be submissive, while urging men to love their wives
in such a radical way that husbands become their wives’ servants too, and
advising children to respect, love and obey their parents. (Sanchez Files). Fr.
Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
34) Pope Francis’ twitter (December 2014): “It
is so important to listen! Husbands and wives need to communicate to bring
happiness and serenity to family life.” Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
35) Cloud seeding for a brainstorm: Becoming
good at the things that build inner confidence and calm takes practice — and a
dash of creativity! The following list might provide some cloudseeding for a
brainstorm or two of your own. Have some fun with your family…and get ready for
a good rest.
1. Pay off your credit cards.
2. Take off ten pounds or accept where you are without any more complaints.
3. Eat dinner together as a family for seven days in a row.
4. Take your wife on a dialogue date (no movie, guys).
5. Read your kids a classic book (Twain’s a good start).
6. Memorize the Twenty-third Psalm as a family.
7. Give each family member a hug for twenty-one days in a row (that’s how long
the experts say it takes to develop a habit).
8. Pick a night of the week in which the television will
remain unplugged.
9. Go out for a non-fast-food dinner as a family.
10. Pray for your spouse and children every day.
11. Plan a vacation together.
12. Take a vacation together.
13. Read a chapter from the Bible every day until it becomes a habit.
14. Sit together as a family in Church.
15. Surprise your teenager. Wash his car and fill up his gas tank.
16. Take an afternoon off from work; surprise your child by excusing him from
school and taking him to a ball game.
17. Take a few hours one afternoon and go to the library as a family.
18. Take a walk as a family.
19. Write each member of your family a letter sharing why you value them.
20. Give your spouse a weekend getaway with a friend (same gender!) to a place
of their choice.
21. Go camping as a family.
22. Go to bed early (one hour before your normal bedtime) every day for a week.
23. Take each of your children out to breakfast (individually) at least once a
month for a year.
24. Turn down a promotion that would demand more time from your family than you
can afford to give.
25. Religiously wear your seat belts.
26. Get a complete physical.
27. Exercise a little every day for a month.
28. Make sure you have adequate life insurance on both yourself and your
spouse.
29. Write out information about finances, wills, and important business
information that your spouse can use to keep things under control in the event
of your death.
30. Make sure your family car is safe (tires, brakes, etc.) and get it tuned
up.
31. Replace the batteries in your smoke alarm.
32. Put a security system in your house.
33. Attend the parent/teacher meetings of each child as a couple.
34. Help your kids with their homework.
35. Watch the kids on Saturday while your wife goes shopping (but if a friend
calls, don’t say that you’re “babysitting”).
36. Explain to your spouse exactly what you do for a living.
37. Put together a picture puzzle. (One thousand pieces or more.)
38. Take time during the week to read a Bible story to your children and then
discuss it with them.
39. Encourage each child to submit to you his most perplexing question, and
promise him that you’ll either answer it or discuss it with him.
40. Finish fixing something around the house.
41. Tell your kids how you and your spouse met.
42. Tell your kids about your first date.
43. Sit down and write your parents a letter thanking them for a specific thing
they did for you. (Don’t forget to send it!)
44. Go on a shopping spree where you are absolutely committed to buying
nothing.
45. Keep a prayer journal for a month. Keep track of the specific ways that God
answers your needs.
46. Do some stargazing away from the city with your family. Help your children
identify constellations, and conclude the evening with prayer to the majestic
God Who created the heavens.
47. Treat your wife to a beauty make-over (facial, manicure, haircut, etc.). I
hear they really like this.
48. Give the kids an alternative to watching Saturday morning cartoons
(breakfast at McDonald’s, garage sales, the park, chores, etc.).
49. Ask your children each day what they did at school (what they learned, who
they ate lunch with, etc.).
50. After you make your next major family decision, take your child back
through the process and teach him how you arrived at your decision.
51. Start saying to yourself “My car doesn’t look so bad.”
52. Call you wife or husband from work just to see how they’re doing.
53. Compile a family tree and teach your children the history of their
ancestors.
