Past/Present/Future, Holy Family Sunday (2014-12-28)

Holy Family Sunday  • Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 • Psalm  128 • Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 • Luke 2:22-24 •

[__01__]     This Sunday is Holy Family Sunday, the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Traditionally, this feast is observed on the Sunday immediately following Christmas Day.

And, we read the Gospel of the presentation of the Lord in the Temple.

[__02__]     What is the role or the challenge of the holy family – or any family – with, say, a newborn child, a new member of the family, or a new challenge?

Pope Francis invites us to consider this in the 2014-2015 year as a new meditation to experience – to give and receive – love in our family.

Pope Francis has started this discussion and prayer, reminding us that love is not only an emotional high or an impulsive feeling. Rather, love involves our conscious choice and our enduring commitment.

In this reflection, this worldwide Catholic gathering or synod on the family, we are reminded that the family unit – the family nucleus – has bonds and benefits which extend over time – the past, the present and the future.

[__03__]     Jesus, Mary, and Joseph come to the Temple because of the past, the present, and the future. In a similar way, we were brought – or we have brought our own children – to a baptism, to a christening  … to honor the past, to act in the present, and to plan for the future.

We might consider the teaching in this way, in the way that Pope Francis and the Synod on the Family present it, that love has a past tense, love has a present tense, and love has a future tense

[__03.01__]      Love has a past tense or a history, because love is a mission that we have already received, that we have already pledged ourselves to.

[__03.02__]       Love has a present tense, because love is a disposition or an attitude that we adopt in the present. Just as we could adopt a child or a charitable cause, we adopt an attitude of love toward people in our lives.

[__03.03__]       Love has a future tense, because love is a summons to which we are called to submit.

[__04__]        These three tenses – past, present, and future – were also manifested in the lives of Joseph and Mary.

[__04.01__]        Love was a mission and a past tense, with a history, even before Joseph and Mary had arrived at the Temple.  This mission had started before Jesus was presented at the Temple. The mission had started even before Jesus was born.

Not everyone understood the mission. And, isn’t this the challenge with any mission – or game plan – to get the players or members of the family on board?

Simeon and Anna announce the mission to Joseph and Mary, the mission that reminds us that Jesus would be a sign to be contradicted, the person chosen by God through whom there will be both communion and rebellion.

The mission is going to cause some division.

[__04.02__]        Love is also an attitude for Joseph and Mary. An attitude of service, prayer, perseverance.

It was certainly hard to maintain a cheerful, loving attitude when you have to relocate for a census, or when you are on the run from King Herod.

Love is an attitude in the present.

[__04.03__]        Love is a summons to which Joseph and Mary will submit.

For example, Joseph and Mary would be summoned to the Temple again, to search for the 12 year old boy, Jesus. Where is he?

Mary would also be summoned to the foot of the cross, to pray with and pray over her suffering son and Savior.

Love is a mission, love is an attitude, love is a summons:  past, present, future.

[__05.01_mission_]   LOVE IS A MISSION IN OUR FAMILIES.

When we hear “mission”, we may think of an event involving soldiers or Navy SEALS at ZERO DARK THIRTY or something “impossible.”

Yet, we have all received a mission to love in our families. At certain times, we may disagree about what the orders are, the priorities, or the chances for success. Yet, just as the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, were on a  mission, we have also been given a mission and a purpose to achieve in our families.

Mission reminds us also that there is  God’s  grace and guidance leading us.  We do not have to go out and discover the mission.  This mission is something we already received by virtue of – marriage vows, by the birth of a child, by the illness or needs of a loved one.

LOVE IS A MISSION.

[__05.02_disposition-attitude_] Love is a disposition that we accept, or an attitude that we adopt in the PRESENT.

Attitude counts.   “Attitude” may, often, be given a negative connotation, a negative meaning.

“Attitude” is the A-train that could go off the tracks … “Attitude” is the A-bomb that could be detonated.

Attitude is viewed as a vice, not a virtue.

But, in love, and in the PRESENT moment – in every present moment, attitude counts.

In love, can I not adopt an attitude that enables me to love the person …?

• Who talks too much
• Who talks too little
• Who does asks too many questions
• Who seems to have no friends

 Such an attitude enables us to LEAN IN … in a truly Catholic/Christian way.

Love is  an attitude or disposition, for the present moment

[__05.03_summons_]  Love is a summons for the future to which we submit, a summons to which we submit for  the future.

Does anybody really want to get a summons?

We don’t want to get a summons.

These days, the summons often cited – warned about – is the summons issued by the police officer or state trooper to us about distracted driving. There is a summons with your name on it, with may name on it , reminding us to silence our phones and devices.

Could we not say that love  is  also a summons to be  silent, to silence our devices…. to be silent, not only now..but to plan for SILENCE,  for periodic moments of  listening in the future?

This is a summons which invites us not to defend ourselves in the courtroom…but to defend and love others, even at our expense.

With this mission, this attitude, and this summons, love not only is manifested in the family but beyond.

For example, consider that love would be absolutely necessary for the technician, the doctor, the nurse wrapped up – not in the swaddling clothes of a baby but in a lot of sterile gear to administer medicine and treatment in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and other West African countries, in the treatment of the  Ebola virus.

Love enables such a doctor, nurse, technician, to work  under dire conditions … with a particular mission, attitude and summons.

Love also invites parents  and families – and all of us -- to do the same for each other each day, in our mission, our  attitude, and our summons, to lay down our lives for each other.

God who is Love is calling … will we answer the call?   [__fin__]