Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B

‘What’s occurring?’ If you’re a Gavin and Stacey fan you’ll know where that catchphrase comes from, and you will no doubt be looking forward to the Third Series. The series hasn’t been written yet, but Ruth Jones (who plays Nessa in the series) and her co-writer James Cordon are soon to sit down and get the scripts on paper. Speaking at the Royal Court's Young Writers Festival she said the pressure is on but the scripts should be finished by the end of March. She also talked about what it feels like to write. 'With acting you are a little bit protected,' she said, 'you have other actors with you, as well as the writer and the director. But when you've written something it's such a fragile and lonely process. You are never quite sure how it's going to be perceived.’ She refused to give any hints as to what happens to the characters but she said, ‘We've always known how it's going to end, it's a good thing to know where you're heading to.’

That’s not bad advice for life, really, is it? And it’s not bad advice for us in our Christian discipleship: to have some kind of direction in life, to know where we’re heading. That’s not to say that we won’t experience unexpected events or circumstances, or that we won’t get confused along the way, that we won’t feel fragile or lonely at times, or worry about how we are perceived by others. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be willing to be led in certain directions if that is where God is leading us. But ultimately our direction is or should be towards God. (Sometimes, of course, we veer away from God: it’s so easily done and before we know it we can find ourselves a little lost and off track and far away from God. But Jesus never abandons us, and it’s never too late to get back on track, to look to where we are heading).

I love the image in the gospel reading of Jesus taking those followers home to where he lives. They are searching and seeking for the Messiah, they have been waiting for him, and now they think they have found him. And so they go out to see. They follow Jesus, and Jesus (aware that they are following him) turns around and asks them, ‘What do you want?’ (Maybe Nessa would have another turn of phrase: ‘What’s occurring?’) ‘Rabbi, where do you live?’ they ask. It doesn’t actually answer his question. Or does it? They haven’t directly said what they want, but they obviously want to know more about Jesus: they want to know where he lives. Maybe they are waiting for an invitation. Maybe they are too timid or fragile or scared to ask directly, ‘Can we spend more time with you? Can we talk with you? Can we be with you? Can we follow you? Can we come home with you?’ Jesus answers them, ‘Come and see.’ It’s an invitation for them to come and see for themselves. And so they go home with him. They spend the rest of the day with him at home with Jesus.

Apart from being extremely funny, Gavin and Stacey is about relationships, it’s about falling in love and being in love, it’s about the ups and downs of life, of being together and trying to find your way through it all. The Gospel reading today is quite obviously about discipleship, about following. But discipleship is also about a relationship: it’s about wanting to be with Jesus, to be where Jesus is, to live as Jesus wants us to live, to love as Jesus loves us. When we follow Jesus there is (or should be) a sense of feeling at home, of being at home with Jesus. Yes, there is and always will (and always should) be a sense of awe and wonder (as in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Mrs Beaver says about Aslan the Lion ‘If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.’) But there’s also an intimacy, a closeness, an intimate friendship. In the first reading, Samuel is called whilst he is lying down, trying to get some sleep. It’s a very homely image, a nice domestic scene. The voice he hears is so intimate, so close, so familiar, that he thinks it is Eli calling him in the night. It is, of course, God.

We too are called to be close and intimate with Jesus, called to have a warmth about our faith, called to be be and feel at home with Jesus. It doesn’t mean being over familiar, or flippant or casual. Perhaps we could call it having an intimate or familiar holiness. Here in this Eucharist we are gathered around the table of the Lord. How intimate is that? But more than that, he gives himself as food and drink. Henri Nouwen said, ‘The Eucharist is the most ordinary and divine gesture imaginable.’ And I think I read somewhere that Mother Teresa once said of receiving communion, ‘I’m not sure which is the case: that I receive Jesus in communion, or he receives me.’ It is, of course, both. Through sacrament and prayer, through reading the Bible, through discovering Jesus at home and in every part of our lives, we really can and should feel at home with Jesus. And, of course, be able to take Jesus home with us!

Readings: 1 Samuel 3:3-10.9; 1 Corinthians 6:13-15. 17-20; John 1:35-42

The homily illustration 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