"Led by God" -- Feast of the Holy Family Homily

I had a good Christmas with my family.

My mom and brother and his family came up here on Christmas Eve for the children's Mass, along with half the county.

We went to the rectory for dinner afterwards.

a really good time.

Then Christmas Day, I drove my mom up to my sister's family up in Pennsylvania.

It's a nice drive up 15 past Gettysburg.

And we had a ball.

Then driving home, was after seven at night.

And it just felt like it a straight shot from 15 to her house, basically.

So I like, I got this.

I don't need GPS.

It's just one shot.

So I'm driving my mom back, well, wasn't such a straight shot, because all of a sudden, we're seeing the fencing for the battlefields that I didn't see coming in.

The heart starts dropping.

I'm like, uh-oh, it's like 730.

I have to get her home.

It's an hour and a half away at least.

And she's not really caring.

She's just enjoying the ride and everything.

And but I'm starting to panic and then I hit GPS and indeed, you know, they're like, yeah, make the first left.

You can, you're in trouble.

We make left into the neighborhood, then a right and left, all these turns.

And again, she wasn't like worried, but she's like, why are you taking these turns so fast?

uh We take the last turn, which seemed like a battlefield parking lot.

I this cannot be right.

And I'm getting really concerned.

So I looked down the phone in this parking lot and it said half a mile, make a right on 15.

I was like, found.

And we made it home.

She's like, it took less time getting home than there.

I'm like, all right, she's good.

I'm good.

But Mary and Joseph had all these twists and turns in their journey, led by God.

They believe, like I believe that GPS knew the way.

I punched in the right address.

I trusted in it.

I was being led the right place.

So Mary and Joseph are led by God.

They believe through the angel.

And it's characteristic of the Holy Family to be led by God.

Characteristic of any Holy Family, any good family, to be led by God.

This is a point of emphasis when I prepare couples for marriage.

and family.

I think I've told you before that when I meet with couples who are engaged, they're overwhelming with joy though.

Maybe they're just telling a priest what he wants to hear, but they all seem to agree that God led them to their wedding.

This is His plan and the way that it came about, could only be from Him, it's better than anything they could have come up with.

Yes, this is His plan, this is His will.

He's leading them.

But about the same number when I say what's he leading you to after the wedding, like in marriage, what does that look like?

And almost all of them like we ever thought of that before.

So God leads couples to marriage, through marriage and throughout marriage.

and to go to him as, I went to the GPS, saying I'm lost, help me out.

What's the direction?

For couples in family life with children, to be led by God and open to God, open to life, open to love, with jobs, with schooling, with place of where to live, family problems, big

time decisions.

to ask him for direction.

Imagine if Mary and Joseph had gone their own way.

They're like, oh, we got this.

Angel, we're good.

If you say on the Nate, Bargassi, angel.

That's pretty funny.

As an aside, I don't know if you see Nate Bargassi, Deacon Ted?

No, forget it.

Sorry.

Well, it's really funny.

Nate is an angel.

And there Mary and Joseph are talking to him, and he's a comedian.

But imagine in real life if he said, here's the way, go to Egypt.

They're like, oh, we're fine.

That would have been like me the other night, saying, I got this.

And next thing you we're in Harrisburg, and it's 9 o'clock.

My mom's like, where are we?

Get me home.

Like, we're still two hours away.

Lost.

Fruitless.

And we've all been there.

We go our own direction, and we end up lost.

God not only has us found, but He makes it fruitful.

fruitfulness of being led by God in spiritual matters and personal matters with marriage and vocation and family obviously morally in the home God rules with his commandments and

as a first and second reading indicate the rules of the home family life for husbands and wives to respect each other and honor each other love each other to

sacrifice for each other, for children to respect and be obedient to your parents.

In all these ways, maybe the most important ways, to honor God by honoring family.

Finally, in order to be led by God, we have to be open to God.

Again, His direction, His way.

So when we talk about married couples open to Him, open to life, open to love, we celebrate that with a baptism this morning.

And one of the things that we honor, like in the Beben family, is they're open.

We should not overlook or take for granted the openness of couples.

with children, the openness to God, not just to have children but to nurture and to give and sacrifice and all the nature of a holy family.

Hopefully you see that in our parish family.

And I preach this, but I try and live it as best I can as a spiritual father.

To be open to God and open to you.

You might call it radical availability.

But I believe firmly that there's a connection between that openness to life and love and fruitfulness, vibrancy, great life in a family.

We might look at Mary and Joseph as having an unfair advantage.

They had God with them, Jesus, the baby Jesus, Emmanuel.

But so do we.

So do we, especially today in the Eucharist.

We have God with us as we're being led by God and following His direction.