Over the last few days, most of us have been around our families.  There have been laughs, tears, arguments, disagreements, some of the normal drama has arisen to the surface; but, no matter what, whether we like them or not, they are our families.

The Christmas season reminds us that Jesus was born into the messiness of time and life.  He was born into a human family of a mother and father, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins, and family friends.  They had the same laughs we had over the last few weeks and the same arguments; they shed the same tears and laughed as we did.   Like them, the holiness of our families is found in the reality that Jesus is in the middle of it all even when he is not acknowledged.

The family of the church is no different than our families and the family of Jesus.  What makes the Church a Holy Family is the reality that Jesus is the foundation of the family of the Church.

It is from our families we learn how to pray and know Jesus;
it is here in the family of faith we learn to pray and to know Jesus.

At our dinner tables at home we share a meal;
here we share the banquet of life.

It is in our homes we learn to say:  I forgive you, I love you;
here God says that to each of us in the life of the sacraments.

Family life is intrinsically linked to the life of the family of faith: the Church.  Each depends on the other; they can never be separated.  Remember the saying of Fr Peyton: The family that prays together stays together.

In the new year, we need to beg God to touch the hearts of the families of those who do not come to worship.  We need to ask the Mother of God and our Mother to wrap them in her mantle of care, so they know the Love she brought into this world.  We need ask St Joseph to lead them like any father into a life that will bear fruit.  Without our absent brothers and sisters, we cannot be the whole Body of Christ. The family of the Church misses and cares for them.  We need to let them know exactly that.

However, we also need to look at how we live as the family of faith so that when people return, we do not fall into old and unhealthy ways; just like any other family.   St John gives us the yardstick to measure who we are as a holy family of faith:

And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit he gave us.

To believe in Jesus and be proud and open about it, to love as He loves, and to keep his commandments are what will make us a Holy Family of faith.

May the Lord grant us the grace to be transformed into the mystery of the Holy Family of Nazareth.  May Jesus always be the very rock and center of all we do as a family of faith; here and now.

 

 

We all probably think God doesn’t need anything.  He probably doesn’t need new socks and underwear; probably God doesn’t want a new 4K flat screen, I would imagine that he doesn’t want a new cell phone.  God is probably the hardest person we must buy for, if we even think of Him in our planning.

Do you think anyone ever asks God What He wants for Christmas?

Here is how Darius Rucker — country singer, R and B musician and ex member of Hootie and the Blowfish — answers the question in his song, “What does God want for Christmas”;

“I wonder what God wants for Christmas
            Something you can’t find in a store
            Maybe peace on earth, no more empty seats in church”

I think is a good start for God’s Christmas list.  God, in the reading from Isaiah, promises us a world with no war and violence, but we need to change ourselves and our world, so it can happen.  To be peacemakers means we learn to disagree with respects, to not return violence with violence, verbal or physical, to actively commit ourselves to work for harmony and the common good.  What a great gift to give to God if we would commit ourselves in the coming year to be people of peace.

The most precious gift we can give God is the gift of ourselves.  Darius sings “no more empty seats in Church”.  Our worship here is to give God the glory and praise he deserves from all of us.  Afterall, look what He did.  He took on human flesh and then suffered and died for us.  We cannot ever match that gift.  To give the God the gift of our worship is an act of love.  He created us and gives us everything we need; the least we can do is to say thanks!

Darius ends his song:

            I wonder what God wants for Christmas

What kind of gift from you and me

More sister, more brother, more lovin’ one another

Yeah, I wonder, I wonder what God wants

By now we oughta know what God wants for Christmas

In my words, what God wants for Christmas is you.  What God wants for Christmas is me.  He wants everything:  our love, our worship, our service.  God wants us to put into use all the talents he has given us so that the Kingdom of heaven born in a stable can be born into our world.  God want us to love him everyday of our lives and make Him a priority.

So what does God want for Christmas?

            He wants you.

            He wants me.

Let’s hope he is not disappointed when He opens his gifts tomorrow morning.