54. Walk through an old graveyard with your children.
55. Say no to at least one thing a day — even if it’s only a second piece of
pie.
56. Write that letter to the network that broadcast the show you felt was
inappropriate for prime time viewing.
57. Turn off the lights and listen to a “praise” tape as you focus your
thoughts on the Lord.
58. Write a note to your pastor praising him for something.
59. Take back all the books in your library that actually belong in someone
else’s library.
60. Give irritating drivers the right to pull in front of you without signaling
and yelling at them.
61. Make every effort to not let the sun go down on your anger.
62. Accept legitimate criticism from your wife or a friend without reacting or
defending yourself.
63. If your car has a Christian bumper sticker on in — drive like it.
64. Do a Bible study on the “wise man” and the “fool” in Proverbs…and then
apply what it takes to be wise to your life.
65. Make a list of people who have hurt your feelings over the past year…then
check your list to see if you’ve forgiven them.
66. Make a decision to honor your parents, even if they made a career out of
dishonoring you.
67. Take your children to the dentist and doctor for your wife.
68. Play charades with your family, but limit subjects to memories of the past.
69. Do the dishes for your wife.
70. Schedule yourself a free day to stay home with your family.
71. Get involved in a family project that serves or helps someone less
fortunate.
72. As a family, get involved in a recreational activity.
73. Send your wife flowers.
74. Spend an evening going through old pictures from family vacations.
75. Take a weekend once a year for you and your spouse to get away and renew
your friendship.
76. Praise your spouse and children — in their presence — to someone else.
77. Discuss a world or national problem and ask your children for their opinion
on it.
78. Wait up for your teenagers when they are out on dates.
79. Have a “quiet Saturday” (no television, no radio, no stereo…no kidding).
80. If your children are little, spend an hour playing with them — but let them
determine the game.
81. Have your parents tell your children about life when they were young.
82. Give up soap operas.
83. De-clutter your house.
84. If you have a habit of watching late night television, but have to be to
work early every morning, change your habit.
85. Don’t accept unnecessary breakfast appointments.
86. Write missionaries regularly.
87. Go through your closets and give everything that you haven’t worn in a year
to a clothing relief organization.
88. Become a faithful and frequent visitor of your church’s library.
89. Become a monthly supporter of a Third World child.
90. Keep mementos, school projects, awards, etc. of each child in separate
files. You’ll appreciate these when they’ve left the nest.
91. Read the biography of a missionary.
92. Give regularly and faithfully to conscientious church endeavors.
93. Place with your will a letter to each family member telling why you were
glad you got to share life with him or her.
94. Go through your old records and tapes and discard any of them that might be
a bad testimony to your children.
95. Furnish a room (or a corner of a room) with comfortable chairs and declare
it the “disagreement corner.” When conflicts arise, go to this corner and don’t
leave until it’s resolved.
96. Give each child the freedom to pick his favorite dinner menu at least once
a week.
97. Go over to a shut-in’s house as a family and completely clean it and get
the lawn work done.
98. Call an old friend from your past, just to see how he or she is getting
along.
99. Get a good friend to hold you accountable for a specific important need
(Bible reading, prayer, spending time with your family, losing a few pounds,
etc.).
100. Establish a budget.
101. Go to a Christian marriage enrichment seminar.
102. To prove his love for her, he swam the deepest river,
crossed the widest desert and climbed the highest mountain. She divorced him.
He was never home. (Rose Sands, The Saturday Evening Post)
*Communicating and listening *Affirming and supporting family members *Respecting one another *Developing a sense of trust *Sharing time and responsibility *Knowing right from wrong *Having rituals and traditions *Sharing a religious core *Respecting privacy.
Ability to Deal with Crises in a Positive Manner. "They were willing to take a bad situation, see something positive in it and focus on that."
Time Together. "In all areas of their lives--meals, work, recreation--they structured their schedules to spend time together."
