Monday in Holy Week

You may have seen it. Five contestants, who have never met one another, take it in turns to host a dinner party on five consecutive nights. They are competing for one thousand pounds, the winner determined by a series of anonymous scores given by the other contestants who have been entertained. On the final day, the winner is announced. The dinner party contestants are probably carefully chosen, thrown together by the producers, to create a bizarre and interesting mix of personalities to provide us with entertainment. The commentator is probably the most entertaining part of the show: casting snide remarks and comments about the food and the final outcome. Yes, this is Come Dine With Me: another Reality TV programme.

In the gospel reading, Jesus has been invited to dinner. Mary, Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, have invited Jesus to ‘come dine’ with them. There is an interesting mix of personalities (Jesus, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Judas Iscariot – amongst many other disciples – and even towards the end of the dinner party a large number of Jews who, on hearing that Jesus is being entertained, gatecrash the party. In time honoured fashion, as you may expect from such a dinner party, there are some strange goings on! This dinner party isn’t all it seems to be on the surface.

During dinner, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with expensive perfume, and wipes them with her hair. This disjointed, deranged gesture is rather disturbing for those who are left to look on. There is surprise and disgust as the aroma fills the room. ‘What a waste! This money could have been used for the poor.’ Jesus responds to the Fagin-like musings of Judas Iscariot and takes the conversation to another level. He expresses what Mary meant in offering such a mad and carefree gesture: she is, says Jesus, preparing him for his burial. Suddenly, the dinner party atmosphere is disturbed. The smell of death fills the room.

Jesus, it seems, had been the life and soul of the party, a welcome guest, a longed for guest. Alongside him at table is Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead: a living sign of Jesus’ power to overcome death and bring life to the darkest and most deathly of situations. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more joyful. And now, suddenly, there is talk, not of life, but of dying and death and burial. Things are yet more sinister. The Chief Priests have death on their breath. They are determined to kill not only Jesus but also this Lazarus figure in whom so many people are interested and whose raising from the dead was causing too many people to follow Jesus. This just will not do. The smell of death fills the room.

There is controversy and danger, there is misunderstanding and intrigue, there is plotting and planning for death. At this Eucharist, Jesus invites us to come and dine with him. Expect to be comforted and cherished, expect to feel at home, expect to be able to get your feet under the table, and to be fed with finest food. But expect, too, to be disturbed and challenged and moved beyond all telling, as the death of Jesus is proclaimed. And yet there is more than just death here. Jesus takes the conversation to another level. He fills the air with sweetness. In all this talk of death there is confidence and trust in God. As the psalm today declares: ‘I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Hope in him, hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord!’ So, let the aroma of Jesus fill this place, as we move closer to the cross, preparing to celebrate Christ’s death and glorious resurrection. Here we dine with the Lord, here we proclaim his death and resurrection, here we are comforted and challenged. There are, as the gospel reading reminds us, six days before the Passover. So, eat up! There is much to do and a long way to travel. You’ll need all the strength you can get.

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