Tuesday in Holy Week

The job of bringing joy to the world is up for grabs as a newly-formed charity seeks a Director of Happiness. The successful applicant to the Movement for Happiness must have a vision of society in which people are motivated by more than just money - although, to be on the safe side, the job is ironically offering a salary of £80,000 a year.

In the Gospel reading today, Judas Iscariot seems to be motivated by money. After all, the thirty pieces of silver, which he was promised by the Chief Priests, has become a common and well known image of the cost of betrayal. Even as he leaves the gathering and slips through the door and is embraced by the darkness the other disciples think that Judas’ exit is motivated by money – or rather to use his position as treasurer of the common fund to buy all that was needed to be bought for the festival. Judas the Happy Shopper? Shopping is far from his mind.

And yet who really knows the motives of Judas? Many people have speculated about what was going through his mind, what the driving force was to his betraying Jesus. What we do know is that, ever since, his name has become synonymous with betrayal and treason. ‘It would have been better,’ said Jesus in another gospel account, ‘that he had never been born.’ Happiness escapes Iscariot.

And yet we can’t exactly say that there is a sense of happiness and joy in the room as Jesus settles down for the night with his apostles. There is much confusion and misunderstanding. Even Simon Peter receives some harsh words from Jesus. His confidence is quashed in one quick prophecy: ‘Before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.’ No one seems to be certain of themselves. No one feels really settled. Happiness seems to be slipping away from them. Even Jesus is talking about going away to a place where they cannot follow. There is something in the air. Meanwhile Judas Iscariot is about his business.

There is much about this Holy Week that does not, cannot, fill us with happiness. Yet, all of the experiences of these holy days express so much of where we are in life at times. We are often misguided, misled, misunderstood or miss the point altogether. We are unsettled, uncertain, unsure. Sometimes we seek happiness and it evades us, or we look for happiness in things that do not bring happiness at all. True happiness for us comes in accepting God's will, no matter what we have to endure. As the psalm says todays: the Lord is our refuge and strength. He is our rock and stronghold. This Eucharist then is our happy meal! Macdonalds has nothing on us!

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

I’m not certain how politically correct it is, in this day and age, to refer to Housweives but in a recent survey it emerged that Housewives would be paid more than the average worker if they received the going rate for their household chores. A poll of 4,000 housewives for a networking website (alljoinon.com) suggested that the average mum worked for nearly nine hours a day every day. The website said a housewife would earn almost £30,000 a year if she was employed to do all the same errands. The average annual UK wage is £23,700, according to official figures. Some 71% of those polled agreed that successfully running the family home was a full-time job.

Certainly family life has changed in the last few decades: roles have been changed, some households are one-parent families, in others the wife is the main earner, in others - jobs are equally shared. Today, as we celebrate and bless God for Mary it’s worth thinking about how much she is worth. Not what she is worth in terms of an imagined salary for her household chores -but what she succeeded in doing, and how we have benefited from what she has done. It is through Mary’s response to God that Jesus comes into the world.

Would Mary have looked upon what she was doing as a chore? I imagine there were some things that she found confusing or difficult, some things that were hard work or demanding. I imagine that running the family home would, at times, have a rather bizarre touch to it. But Mary had accepted God’s way for her life. The household of which she is a part, is a household that is centred on God. In the gospel reading we see, just after the birth, those strange shepherd visitors who arrived at the door of the stable and who come to see her child. Everyone who heard what they had to say are astonished. But Mary treasures all these things and ponders them in her heart. She holds them dear. There is, in Mary’s life, a treasure beyond all imagining. Her worth comes not from some imagined salary or the hours of work she puts in, but from God who has filled her with grace and invited her to participate in his plans for the world. So we Hail Mary, generation after generation, we call her blessed, for in giving her life over to God, God gives Jesus to us.

Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

The illustration for the homily may be found here

Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

It seems a rather blighted privilege for children to be born on Christmas Day because their birthday celebrations get swallowed up by Christmas! However, it's not all bad as many children who have a Christmas Day birthday have a second birthday maybe half way through the year. A bit like the Queen! However, parents, at the time of the birth, always seem pleased when their child is born on Christmas Day because it makes the event even more special and significant. And that’s exactly what has happened to one Peruvian Family, except there are even more significant features. The woman’s name, chosen by her grandfather who was devoted to the Virgin Mary, is Virgen Maria. She is married to a carpenter (not Joseph but Adolfo Jorge Huaman) and they have named their son Jesus Emanuel. Twenty-year-old Virgen Maria had not been due to give birth on Thursday, but went into labour early and underwent a Caesarean operation. Her husband said that they had been planning to name their son after a football player. "But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up," he said. Baby Jesus was born at 2.20 in the morning on 25 December in Lima and weighed 3.32kg. His mother said: "I am so happy to give birth on such a special date. I didn't think that my baby was going to be born today and now that I have him in my arms I am very happy."

Today we celebrate the Holy Family of Nazareth, a model family for all who follow the Lord. But how do you get to be like the Holy Family? What’s significant about them? What makes them holy? How should we follow their example? Well, as important as names are, it’s not about having the same names, that’s for certain. And neither is it about trying to replicate the specific circumstances of their life, by being born on Christmas Day, having a father who is a carpenter, or fleeing the country as refugees! Because the significant feature of the Holy Family is that Jesus is at the heart of all that they do. That’s what makes them the Holy Family. They are willing to do as God wants them to do, to live as God wants them to live.

Children completely transform a family. Suddenly your focus is not so much on each other but on the child that is now in your midst and who demands all the time and energy and attention that you have. Having a child changes your life and transforms the way you live. No longer can you live for yourselves only but you now live for the child. It is a great responsibility. Our Faith in Christ is no different. Christ, as comforting as he is and as wonderful as it is to know him and love him, will also completely disrupt our lives, because no longer do we live for ourselves, we live for Christ. He demands attention, he requires us to be focused on him.

Most children will be, in some way, influenced by their parents and learn from their parents and become like their parents. Some people, as they grow older, may even be aghast that they are turning into their mother or father! For the Holy Family there is something different going on. Yes, Jesus has received his genes and physical characteristics from Mary… and it’s in that household and within that family that Jesus grows to maturity, where he is filled with wisdom and where God’s favour rests on him but they are not seeing their son growing to be more like them, but they are slowly becoming more like their son, they are becoming more Christ like. And it is the same for us.

And neither is the Holy Family a model just for families, or for people who are married and have children. This is about relationships, this is about how we live, this is about how we relate to one another, this is about the effect we have on one another. Biological families not only share genetic characteristics and appearances, they also share values and behaviour, it’s where children (we hope) learn right from wrong, where they learn how to speak as they are spoken to, where they learn good manners or bad manners, where they learn how to grow and grow up to be mature individuals. How we relate to one another, how we treat others, has an effect on how others live. If we treat people with love, then they will know what love is, and their lives will be transformed.

In the first two readings we see how faith transforms a family, how the important thing is to do what God wants, to live as God wants. So, to be like the holy family we don’t need to be married or have children, we don’t need to have any blood relatives still alive, we don’t need to be ‘in a relationship’ or ‘have someone special.’ We must remember that there are lots of different ways of life. What is important is to have faith in God, and to allow Christ to be present in our lives and in all of our relationships, to allow Christ to come between us, and to live as God wants us to live.

There is a lovely intimacy to today’s feast, an intimacy that shouldn’t become over sentimental – because we know how difficult and challenging family life can be. We are called to take Christ home, to know him and love him in every part of our lives, to give him our attention and love, to become more like him, to allow him to transform us, and through the way we live and relate to others, to transform the world.

Readings: Genesis 15:1-6. 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:8.11-12. 17-19; Luke 2:22-40
The illustration for the homily may be found here