High Degree of Commitment. "Families promoted each person's happiness and welfare, invested time and energy in each other and made family their number one priority."
Good Communication Patterns. "These families spent time talking with each other. They also listened well, which shows respect."
High Degree of Religious Orientation. "Not all belonged to an organized church, but they considered themselves highly religious." (1983)
*Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.
*Feminist movements abound.
*Increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general.
*Acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion.
*Refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities.
*Growing desire for and acceptance of adultery.
*Increasing interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex-related crimes.
2. Take off ten pounds or accept where you are without any more complaints.
3. Eat dinner together as a family for seven days in a row.
4. Take your wife on a dialogue date (no movie, guys).
5. Read your kids a classic book (Twain's a good start).
6. Memorize the Twenty-third Psalm as a family.
7. Give each family member a hug for twenty-one days in a row (that's how long the experts say it takes to develop a habit).
9. Go out for a non-fast food dinner as a family.
10. Pray for your spouse and children every day.
11. Plan a vacation together.
12. Take a vacation together.
13. Read a chapter from the Bible every day until it becomes a habit.
14. Sit together as a family in church.
15. Surprise your teenage. Wash his car and fill up his gas tank.
16. Take an afternoon off from work; surprise your child by excusing him from school and taking him to a ball game.
17. Take a few hours one afternoon and go to the library as a family.
18. Take a walk as a family.
19. Write each member of your family a letter sharing why you value them.
20. Give your spouse a weekend getaway with a friend (same gender!) to a place of their choice.
21. Go camping as a family.
22. Go to bed early (one hour before your normal bedtime) every day for a week.
23. Take each of your children out to breakfast (individually) at least once a month for a year.
24. Turn down a promotion that would demand more time from your family than you can afford to give.
25. Religiously wear your seat belts.
26. Get a complete physical.
27. Exercise a little every day for a month.
28. Make sure you have adequate life insurance on both you and your spouse.
29. Write out information about finances, wills, and important business information that your spouse can use to keep things under control in the event of your death.
30. Make sure your family car is safe (tires, brakes, etc.) and get it tuned up.
31. Replace the batteries in your smoke alarm.
32. Put a security system in your house.
33. Attend the parent/teacher meetings of each child as a couple.
34. Help your kids with their homework.
35. Watch the kids on Saturday while your wife goes shopping (but if a friend calls, don't say that you're "babysitting").
36. Explain to your spouse exactly what you do for a living.
37. Put together a picture puzzle. (One thousand pieces or more.)
38. Take time during the week to read a Bible story to your children and then discuss it with them.
39. Encourage each child to submit to you his most perplexing question, and promise him that you'll either answer it or discuss it with him.
40. Finish fixing something around the house.
41. Tell your kids how you and your spouse met.
42. Tell your kids about your first date.
43. Sit down and write your parents a letter thanking them for a specific thing they did for you. (Don't forget to send it!)
44. Go on a shopping spree where you are absolutely committed to buying nothing.
45. Keep a prayer journal for a month. Keep track of the specific ways that God answers your needs.
46. Do some stargazing away from the city with your family. Help your children identify constellations and conclude the evening with prayer to the majestic God who created the heavens.
47. Treat your wife to a beauty make-over (facial, manicure, haircut, etc.). I hear they really like this.
48. Give the kids an alternative to watching Saturday morning cartoons (breakfast at McDonald's, garage sales, the park, chores, etc.).
49. Ask your children each day what they did at school (what they learned, who they ate lunch with, etc.).
50. After you make your next major family decision, take your child back through the process and teach him how you arrived at your decision.
