Saturday, Christmas:

• Mass for the Vigil: Isaiah 62: 1-5; Acts 13: 16-17, 22-25; Matthew 1:1-25
• Mass at Midnight: Isaiah 9:1-3, 5-6; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14
• Mass at Dawn: Isaiah 62: 11-12; Titus 3: 4-7; Luke 2: 15-20
• Mass during the Day: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Hebrews 1: 1-6; John 1: 1-18

Sunday, Feast of the Holy Family:

• Sirach 3: 2-6, 12-14. Obedience and honor are due to one’s parents, patient consideration especially in their old age when their mind fails.
• Colossians 3:12-21. We are to clothe ourselves with patience, humility, kindness and especially forgiveness within our families.
• Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23. The Holy Family fled into Egypt but at the death of Herod the Great the settled in Nazareth. Matthew sees the fulfillment of many prophesies.

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

Saturday, Christmas:

The Mass celebrating Christmas offers us four different Scripture passage relating to the Christmas event throughout the day. The vigil will share with us the genealogy of Jesus. At the midnight Mass Luke will remind us of the historical birth of Jesus within the context of the Roman Empire. At the dawn Mass we will hear about the humble origins of Jesus’ birth through the interaction of Mary and the shepherds. Finally, during the day, we will hear from John about the cosmological aspect of Jesus birth as the Word that was made flesh.

Each story offers a different emphasis, but the focus is the same. Now, at Christmas, we celebrate the moment when God breaks into human history through the incarnation of God and humanity that is Jesus Christ. It is not enough for us to treat Jesus as a moral exemplar or a great teacher. Nor can Jesus be used to sow division and dissension within the human family. Jesus is the way through which all of humanity is reconciled with God. Through Jesus we are given a glimpse of our own human dignity. A special dignity we have as children of God but a dignity we can barely comprehend. So it is that through Jesus we see the full meaning of that dignity: a dignity that brings healing and compassion, s dignity that is measured in service to others, a dignity that challenges society’s self interest to its very core, a dignity that can ultimately defeat even death.   

 Matthew will describe the human origins of Jesus while John describes the divinity of Christ. But Luke will tell us how in the midst of the great Imperial reign of Augustus Caesar the birth of the incarnate one will take place in the humblest of places and be celebrated by the poor and the meek. Here in one of the greatest celebrations we have in the Christian Calendar and we are reminded of God’s own preferential option for the poor as a fitting place to intimately engage with humanity.           

Sunday, Feast of the Holy Family:

In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI dedicated the World Day of Peace message to “The Human Family, a Community of Peace.” In this message the Holy Father makes that point that the pursuit of Justice and Peace truly begins at home:

Indeed, in a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them. For this reason, the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace. – #3

The readings for this Sunday by Sirach and Paul declare the same position. The Epistle to the Colossians remind the early Christians to demonstrate the virtues of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” to their family and to one another. In the first two reading Paul and Sirach are both saying a message that is repeated by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2008 message, “Humanity is one great family.” We are called to be a living witness of these virtues to one and all but if we cannot demonstrate these virtues to our own actual family who we relate with on a daily basis how can we hope to live these virtues to our extended global family who we barely know.

The Holy Family becomes our model of living these virtues first and foremost within this most basic social unit that is the family. During the Feast of the Holy Family we are given three traumatic events in the history of the Holy Family where they had to exhibit these virtues of patience, humility and compassion in the midst of persecution and suffering. This year we are told about their flight into Egypt as a result of the persecution of Herod the Great. Here Joseph demonstrates humility and faith in God by uprooting his family and trusting in the Lord as they migrate to a foreign land. We get the sense that the family is patient and gentle to one another as they step into the unknown as migrants and settlers who are forced to leave their home.  Their social suffering does not end even after the death of Herod the Great but they work together as a strong unit that is ever faithful to God and each other and persevere as a model for society.

The Passionists have three parishes in Ensley. On the one hand these parishes serve as a spiritual center for the African American Catholic community. But on the other hand they also function to empower the community in creating needed services and programs that can stem the tide of poverty in this area.

Holy Family was the first Passionist parish that was established in 1938. As the parish evolved it gives the new Catholic community the liturgy and sacraments that are part of the universal church while also creating a worship community that celebrates their cultural richness. St. Mary’s was later established in 1943 and in a similar way they also give the local community the ability to integrate this unity of faith with the diversity of culture. The Parishoners of Holy Family saw education as ministry priority in their area. Education is rightfully considered the greatest tool to liberate a group from the endemic cycle of poverty. Holy Family parish began by offering elementary and later high school education. Also, when the main Birmingham hospital denied health services to the African American community, the Parish worked with the local community to create their own hospital to provide for the medical needs of Ensley. Now the High School has been transformed into a Cristo Rey School which is a top academic model for schools in the United States that target low-income communities. This past year, the parishioners of Holy Family have identified another educational issue. In addressing the lack of a high school education with the adult population the Holy Family parish along with Bevill State Community College has been offering Free GED classes at the parish hall.

St. Mary’s Parish uses their parish center as a base for Metro West Ministries. Metro West Ministries is a faith based organization in Western Jefferson County that provides material and spiritual assistance to people in need. These programs include:

• Operating a food bank that serves between 200 and 300 households per month. 
• Low income heat and energy assistance Program 
• Financial assistance to people who need help with rent and utility bills. 
• Summer day camp

Another community service that is used at St. Mary’s Parish center is the Family Action Network which provides struggling families with professional consultation and therapy to address a variety of stresses and living issues in order to achieve a higher quality of family life.

