INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 16th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Family.”
As the Pittsburgh Pirates were singing the Sister Sledge song when they were winning years ago [1979], “We are family”, now that they are doing well again, will that song be revived?
Individuals are important - sacred - unique - but it’s the family that is the family is the nucleus of society - as Catholic philosophy and theology have stressed and taught through the years.
We are family. We come from families. What is your family like?
The parish is a family. How many times have we heard here in church: “Brothers and Sisters” as an opening address? These are nice sentiments, but it’s when we know who’s here in church - when we recognize each other when we arrive - by eye, a nod, a wave of the hand, a hello, that the idea and ideal moves closer to reality. We share the word and the table, prayers, and a sign of peace and communion with each other. The Mass brings out both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of Christ. It’s the sign of the cross - the line up - and line out and across to each other. It’s Christ reaching up to his Father at Calvary and out to his brothers on the other crosses and his followers around him and down below - reaching out even though some had no clue about him. They were there to do their job - or manipulated to curse, to hurt and to kill Jesus.
In the process of crucifixion, the centurion discovers who he is.
The Church is not just a group then - not just the gathering - the ekklesia, but it’s also a place - an experience - a place to discover what parts I can play - what my best skills in the Body - I am. So it’s a place where we can discover who each individual is.
Ah! There’s the rub at times. In Church, we discover what we discover in family - the individual vs. the group.
Why do people come to the church building. Some say, “I come here to pray!” Others say, “I come here to socialize.” Some say, “I come for communion with Christ.” Others say, “I come here to be in communion with the Whole Christ.”
Can we do both? Can’t we do both.
Someone recently asked me when the new pastor is going to arrive. I told him the date I heard and he said, “I’m going to ask him to stop all this talking and chatting inside the church - especially before and after Mass.” I thought his comment was fascinating - because he was telling me all this after Mass - but inside the church building.
The diocese is a family.
The Catholic Church is our family.
I would hope we make the next jump and say, “We the people of this planet are all one family!” And we can say that - and work towards that - if we are doing the will of our Heavenly Father - as Jesus told us in today’s gospel. Praise God.
The Our Father is a Jewish prayer. It’s a Christian prayer. The Our Father is an international - interdenominational - inter religious prayer. We pray that God’s kingdom come to all - that all have daily bread - that we learn to forgive trespasses against us that we find hard to forgive. We are one family and God is Our Father.
Do we have that vision in a world of so many different visions, voices, listenings, languages, colors, and ways of life? That’s the challenge of Christianity?
A STORY: ONCE UPON A TIME
Once upon a time there was a French aristocrat and author named Duc Gaston Pierre Marc de Levis - who lived around 1764 to 1830.
Some who are Proper Bostonians brag about their lineage, well there was this family - the de Levis family - as the story goes - who considered itself and bragged about being the oldest family in Christendom. “Their chateau was reputed to contain two paintings to prove it: one of Noah going into the Ark with a box full of the Levis papers under his arm; the other of the Virgin Mary addressing the founder of the house as mon cousin and begging him to put his hat back on.” [1]
We don’t have a painting proving that we are members of Christ’s family, but we do have the scene in today’s gospel where Jesus is speaking to the crowds. His mother and brother wanted to interrupt and speak to him. So someone tells Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak to you.”
Surprise Jesus says to the one said that, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
Then stretching out his hand toward his disciples he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
He was not putting Mary down - he was doing what Mary would become - mother of all - of all cultures - and that’s why we Redemptorists are particularly proud of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon. It’s Eastern and Western - somewhat both - and can be found all around the world - and people all around the world reach out to Mary to bring families together and to bring all families to God our Father.
HORRORS
Now of course, there are horror stories - great human tragedies - and that’s the bad news - but the good news - is when the world rallies to help our brothers and sisters in need.
This is a great parish as we see in the St. Vincent de Paul Society and all the people who visit the homebound and those in nursing homes and the hospital.
I hope that each family that comes here for Mass walks out of here a better family than when they walked in here.
I have been moved when people come up to me after Mass to make the following complaint or suggestion: “How come after what happened in [fill in the blank - a world tragedy], when is the church going to take up funds to help these people?
CONCLUSION
When you were listening to today’s first reading from Exodus, we were listening to epic type writing - legends - and there are varying strands of stories in the Jewish Scriptures about the Exodus. We were hearing the story of the Passover from slavery and horror - to redemption and liberation. It evoked for the Hebrews hope - whenever they were being persecuted - and they were enslaved in Egypt. Hopefully, it evokes hope and action for any people who are in need of liberation. And hopefully we felt sympathy and empathy for the Egyptian families whose fathers and husbands did not return after being drowned and none escaped. Hopefully we feel the pain for the families of anyone who dies - or is killed - on either side in a war - big wars - or acts of terror.
We are family - and hopefully, this is how families think, feel and act.
[1] Clifton Fadiman, General Editor,
The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, London, 1985, p. 352