51. Start saying to yourself "My car doesn't look so bad."
52. Call you wife or husband from work just to see how they're doing.
53. Compile a family tree and teach your children the history of their ancestors.
54. Walk through an old graveyard with your children.
55. Say no to at least one thing a day -- even if it's only a second piece of pie.
56. Write that letter to the network that broadcast the show you felt was inappropriate for prime-time viewing.
57. Turn off the lights and listen to a "praise" tape as you focus your thoughts on the Lord.
58. Write a note to your pastor praising him for something.
59. Take back all the books in your library that actually belong in someone else's library.
60. Give irritating drivers the right to pull in front of you without signaling and yelling at them.
61. Make every effort to not let the sun go down on your anger.
62. Accept legitimate criticism from your wife or a friend without reacting or defending yourself.
63. If your car has a Christian bumper sticker on in -- drive like it.
64. Do a Bible study on the "wise man" and the "fool" in Proverbs...and then apply what it takes to be wise to your life.
65. Make a list of people who have hurt your feelings over the past year...then check your list to see if you've forgiven them.
66. Make a decision to honor your parents, even if they made a career out of dishonoring you.
67. Take your children to the dentist and doctor for your wife.
68. Play charades with your family, but limit subjects to memories of the past.
69. Do the dishes for your wife.
70. Schedule yourself a free day to stay home with your family.
71. Get involved in a family project that serves or helps someone less fortunate.
72. As a family, get involved in a recreational activity.
73. Send your wife flowers.
74. Spend an evening going through old pictures from family vacations.
75. Take a weekend once a year for you and your spouse to get away and renew your friendship.
76. Praise your spouse and children -- in their presence -- to someone else.
77. Discuss a world or national problem, and ask your children for their opinion on it.
78. Wait up for your teenagers when they are out on dates.
79. Have a "quiet Saturday" (no television, no radio, no stereo...no kidding).
80. If your children are little, spend an hour playing with them -- but let them determine the game.
81. Have your parents tell your children about life when they were young.
82. Give up soap operas.
83. De-clutter your house.
84. If you have a habit of watching late night television, but have to be to work early every morning, change your habit.
85. Don't accept unnecessary breakfast appointments.
86. Write missionaries regularly.
87. Go through your closets and give everything that you haven't worn in a year to a clothing relief organization.
88. Become a faithful and frequent visitor of your church's library.
89. Become a monthly supporter of a Third World child.
90. Keep mementos, school projects, awards, etc. of each child in separate files. You'll appreciate these when they've left the nest.
91. Read the biography of a missionary.
92. Give regularly and faithfully to conscientious church endeavors.
93. Place with your will a letter to each family member telling why you were glad you got to share life with him or her.
94. Go through your old records and tapes and discard any of them that might be a bad testimony to your children.
95. Furnish a room (or a corner of a room) with comfortable chairs and declare it the "disagreement corner." When conflicts arise, go to this corner and don't leave until it's resolved.
96. Give each child the freedom to pick his favorite dinner menu at least once a week.
97. Go over to a shut-in's house as a family and completely clean it and get the lawn work done.
98. Call an old friend from your past, just to see how he or she is getting along.
99. Get a good friend to hold you accountable for a specific important need (Bible reading, prayer, spending time with your family, losing a few pounds, etc.).
100. Establish a budget.
101. Go to a Christian marriage enrichment seminar.
*******
2. Baptismal rituals are very different today than they were in the early church. There is a fourth-century rubric that instructs the bishop to enter the baptistery and give this command in a loud voice: "Take off your clothes." Whereupon our ancestors were immersed in the water of the font, with the men and women separated.
Everyone knows the Hans Christian Andersen story of "The Emperor's New Clothes." A couple of smooth-talking swindlers convince an egotistical king that he has just purchased the most gorgeous, elaborate, royal suit of clothes ever stitched together by human hands. Only those who are "hopelessly stupid" or "unfit for their position" can't see the beautiful clothes.
School is part of life. For the Christian there are two kinds of education. There is education at school and on the job. And there is religious education about our faith. We have just celebrated Christmas. Unfortunately, we don't know much about the next few years in Jesus' life. We can imagine he lived in a home filled with love. We can imagine as a boy he worked with his father Joseph in the carpenter shop, learning a trade although Jesus' real vocation would surface in our lesson for today.
