Back in the year two thousand one, I spent eleven days in a hermitage in the high deserts of Colorado. Of course that means, I lived alone completely at that time, with very little contact with others except at mass and one community breakfast. I was staying with my favorite oxymoron, a community of hermits.

Spending eleven days in the desert alone, which by the way may have given me training to live alone as I do, was a wonderful experience. When one leaves that environment, one returns to the world seeing things differently and that certainly happened to me. As I began my journey to return to Boston, I had to drive from Southern Colorado near New Mexico to the Denver area which is closer to Wyoming. That journey is a beautiful one, as Colorado is one of the most naturally beautiful states in the union, mostly because of the Rocky Mountains.

It was there, I realized that the immense beauty of these places is one of the ways that God communicates to us of His presence. If you have not seen the majesty of the Rockies or any of the mountain ranges of the Americas, including the Andes mountains, which I have also visited and even the Berkshires which are about two hours west of the parish, you need to see them in all their wonder. I often take people to some of the state parks out beyond Springfield, MA and show them places that include views of three states simultaneously, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.

As I said, this beauty of nature is one of the ways that God communicates to us. He communicates to us in many ways. The most important are the Bible, prayer, the Church. However, he also uses other means, including these, to communicate to us. Remember, our faith is a relationship with God and each other and it is about being filled with the wisdom of God, not just a group of rules.

Today, we see another form of God’s communication to us: the Holy Family. This Solemnity is always the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas which continues until January 1st. We can see not only the Holy Family as Joseph, Mary and Jesus, but also God communicating to us through the family itself. This is a powerful message that is unpopular in today’s time where we are changing the definition of family. However, the clash between the worldly definition and the Church definition is the clash between human wisdom and divine wisdom. It is human wisdom that seeks a new change of the family for expediency, equality and convenience among other things, it is divine wisdom that defines the family and human in the roles that it does which includes a heterosexual is marriage, but remember two of the main figures of our faith were single and celibate: St. John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. This also figures itself in divine wisdom.

The holy family, which is called to be the model of the Catholic family was not simply, a man, woman and a child. It was a man, woman and child who had deep faith, a deep sense of mission and were prayerful in the service to God and neighbor. The human family is called to the same level. Each one is called to be prayerful as a family and to understand their mission in service to God, each other and the community.

This is a common call that each family must understand. If they want to grow as a loving and holy family, they must be prayerful as a family and understand their mission in the context of their sacramental marriage to be in service to God and neighbor. This can only be done well under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit which is found in prayer.

This feast does not leave the single, widowed or divorced outside by the way. Remember both St. John the Baptist and Jesus were unmarried and practiced celibacy in their service to God and neighbor. They also practiced the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and were people of great prayer. They serve as examples to us in this way as well. We know that the widowed played a part in Christ’s mission and I am sure the divorced in one form or another as well. The main focus on every step is humble service and obedience to God and neighbor in the mission of the Holy Spirit.

So the message to us is seen through the way of life of Mary Joseph and Jesus to say nothing of St. John the Baptist, Zechariah, and Elizabeth and so many others we read about in the bible.

God communicates to us through their lives and actions a wisdom that cannot be found as deeply in the human wisdom that calls us to follow another way.
The current call to change our social structures is rooted in an atheistic human wisdom that rejects the deeply profound wisdom that God teaches us everyday through the Church, the Bible, prayer and through the examples of holiness he gives to every state of life including that of the holy family family and others.

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube.  You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook