Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

 

The beginning of a New Year has a lot of promise. We don’t know what will happen: the joys and sorrows, the opportunities before us and plans that will get scrapped, the changes that God will ask of us, the opportunities for ministry that will cross our paths, and the list continues. God does not have it all mapped out, but the promise of Christmas is that he will walk through it all with us. His Birth is the promise that by taking on Flesh, God will always be with humanity. Mary teaches us today how to live this year in a way to grow in faith. The Gospel writer tells us that “And Mary kept all these reflecting on them in her heart.” Mary kept praying over all the events in the life of Jesus and opened her heart to God to give her the insight she needed to make sense out of it all. What a great example to follow. No matter what is to happen this year we need to bring it to Jesus. I am sure she didn’t always understand what he was doing or why, but she opened her heart to him. So must we. By opening our hearts to Jesus.

he will walk with us and give us the insight to make any decisions, he will be our rock when we feel that life is out of control, he will be the source of our forgiveness and the wellspring of grace.

Mary teaches us that when God asks anything of us ad we accept it, He will give us the grace we need. God will give us the strength to endure the Crosses we will be asked to carry and the fullness of joy to celebrate the Resurrection that also occur. When Joseph and Mary fulfilled the precepts of the Law on this eighth day after the birth, they teach us the importance of living out the precepts of our faith. We are called to pray every day, to celebrate the Sacraments, to study the Sacred Scripture, to live out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, to not be afraid to be faithful Catholics. I would encourage you to take one thing and devote the year to it

Grow in your life of prayer. Read one spiritual book Read through the the Bible this year Learn about one saint and try to imitate him or her Get involved in one ministry in the parish Commit yourself to one act of charity every day

May this New Year be a year of grace for each of you. May the prayers of the Mother of God help you to be faithful to the Christian life. Let 2020 be a time when you encounter Jesus so deeply that you, like Mary, bear him into the world.

This Sunday is one of the easiest and hardest Sundays to preach on. It is the easiest because we all have an experience of family whether it is good or bad and the hardest because we all have an experience of family whether it is good or bad. We all know that there are many different definitions of family in our world today:  mom and dad and kids, dad and dad, mom and mom, grandparents raising grandchildren, single moms and single dads,  blended families, children being raised in the foster care system, and the list continues.  Looking at all the definitions of family that we have, these are the things that seem consistent

Basic unit of society no matter how the family is structured A group of people with some common purpose A group of people from a common stock and united by certain convictions or a common affiliation

It is in this basic unit of society that we learn about how to be a man or woman of faith and part of the community of faith. The first two readings challenge us how to be a good family no matter the make up: respect one another, take care of each other, be kind to each other, admit when we are wrong, forgive each other, put on Christ, pray together and do everything in the name of Jesus Christ. If we could practice this in our basic units of society, in the family of the church, in the family of the world, then, what a different world we will live in. The make up of what a family is not important: it is how the family lives together.

One pain that I hear a lot from parents is that their children have walked away from the practice of the faith and the Church. What I want to say to you is that you have not failed. All you can do is to lay the groundwork of faith by showing your children what it means to follow Jesus. You can only plant the seeds. It is all I can, too. I am a firm believer that every single person at some point has to make the choice to follow Jesus or not. We cannot do that for anyone; we can just witness about how faith is important to us. I am not above a word of challenge once in awhile, but I leave that up to you. Together we can only entrust them to the Blessed Mother and St Joseph that their prayers will lead them on a journey back to Jesus even if they go on a detour.

We have a common purpose: to continue the mission of Jesus. We are all brothers and sister in Baptism (our fundamental connection) and it is Jesus who binds us together. It is essential that people see us a Holy Family, not perfect, but people who strive together to be followers of Jesus. No one can exist alone and stay healthy: healthy, emotional or spiritually. The same thing is true as people of faith. Small faith sharing groups, common worship and mission are part of the family of faith. Jesus will use us to draw people to him, to increase this parish family, by our faithful witness to him. Again, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be authentic. They will know we are Christians by our love for the rest of human kind.

So, even though this maybe the hardest and easiest Sunday to preach on, it is the opportunity to celebrate what Jesus’s birth transformed us into: men and women loved by God and given a common purpose to spread the Hope he brought into the world by His humble birth in Bethlehem and into a family that showed us that Love can conquer all the difficulties that life will throw at us.