King Duncan
Jesus is growing up fast too. Here we are, less than a week from Christmas, from the baby lying in a manger. Now Jesus is already an adolescent wandering off on his own. Last week Jesus was "prophecy miraculously fulfilled." This week he is questioning the teachers of that very tradition.
The classical confessions of the church hold that Jesus is "fully human, fully God," and in today's familiar story from Luke, we can see both sides. Jesus, fully human, is growing up as all mortals must. In the process, Jesus has scared his parents half to death as all teen-agers do. Jesus is asking questions, as should we all, and he is listening to learn, as all we must. And in this story, we see the twelve-year old Jesus fully divine with everyone amazed at his understanding and his answers. We hear Jesus declaring his unique relationship with God the Father as only the Son can do.
Richard A. Wing,
The doctor had given a great gift to this child, the gift of sight. The boy then offered to the doctor his most precious possession. In accepting the bear the doctor allowed the little boy to experience the joy of giving.
A mother goes to her pastor and explains that her son seems very interested in becoming a priest. She would like to know what this would require. So the priest begins to explain: "If he wants to become a diocesan priest, he'll have to study for eight years. If he wants to become a Franciscan, he'll have to study for ten years. If he wants to become a Jesuit, he'll have to study for fourteen years." [This joke originated back when young men entered seminaries right after high school.] The mother listens carefully, and as the priest concludes, her eyes brighten. "Sign him up for that last one, Father -- he's a little slow!"
14. The Priest and the Bishop
"I have great difficulty preaching. I cannot get the people's attention."
"Well," suggested the bishop, "you might start like this: 'I am in love'; 'I am in love with a married woman'; 'Her name is Mary'".
"The bishop is in love'; He is in love with a married woman'.
After an embarrassing pause the priest continued: "But I have forgotten her name."
Msgr. Arthur Tonne - Jokes Priests Can Tell
From Sermons.com:
Some years ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article by Dr. Paul Ruskin on the "Stages of Aging." In the article, Dr. Ruskin described a case study he had presented to his students when teaching a class in medical school. He described the case study patient under his care like this:
"Because she has no teeth, her food must be pureed. Her shirt is usually soiled from almost incessant drooling. She does not walk. Her sleep pattern is erratic. Often she wakes in the middle of the night and her screaming awakens others. Most of the time she is friendly and happy, but several times a day she gets quite agitated without apparent cause. Then she wails until someone comes to comfort her."
Humor: School Is a Part of Life
School is part of life. For the Christian there are two kinds of education. There is education at school and on the job. And there is religious education about our faith. We have just celebrated Christmas. Unfortunately, we don't know much about the next few years in Jesus' life. We can imagine he lived in a home filled with love. We can imagine as a boy he worked with his father Joseph in the carpenter shop, learning a trade although Jesus' real vocation would surface in our lesson for today.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
Growing Up Fast
Jesus is growing up fast too. Here we are, less than a week from Christmas, from the baby lying in a manger. Now Jesus is already an adolescent wandering off on his own. Last week Jesus was "prophecy miraculously fulfilled." This week he is questioning the teachers of that very tradition.
The classical confessions of the church hold that Jesus is "fully human, fully God," and in today's familiar story from Luke, we can see both sides. Jesus, fully human, is growing up as all mortals must. In the process, Jesus has scared his parents half to death as all teen-agers do. Jesus is asking questions, as should we all, and he is listening to learn, as all we must. And in this story, we see the twelve-year old Jesus fully divine with everyone amazed at his understanding and his answers. We hear Jesus declaring his unique relationship with God the Father as only the Son can do.
Richard A. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World, CSS Publishing
2. I will go to no doctor whose office plants have died.
3. I'm going to follow my husband's suggestion to put a little excitement into my life by living within our budget.
4. I'm going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
5. I will never loan my car to anyone I have given birth to.
6. And just like last year...I am going to remember that my children need love the most when they deserve it the least.
I said I would really try. That night when I was tucking him in, I said, "Good night, honey, I really like you a lot."
There was silence in the dark. Then he said, "I like you too, Mom.""
