{"id":36,"date":"2006-12-28T06:15:48","date_gmt":"2006-12-28T13:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2008-07-21T06:31:29","modified_gmt":"2008-07-21T13:31:29","slug":"obedience-in-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Obedience in Families"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 31, 2006<\/o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

Feast of Holy Family<\/o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

Sirach 3: 2-6; 12-14; 1 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24; Luke 2: 41-52<\/o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

They just got up and left.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>The whole family of 5 walked out halfway through the film \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Nativity Story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>I can only speculate why; maybe it was an emergency.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>But I saw cell phones in use.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>And I suspect that too much was going on in the world around them and there just wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough action and excitement in the film to capture their interest and attention.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>So they left.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span>What a shame.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Because that film captures the true spirit of Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>It teaches us to rejoice over the coming of our savior.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>It dramatizes the story of the Holy Family and Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incarnation- the reason for the season.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>It shows how Mary and Joseph accepted God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will for them; how they formed the Holy Family; and how Jesus became man and dwelt among us.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Imagine how much God must love us to have done that- to have his son take on the limits of human nature.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Now, as we learned in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gospel, Jesus lived in the Holy Family through childhood and adolescence and He was obedient to his parents.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>St John<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> tells us we will receive whatever we ask if we believe in God and keep his commandments.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>For young Jesus, to keep God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commandments meant to honor his parents and to be obedient to them- just as Sirach described the family roles in the first reading.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

In fact, obedience is a key ingredient of Faith.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>We show how much we believe by being obedient to God.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Because Jesus was obedient to his parents as a child, that obedience helped him to be obedient to God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will as an adult.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>You see, like any other human being, Jesus learned how to behave through his family environment.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>He learned from his parents, Mary and Joseph.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>He learned all the things that kids learn- how to eat, talk, walk, read, and write.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>He also learned to pray, reflect, think, do a task- everything.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Nobody can learn those things in a vacuum.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>We all need a family- however you may wish to define it- to learn them.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>And the parenting Mary and Joseph did is a credit to them.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>It was essential in helping to form Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Then, at some point in his life, Jesus used the learning he received from his Parents to put it all together- to realize who he was, and to seek out and be obedient to God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will for him.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

You see, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153obedience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not something that disappears when we become adults.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>On the contrary, it is even more important to be obedient as an adult than when we were children.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 obedience to the Father meant that He had to suffer and die on the cross.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Likewise, all of us have to accept God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will for us- whatever that is.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>That will always involve a certain amount of suffering and dying.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Each of us must take up his or her cross and walk with it.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>And during our life time, we are called to stick it out, to be obedient through the whole process along our way of the cross.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Usually, that means loving one another, loving our parents, children, spouses, and friends along the way- loving them when they are sad, sick, frustrated, and helpless; just as we hope and expect that they will love us in the same circumstances.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>But we can always do our part- love them.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

John tells us why.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>We are children of God now; but, if our hearts do not condemn us- and they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t if we are obedient, then we will receive whatever we ask.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>And what we all want, is to see God as he is in life everlasting.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 31, 2006 Feast of Holy Family Sirach 3: 2-6; 12-14; 1 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24; Luke 2: 41-52 Dc. Larry Brockman \u00c2\u00a0 They just got up and left.\u00c2\u00a0 The whole family of 5 walked out halfway through the film \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Nativity Story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 I can only speculate why; maybe it was an emergency.\u00c2\u00a0 But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}