My brothers and sisters, this weekend we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

When we look to Jesus, Mary and Joseph we receive the best example of God’s plan for the human family. This must be the case because Jesus is God the Son, the incarnate perfect word, Mary is without Sin by a special grace, the Immaculate Conception, and Joseph is a righteous man.

Who else are we going look to for a better example of how to live out God’s plan for marriage and family?

Mary was perfectly obedient to God and she put His plan above everything else. It was with this decision to put God first that the fruit of her faith was born in Jesus Christ. And Joseph, being obedient and yet feeling unworthy of the task, trusted God and lead Mary and Jesus as the father of the house. He played his role mainly by actions, and less by words. In fact, Joseph does not have one spoken line in the whole bible. He leads by actions; he leads by putting the needs of Mary and Jesus before his own needs.

And of course Jesus, who has no need to be subjected to any creature, including his Mother, shows us perfect obedience to God the Father by submitting to the will of his earthly parents, following the fourth commandment to honor thy father and thy mother.  

There is a theme, a common connection between all three, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All three of them put the will of God the Father above their own will. The will is the power of the soul which chooses to do good or evil. Jesus Himself claimed that He was in the temple, not lost, as his parents believed he was, but instead concerned about his Father’s House. And as an adult, he claims He has come to do the will of His Father. That seemed to be the most important thing to Him.

This family, certainly above any other family in human history, set about to accomplish God’s will.  And they did! Mary is the Queen of Heaven, the New Eve and the Mother of the Christ and His Church. Joseph is the patron Saint of all Fathers, and Jesus is the redeemer of the world. Through perfect obedience they accomplished God’s plan.

We, on the other hand, we struggle with obedience at times. Most of us fall or have fallen into sin, a rejection of God’s plan for our own lives, many times.

We try and try, but we keep falling. We confess, but we fall. We keep getting back up though, and we want to be holy and do God’s will. We are fathers, mothers,  husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, priests and religious, etc.

What we need is encouragement to keep trying, and not to give up. God doesn’t call us because we are qualified, he calls us, imperfect as we are, and then ask us to try. Slowly, by HIS Grace, he is perfecting our imperfect nature. Slowly we are learning the wisdom of His perfect plan.

Other people are overwhelmed by God’s plan. They want to do His Will, but they have stopped trying because they believe it is too difficult, or they believe their situation is impossible, or they have become dangerously complacent. Circumstances can feed this tendency. Other times these individuals have trust or commitment issues. These would be people who are, for example, living outside of God’s plan for family and marriage, and for whatever reason are not doing anything to change it. This is dangerous because we cannot knowingly live outside of God’s plan and still go to Heaven.

An example would be the couple that continues to live together in the same house, sometimes for years, outside of being married. The couple that sleeps together and does not plan on stopping. The single person who will not commit to a relationship and continues to have multiple partners with no intent to change. The spouse that continues to be unfaithful and sees nothing wrong with it. The person who has quit coming to Mass and has fallen so far away from the Eucharist they have convinced themselves that they don’t need to come anymore. The priest that gives up on his priesthood and lives in sin, instead of accepting God’s forgiveness and grace to persevere.

These souls are in grave danger.

However, God loves these individuals too; and he wants them to know his love more perfectly which can only occur by following His Will. Therefore, these individuals need our love and support and encouragement to return to the right path; they do not need our condemnation. At one time, they were living according to God’s plan and they fell away; the same thing could happen to us. The devil is very deceitful. He uses human weakness and circumstances in many forms to try and get us to stay away from the Church and that grace that comes from the Holy Spirit through the Church. We must be humble and pray that we too don’t fall away, while at the same time be patient and encourage those who are away to come back to following God’s plan, which most certainly entails eating and drinking the body and blood of our Lord. The farther we fall away from the Eucharist, the easier it becomes to justify doing so. This is a trick of Satan.

Sometimes these individuals just need someone to pray with them. Maybe they forgot the value of prayer and they need to start again. We can do that so long as we are praying ourselves.

Then there are those who are active enemies of God, they are wolves trying to destroy God’s plan and anyone who would try to live it. We must be careful that we do not fall victim to the lies of the evil one. These are the ones who try to redefine God’s plan and make it seem like it is something it is not. Marriage is under attack from these people. They refuse to accept that Marriage is sacred; it is for a man and a woman, for the good of the spouses and for procreation and education of children. It is meant to be lived in a holy committed union, blessed by God, faithful, once until death.  

That we fail in living this plan of a marriage, or are victims of a spouse who has fallen away, is not condemnable, what is condemnable, however,  is when we fall victim to the lie that the plan is different than what it is and therefore we never try to return. The father of lies would like us to believe that God’s revealed plan can be changed, it most certainly can not be changed.

The good news is that God comes to save people who fail sometimes. That is all of us. We are all sinners. Sometimes we are disobedient and so we recognize that, repent and return, every time. He is merciful to the last moment. It is easy to fall, but it’s not so easy to rise and continue, which is why we need God’s help and we have it in his Grace, an with the perfect example He gives us in the Holy Family. Let us mimic their obedience and discover the beauty that comes from being faithful sons and daughters of God our Father.  

And let us pray for each other and especially for those who are living away from the sacraments and God’s will in their lives. His grace is amazing, and He can and does draw people back frequently, ourselves included, so we should never lose hope. May God Bless you and may you continue to have a Merry Christmas.