"(Holy) Family Craziness" - Feast of the Holy Family Homily

It was funny at the children's Mass on Christmas Eve, talking with the kids during the homily.

I asked them if they were at the nativity scene, what would have been like?

What would they have experienced?

And they said it would have been happy and joyful and peaceful and kind and loving.

And then one girl said, craziness.

Yeah, there was some craziness.

in the scene itself and the events leading up to it.

But that's a good word, craziness, to talk about family.

You've heard me say, you know it, that every family has problems, issues, dysfunction.

craziness is a good general word to use.

What we all experience.

I was thinking just the other day,

I pray my daily rosary, I have a long list of intentions.

People that I've met and been praying for from all my parish assignments, including this one, all these years, and it's a long list, and there's some craziness.

There's some characters.

Like I haven't seen that couple since their wedding, or since their kids' baptism, or whatever it might be.

We heard the genealogy of Jesus the other night, the beginning of Matthew's gospel.

And in the very line of Christ, his family line, there are some characters.

There are some craziness.

The Holy Family experienced craziness as that little girl said.

The miraculous conception and birth of Christ, this scene at the temple, the finding at the temple.

That it's just bizarre to think that Jesus was lost for three days from Mary and Joseph.

And she basically says, we're worried sick about you.

And his answer might sound like a smart-alec 12-year-old, did you not know that it must be my father's house?

But it's just crazy.

And Mary and Joseph, it says, they did not understand, but at this point, at least they believed that he was the son of God.

They probably believed by the nativity scene that God is his father.

And so to be in his father's house, they respected it, they followed it.

That was their mantra.

If you think about like their home, they had a sign on their home, like in the kitchen or in the fridge, it would say, thy will be done.

That was their MO.

That's what united the Holy Family, even in the midst of craziness.

God brings the craziness.

He either wills it, like crazy good, or allows crazy adversity or

Suffering to unite families, to make them stronger.

But that focus and that union in God, in what is good and in God's will.

That was the focus of the Holy Family.

That's what we want to emulate in our families.

The breakdown comes in when it's the opposite.

My will be done.

either by a father, a mother, a child, like breaking off from that family agenda to do your own agenda and getting selfish and doing what you want only.

And then when craziness hits, it's not enough to hold the family together.

The other night after the children's Mass, we had a little bit of craziness with my family.

We went back to the rectory for dinner.

We normally do takeout because I have a small window before the next Mass.

So we went back and there was a foul up we had, a little avoidable problem with the food which would end up being delayed 30 minutes.

And we were 12 hungry people.

And I just, I didn't hear any complaining.

And I didn't make an announcement like, complaining, no complaining.

We just enjoyed each other's company.

Celebrating Christmas, having had a really blessed experience with the kids at the Mass and big crowd.

Each of us comes here today uniting as a parish family.

We do this every week.

Whatever craziness we've experienced in the world or even within the parish, we unite together.

Like Mary and Joseph adoring Jesus.

We unite in Christ, we unite in God, we unite in His sacrament, we unite in His love.

And we pray together, thy will be done.