Holiness does not consist in being perfect.
Rather, holiness is a path, to be chosen, a path which leads to God,
a path we need to strive to walk faithfully,
even though we may fail along the way.
When it comes to personal holiness or a family’s holiness,
we might be tempted to think that “one size should fit all.”
I hope our own experience of ourselves, of others, of other families
might show us what I’m sure God knows,
that every family has its own size and fit when it comes to holiness.
THE Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
certainly didn’t fit the customary pattern:
a virgin mother, a foster father, a 12-year-old son who runs away,
convinced that he must preach God’s word in the temple in Jerusalem.
And THEY are the holiest of all holy families!
Each of these three strove, faithfully,
to be what God's love asked of them.
Not because we are all that holy
but because we seek to walk the holy path to God,
the Lord invites us, our church family, to his table this morning
and we come here, as a parish, with all the gifts and graces,
the beauty and brokenness,
the generosity and greed, the sacrifice and selfishness,
the hopes and the hurts that mark every family.
May the sacrament we receive here
renew our desire in the New Year ahead
to walk that path that leads each of us,
our families
and all of us
to the holiness of God.
