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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

Feast of the Holy Family

Monday December 31, 2007

This is your day!

This homily was delivered by Deacon Tom Healy at St. Luke Parish, Long Valley, on the Feast of the Holy Family. I thought it was worth sharing with our visitors.

This is your day. This is your Gospel. This is your Feast. The Institutional Church celebrates the Domestic Church. The Church of your home. The Church of your family. The ministerial ordained priests celebrate you, the baptized priests of the faithful. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph celebrate the Holy Family of ‘Mike’, ‘Stephanie’ and ‘Michae’l; ‘Kendra’. ‘Joe’, ‘Mark’ and ‘Anna’;’Stella’, ‘John’ and ‘Sean’, etc.

Other than the Savior as Son, all faithful families reflect the holiness of the Holy Family, and the goodness of the Godhead family – the Trinity. You are “mini-Trinities”, regardless of family size. As the divine love between the Father and Son, “begets” the Holy Spirit, the conjugal love between a husband and wife “begets’ the children of the ‘trinity’, of your family.

Today’s Gospel relates two more dreams of St Joseph. The first tells him to rise, take Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt. In the second, the angel again appears to Joseph in Egypt, tells him to rise, take Jesus and Mary and go to the land of Israel. I hope the angel gave him directions. There was no Mapquest then. The angel reminds me of my Christmas gift, a Garmin #660 GPS. It tells me which road to take, which way to go. So to me, the angel is God’s original GPS, I’m not referring to a Global Positioning Satellite, but God’s plan of Salvation, GPS! The angel leads the way and “recalculates” the route at every change of direction for the safety of the Holy Family. (Our guardian angel does the same for us at every change of our heart, when we go our way, and not God’s way in our lives, she “recalculates” our journey back on the path to the Savior. Yes I believe in guardian angels.).

This past week we began celebrating the Octave of Christmas. Christmas is not just a day, but also a season—a season of our life. The eight holy days immediately following the birth of Christ offer some special saints who provide concrete life circumstances for those associated with our Lord.

On Wednesday, the day after Christmas we celebrated the martyrdom of St Stephen, the first martyr, the proto-martyr, a deacon, who willingly sacrificed himself by being stoned, as Saul looked on, to proclaim his love and witness for Jesus as Savior. Christians are still martyred today in many countries around the world simply because they are baptized and believe in this Son of God and Son of Mary.

On Thursday, the Feast of St John the Evangelist, the Gospel was the Easter morning, Resurrection Gospel, where John and Peter ran to the tomb, and when John finally went in and saw the wrappings in a pile, he made his tremendous statement of faith, he “saw and he believed”. He could ‘read between the lines’; he could “connect the dots”, unlike my namesake Saint, who had to touch the wounds before his profession of faith – “my Lord & my God”. We all fall into one of these categories before we recognize Jesus as our personal Savior. Either we intuitively “see and believe”, or we hesitantly “touch and feel” first, before faith takes hold in our hearts.

Then Friday was the Feast of the Holy Innocents, where masses of young baby boys, from newborns to toddlers were murdered by Herod’s men for fear of being the true “King” of the people. This difficult scene is important for us to reflect upon as we imagine the unborn and the newly born who are so unjustly deprived of dignity and life today.

Then yesterday, the Presentation in the Temple gospel, as Joseph & Mary who knew Jesus best, knew the circumstances of His conception & birth, Joseph who protected him, Mary who fed and nurtured him, were enlighten by these total strangers, Simeon & Anna, as to who the child really is, His destiny for mankind and the sword of sorrow that will pierce their hearts. If Mary & Joseph needed others to remind them about whom Jesus really is, how about us? Our understanding, our recognition, our relationship with Jesus can come from many sources in our lives. Be open to them all.

So what does all of this have to do with the Holy Family, with our families? Jesus came into the world within a family. We come into the world within a family. We get to know God through the Holy Family; and more importantly, we get to see God, live with God, speak with God in our family. Remember the readings from today, Sirach says “Honor your father and mother, God chose them for you” and St Paul “put on [the family values of] “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you”.

Families are part of God’s master plan. Family responsibility is not just physical, but spiritual as well. Before your children, your priceless gifts from God, know God, they know you. You are God to them and you must drown them in the Godly standards above, (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, joy, belovedness) and unconditional, unending, self sacrificing love.

Your spiritual responsibility doesn’t end with just teaching them about God, you must also teach them about Church. That’s why you are here with your kids. The family is the “way of the Church”... Married couples should live their vocation, and love their vocation as ‘Domestic Church’. The Church professes and proclaims that family, through conjugal and family life, is the way that leads to heaven”. The “communion of persons’ in the family should become preparation for the “Communion of Saints” in heaven. This is why the Church believes that love endures all things and is the greatest virtue of all. Everyone is called to love, including spouses, children and families. Everyone is equally called to perfect holiness through love.

In God’s master plan, the family is the first school of how to be human. Be human. It is also the school of how to be divine. Be Godlike. We learn to live our humanity through the Holy Family, and our ‘divinity’ through the Holy Family. We live both through our family.

This week I conducted a Baptism prep class, attended a wake and a funeral mass right here in this church. It dawned on me, that the first person we see in the world, we touch, we feel, we are kissed by was our mother in the delivery room, then the rest of the family joined us in post partum.

Then we left this family, our birth family, and formed our own family. In this life, we go from family to family, regardless of how we define family.

And then God calls us back home. Likewise, usually the last person to see us, touch us, kiss us is our spouse and kids just before the casket is closed. Our family greets us when we enter this world, and sends us off when we leave it.

Live the times in between our earthy birth and eternal birth as heaven on earth. For this family sojourn truly is rest stop on our road to eternal rest…peace…happiness and joy with God forever.

Deacon Tom Healy
[Hom Holy Family 12.30.07]