Here we have Fr. Alex Steinmiller offer a social analysis on the Birmigham experience and the contributions of the Cristo Rey High School.

Passionist Holy Family Cristo Rey High School from John Gonzalez on Vimeo.

One of the hot issues our Nation has to deal with at present is a comprehensive immigration reform. No doubt this is badly needed as our present system is truly broken and lends to all sorts of abuse to take place in the meantime.

I recall Mathew 25: 31-46, where we are told that when the Lord returns in glory, we will be separated as sheep and goats. The “sheep” will be welcomed into the Kingdom because of their compassion towards others in reaching out to their basic needs. Among other things we hear: “For I a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mat 25: 38) One of the reasons the non caring “goats” will be condemned is because “For I was a stranger and you gave me no welcome” (Mat.25:43)

Each of us will be held accountable one day before the Lord for the way we treated others and that includes our immigrants, legal or not.

The Holy Family themselves from the start, began their life together as immigrants in Egypt. I wonder how the Egyptians treated them? I doubt whether they were rounded up roughly and put in a prison with common criminals, nor was Jesus kept in Egypt while Mary and /or Joseph deported back to Israel separated from their son. Of course they were probably legally in that country, but illegal presence does not justify abusive behavior.

I wonder at times, what right we have to tell other countries to respect human rights when we can’t respect them ourselves.  We are like those trying to take a splinter out of someone’s eye while we have a beam in our own.

The Holy Family fled to Egypt as a way to survive. A good percentage of immigrants to the US have come for the same reason: to survive from hunger and poverty; the alternative would have been to populate the slums of their large cities. As the Bishops of the US said recently, the first principle of immigrants is to have the right to not to have to immigrate in the first place. No doubt then, the key problem to address is the causes of desperate immigration in the first place. Survival leads to desperate measures even illegal when the legal way does not solve the problem.

• Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14. Obedience and honor are due to one’s parents, patient consideration especially in their old age when their mind fails.
• Colossians 3:12-21. We are to clothe ourselves with patience, humility, kindness and especially forgiveness within our families.
• Luke 2:41-52. When the boy Jesus was found by Mary and Joseph in the temple, he relpied that he had to be in his Father’s house.

Thoughts for your consideration: by John Gonzalez

The lectionary reflections that are provided by our Passionist office of justice, peace and integrity of creation typically are based on our spirituality of social justice. For that reason many of these spiritual reflections are offered through the lens of our social concerns. With the readings for this weekend however it is appropriate to narrow the focus of our reflection to the family vs. the social unit. This weekend which immediately follows the solemnity of Christmas, our liturgy celebrates the feast of the Holy Family. The readings offer us instructions of essential virtues that are socially relevant but which are an important observance within the family dynamic. Two virtues that stand out in both Sirach and Colossians are patience and forgiveness. This week’s Gospel offer us an interesting demonstration of Patience that Jesus had to have with his own parents. This episode concludes with Jesus applying these virtues and experiencing their formative impact on himself in return.

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them… And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  

Our Church teaches us that the family unit has a prominent place within our community. Our family is considered the “First Church” for many of us since the initial development of our faith usually begins at home through the actions and instructions that are provided by our parents. Our family becomes the incubator from which we initially develop our sense of being. Our spiritual, personal and moral development has its origins within the interactions of our immediate and extended family. Catholic teaching tells us that the family is “the primary living cell of society.” Even in the realm of justice and peace the Church teaches us that the family experience becomes the source of our initial understanding of these social concepts:    

Indeed, in a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them. For this reason, the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.  – Pope Benedict XVI, The Human Family, A Community of Peace, #3

If we strive wholeheartedly towards the “bond of perfection” then our social attitudes must find their immediate application within the family. And yet this can be a very difficult challenge for many of us. Many times our parents, spouses or community members get the brunt of our own stress and frustration because we are closest to them. We are comfortable in their presence and so we sometimes lash out and make greater demands on them than we would with clients, customers or friends. Ironically we sometimes seem to exhibit less patience and forgiveness with them than with others. But the beauty of the family interaction is that this is the unit where we develop ourselves with the greatest sense of integrity, reflecting who we really are. With customers and clients we create an image of professionalism. Even in religious communities we may offer pastoral services but we still maintain a distant professionalism. This is not so with families. Our families know us more intimately so there are no professional airs to keep us distant. For this reason the call to patience and forgiveness within the family becomes a real challenge to truly engage in the acts of Christian humility and to refine our ability to develop authentic patience and forgiveness.

Peace and justice exist when we work with the human community to serve the common good that benefits us all. To do this we must have the patience to honor the experience and comprehend the needs we each have. We must also be able to forgive our brothers and sisters when we each fall into natural patterns of self interest and control. Of course in theory and in the realm of the head we may be able to express these social virtues. I have often said that I love and enjoy the theories of human dignity and rights while I find humanity itself quite frustrating and draining. Authentic peace and justice challenges people like me to move away from the head and to actualize in the heart the ability to be patient and forgiving with people so that together the common good can be truly served. If I cannot be patient and forgiving with my own family member what hope can I have in developing this authentic virtue with others? As our families continue to gather and celebrate let us be mindful of the call to imitate the Holy Family and to develop the virtues of patience and forgiveness with those closest to us.