Two-Minute Homily by Fr Adrian Farrelly for the Feast of the Holy Family 2023. “This Holy Family wants us to wear well the clothes of kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Forgiving others and wrapping everything together and putting on love.”
- Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
Whatever about the truth in the saying “cleanliness is next to Godliness”, we speak truly if we say “holiness is next to Godliness.” More correctly, holiness is Godliness. To be holy is a great aspiration but if you voice such an idea, people will more than likely look at you oddly or proclaim you are not living in the real world. Such criticism flows from the idea that if you are God-centred you are not earth-concerned. So heavenly minded as to be no earthly good! Mary MacKillop, Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Kolkata, to name but a few, doing all for the glory of God as Jesus did, show the ridiculousness of such a conclusion. These people changed worlds doing everything here for the glory of God.We celebrate today the holiness of the family that Joseph, Mary and Jesus created. This is far from your ordinary family, but not all that far. A premarital pregnancy, resulting from Mary agreeing to cooperate with God in bringing new life to the world, saw Joseph considering abandoning his fiancée but prompted by God he takes her into his home as his wife. With their new born they have to flee their homeland and live as refugees for a time. Consecrating him as an infant in the temple, Joseph and Mary begin living their vocation to raise Jesus as a devout Jew with a love of the law and the prophets and the great stories of the people. Much they treasure in their hearts wondering what will become of him. So concerned at the direction Jesus took as an adult, they had concerns for his overall well-being. The final almost unthinkable event was to see him tortured and killed. Jesus’ final prayer “into your hands I commit my spirit” makes even this tragedy holy.
This Holy Family, open as they are to God and God-centred, prays for us that the message of Christ find a home within us. They want us to wear well the clothes of kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Forgiving others and wrapping everything together and putting on love. Now we are dressed in holiness for all occasions. Worlds will change.