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Feast of the Holy Family
Church of the Nativity
December 29, 2019
Family Inspirations
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Inspiration from My Family
As I reflected on the readings for this Feast of the Holy Family, I found myself looking for the inspiration that my family offered me as a child and out of which I live today.
What comes to mind? Well, for starters, our Sunday dinners together. Every Sunday spaghetti and meat balls, followed by veal cutlets, salad and ricotta cheesecake.
I also remember the one line I had in my 3rd grade play — “Come warm yourself by the fire” — and catching my mother’s eye in the audience, as I spoke those words, and how proud she was of me.
Today, that eye-to-eye connection and joy return when I congratulate a child or teen on playing a great game, performing in a recital, or winning an award.
And then there’s the night as a teenager, when my dad was laid off from work and I saw him cry for the first time, as he told my mother the sad news. Today, the power of that vulnerability comes back to me when one of the guys in my men’s group shares a painful experience.
These are all experiences from my family that are an inspiration for much of who I am today.
I’m no sociologist, but those three elements of Sunday dinners, my mother’s pride in me, and my dad’s vulnerability continue in my experiences today.
Inspiration from the Holy Family
Lest I get too caught up in my childhood, let’s look at Jesus, Mary and Joseph and see what made their family tick, see what family values lived on in the man that Jesus became.
There was Mary’s humility. She wasn’t a pushy mom, but she did speak up and act authoritatively when she needed to, as at the wedding feast of Cana, when they ran out of wine.
And there was Joseph’s care for her, not a patriarchal male oppressor, out to stake a claim or win a war against evil, but a compassionate protector, a constantly committed presence when Mary could have been stoned for having a child out of wedlock or Jesus being lost to them forever.
Of course we can’t forget Jesus as an outspoken teen who at the age of 13 is asserting who he is and what he must do, things that weren’t exactly his parents’ plan for him.
While theirexperience of family was different, as was mine, I’d ask you, “What values do you espouse today that were the gifts of your family?”
Inspiration from the Sacred Scripture
Adding to mine and the Holy Family’s, what are some other values that the readings would suggest as experiences in your family?
From the first reading from Sirach:
Ø A father being honored by his daughter
Ø A mother's authority over her son
Ø Children revering their parents
Ø A sibling’s kindness
From the second reading from Colossians:
Ø Where St. Paul asks us to put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience
Ø To have had a family where bearing with one another and forgiving one another was a regular experience
Ø Where holidays were greeted with a sense of thankfulness
Ø Where gratitude and giving thanks to God were the norm, not the exception
Application
Now — if I may — I’d like to challenge you to name values in you todaythat you received from your family.
Your family is where the seeds were planted; your growing older is where they flouris,hed and made you who you are today.
Let me quickly add that in some cases our family experience may not have been the best, but as a wise man once said, “We learn from what was lacking as well as from what was present in our lives.”
Let’s take 2 minutes of silent reflection now to name them, to claim them as our own.
(Al Walsh strums Silent Night.)
Conclusion
As a way of celebrating this Feast of the Holy Family by claiming and naming who you are because of your family, I would ask you, “Who needs to know? Who needs to be thanked?” How can we do a better job of living out of what we received?
Your next step in doing that this very day would be the greatest testimony to what your family has given you.
