Homily:
Holy Family – Cycle C
A crucible is a device developed in ancient times that is
used to heat metals to a very high temperature.
Usually made of ceramic or porcelain (or another material similarly
resistant to extremely high temperatures), a crucible is used either to purify
metals (by burning off any impurities from them) or to create alloys (which are
mixtures of metals created by heating them together and, thus, allowing them to
mix). In the crucible, metals are both
tested for purity (when heated to their extreme limits) and forced to change
(when mixed in with other materials).
Because of these characteristics of the uses of a crucible, the term
“crucible” has come also to be applied to any situation in which one is tested
severely or is forced either to change or to make a difficult decision. For example, we might say of many of our war
veterans that “his or her character was formed in the crucible of war.”
Perhaps we might not immediately think of it this way, but
the family is a type of crucible. This
has become increasingly apparent to me over the years that I have spent
listening to confessions. Time and
again, I hear the same or similar things from people: “I’ve been impatient with
my children”, or “I was angry with my spouse and yelled at him or her”, or
“I’ve been mean to my brothers and sisters”, or “I’ve not respected my mother
and father.” The things that you all are
confessing and for which you are asking forgiveness are the limitations to love
and charity that you are finding within yourselves and which are brought to the
surface within the crucible that is your family. In other words, we all have an ideal of how
we should live and interact with each other as a family, but when the heat and
pressure begin to build through our daily interactions with each other, our
character is tested and impurities begin to show. We are challenged to change and many of you
come to the confessional looking for forgiveness for your failures and for the
grace to make the necessary changes.
The Holy Family, whom we celebrate today, is an example for
us of how to survive and to thrive in the crucible of the family. For Joseph and Mary, there was testing from
the very beginning of their relationship.
Not sooner than Joseph was betrothed to Mary did he find out that his
new wife—whom he had yet to receive into his house—was already with child. If it wasn’t for the angel’s intervention in
a dream, Joseph may have divorced her straight away and the Holy Family would
have been a broken one from the start.
Then, as the day for Mary to give birth came near, the
command came from Caesar that all must be enrolled in their ancestral
hometown. Thus, Joseph and Mary (with
Jesus still in the womb) had to travel to Bethlehem—the little town that,
obviously, became overcrowded with visitors—in which Mary was left to give
birth to their son in a rudimentary barn carved into the side of a rock. If that wasn’t enough, a short time later
word came to Joseph and Mary that the child was in danger of being murdered by
the king and that they needed to flee from there immediately. And so the family picked up the very little
that they had and went off to Egypt, where they lived as foreigners, outcast
and despised, for the next seven years.
Remember that Joseph was probably twice as old as Mary when
they were married and that Mary was barely 15 years-old. These were challenges with which even the
most veteran families would have difficulty dealing, but they had to deal with
them in the first months of their relationship.
We honor them today as holy,
not because they lived lives of perfect peace and harmony, but because within
the crucible that is the family, they persevered in charity and in following
the way of the Lord: that is the way of righteousness.
Saint Paul seems to understand this. In his letter to the Colossians, he offers us
a list of virtues for how to live as “God’s chosen ones”, that is, as God’s family.
He describes the virtues as if they are a set of clothing that you
wear. “Put on … heartfelt compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and
forgiving one another … and over all these,” he says, as if it was some sort of
‘spiritual overcoat’, “put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.” While most of us could look at this list and
say, “yes, that’s how it should be,” I would guess that many of us (myself
included) have a very difficult time putting this into practice. Well, Paul understands that, too. And so he continues in his letter: “let the
peace of Christ control your hearts … and be thankful.” How can we achieve this lofty level of
virtue? By letting the peace of Christ
control our hearts and by being thankful.
In other words, there’s no magic here, just the hard work of grace
within us.
Paul, then, describes a way that we might begin. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish
one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your
hearts to God.” With the word of Christ
with you in the crucible, Paul seems to say, the hard work of putting on the
virtues will lightened. And when you
give yourself over to praising God in “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”, you
focus less on whatever difficulty or conflict you are having and instead
remember that Christ has saved us from our limitations so that we can “bear
with one another” in peace.
My friends, the New Year is rapidly approaching. Perhaps some of you have been thinking about
resolutions that you’d like to make for yourselves to make 2022 a happier and
more fulfilling year for you. Perhaps
some of you have given up on that idea many years ago. To all of you I am suggesting that you take
this passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians and meditate on it:
asking God to show you how you can incorporate its teachings in 2022. Begin by asking God which of these virtues
you are lacking and then for the grace to begin to practice them. Then, look for ways that, as a family, you
can make 2022 a year in which you will “let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly” by reading the Bible together as a family and then using that time to
acknowledge and give thanks for the blessings that you’ve received. (Grandparents, this is a great way to bond
with your grandchildren as well!)
If you and your family can begin to do these things, I
guarantee you that you will be happier in 2022, in spite of whatever trials may
come. With the Holy Family as our guide,
and with the strength of the grace that we receive in this Holy Eucharist, we
can emerge in 2022 from the crucibles of our families happier and holier; if
only we would entrust ourselves to God to do it. Joseph and Mary did and their family is now
called holy. May 2022 be the year in which your family
earns the same name.
Given at St. Joseph Parish:
Delphi, IN – December 26th, 2021
The Feast of the Holy Family
of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
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