Feast of the Holy Family
150th Anniversary (Closing Mass)
Sacred Heart, Glyndon
Life in the Holy Home of Nazareth
The Feast of the Holy Family celebrates a wonderful mystery. It celebrates the fact that the Son of God really did become one of us, except for sin. For, like all of us, Jesus was part of a family,
with Mary his Mother, and Joseph, who loved him like a father. If Jesus had not been part of a family, the Incarnation would not be complete.
But have you ever imagined what life was like in home of the Holy Family? No doubt, it was a hard-working family. Joseph worked as a carpenter and Jesus as his apprentice. Mary had to work hard to put food on the table and to care for the household. The Holy Family was like many other families in Nazareth in those days, but with one big difference: their Child was the Son of God,
and the heart of their home was the Sacred Heart. Mary and Joseph’s unique vocation was to form the humanity God’s Son assumed, and to prepare him for the mission for which the Heavenly Father sent him.
Whatever else life was like in the holy home at Nazareth, love prevailed. The pure love of Mary and Joseph was the environment, “the holy oxygen”, in which Jesus came of age as the Father’s beloved Son in the flesh. As a family they prayed together. They discussed the Law and the Prophets. There was no room for resentment or disunity. Rather, they treated one another with love, spoke the truth graciously, maintained a sense of humor and kept things simple and in good order.
The Holy Family as a Model of Family Life
It’s easy to see the importance of today’s feast. Not only is it a window into the life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, it also reveals the truth, beauty and goodness of the vocation of marriage and family.
After all, it is in the family that each of us learns to give and receive love. Children are the fruit of married love and it is in that love that they grow to be the persons God wants them to be.
Yet we all know how challenging family life can be. We also recognize the struggles so many families are having: difficult relationships; economic struggles; little time to spend together, to name a few. On this day when we celebrate the Holy Family as the model of family life, let us ask for the grace to live the vocation of marriage and family with selfless love, so as to ensure that our homes are places of joy, love, prayer, safety, and stability. May our homes also be places of deep and abiding friendship, where family members enjoy one another’s company, have meals together,
do things together, go places together, are proud to belong to one another. For indeed our lives make no sense unless we love and are loved, and unless we belong to others, especially our immediate and extended families.
Not only is the family important for the good of individuals, it also serves the common good of society. Strong and loving families play a uniquely important role in the education of young people, in teaching how to resolve differences peacefully, and in overcoming barriers such as poverty and prejudice. Strong and loving families help to form good citizens who will work to create a just, peaceful, and compassionate society. In forming strong and loving families & advocating for family-friendly laws & policies, we are strengthening and serving society as a whole.
Parish as a Family of Families
As we bring to a close the 150th anniversary of Sacred Heart Parish, let us recall that Pope Francis speaks about the parish as “a family of families”. A parish is not only strengthened by its families; it is made up of families. Moreover, a healthy parish is not merely an organizational unit in a diocese. More than that, a healthy, happy parish resembles a healthy, happy family.
Like every happy family you cherish your history. Your anniversary year has been like looking through old photo albums as you recalled how the parish started, the priests, religious, and laity who served this parish, often for years on end, the many young people who graduated from the parish school, not to mention the countless families and young people who were formed in the faith in this parish, as also those who found strength and consolation as they took part in the Church’s sacramental life, especially the Eucharist. Like a family celebrating an anniversary, you engaged in many activities together: the Sacred Heart 150th anniversary cookbook, the anniversary Rosary project, this evening’s anniversary gala, just to name a few. Sacred Heart is indeed a parish where you know and love one another, where belonging is important, where you enjoy one another’s company, and reach out to one another in time of need, even as you help each other grow in faith and service to the wider community.
Under the dedicated and energetic leadership of your pastor, Father Francik, together with Father Zach, Father Leandro, and Sister Rosa, and a dedicated staff, you are continuously forming a parish family that reaches out to those in need, whether that need is spiritual, material, or both. You are a welcoming parish family, coming together as a single family of faith with diversity of language and culture. And like every family – and like every parish – you are a work-in-progress. What family isn’t? What parish isn’t? Thus you are constantly being built up in truth and love by the Holy Spirit.
And last but not least, like the Holy Family of Nazareth, there dwells unseen but truly present in your midst the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for Jesus is as present in this house of worship as he was in the house at Nazareth. Sacred Heart is not merely a name but a fact, a sacred reality. For in your midst dwells that Heart who loves as no other heart loves, that Heart which is the source of truth, charity, virtue, goodness and mission. As you set out on your next 150 years, I join you in praying that Sacred Heart in Glyndon will stand as a light brightly visible, as a shining example and source of strength both for the Church and for society ad multos annos!
Congratulations! Happy New Year! And may God bless you and keep you in his love!