Homilies, PNCC

Solemnity of the Christian Family – 2011

First reading: Genesis 1:26-28,31

Psalm: Ps 128:1-5
Epistle: 
Ephesians 6:1-9

Gospel: Luke 2:42-52

Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women,
knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord.

The gown:

Susan McCanna first wore it in 1894. This year, Liliana Grace Perella was the fortieth person to wear it. It is a lace Christening gown.

We could look on that gown as something old. We could admire the lace and the intricacy of it’s design. But it is more than what we see.

For nearly 120 years, this gown, passed from family member to family member, has connected generations. The gown is a window, a doorway into the life of a family. It is symbolic of a family relationship that spans generations, and the presence of God in that family. It is iconic.

What we see:

Pay close attention to St. Paul’s words. Give service to the Lord and not to men and women. Paul was speaking to Christians who were slaves.

Paul knew that slaves were obligated to serve their masters. They were bound to do as they were told. Whether it was service at table, cooking, cleaning, field work — it didn’t matter. He knew that slaves were programmed to serve and to please.

Serving a good or cruel master, light or heavy work, the slave knew that paying attention to their master’s needs, focusing on them, doing what they were told, was their duty.

Paul tells them to stop thinking that way, but rather to think that every act of service was to Jesus, to the Lord. He tells them that there is something more. They were to see their service as service to God. Paul is telling all Christians that they have to see a different reality. Life is more than than the obvious. Life is iconic.

Definitions:

When you hear the word icon, do you think of the little pictures on your computer desktop? Do you think of gloriously beautiful artwork in churches?

Those are definitions from the dictionary. Icon — a picture that represents something else. In church it may be Jesus, Mary, angels, saints, or the cross. On our computer, it may be the way we get to our word processor, to the Internet, to our email application.

Like the Christening gown, like Paul’s instruction to the slaves, the way we define icon is just a shadow of the true meaning. We need to get beyond the dictionary or computerese definition of icon. We need to see beyond what we see.

True meaning:

For the Church, an icon is not just a picture, it is reality.

The Church teaches that the praise and veneration we show an icon passes over to the holy thing or person it represents. The thing we see is not just seen, but is real. If we kiss an icon of Christ, we are kissing Christ, we show him our love. The icon is not mere wood and paint, something physical, it is a place of meeting.

It is actually offensive to worship the icon as something separate from what it is in reality. It is not a mere physical object. Thus, people should not collect icons as art or treat them in a way that is not holy.

If you have an icon in your house, it is the presence of the holy person or thing it portrays. Jesus, Mary, the saint, angel, cross, are alive and really there with you. If you enter an Orthodox Christian’s home, you will likely see an icon corner with one or more icons, candles lit, perhaps incense burning, and a bible or prayer book. They set aside a space in their house because the icon brings holiness to the house.

The real presence of the holy, the saint, the angels, of Mary, of Jesus we see portrayed in an icon is at once a window and a doorway to the holy thing portrayed. We meet the holy in that doorway and we enter into a relationship.

The icon is beyond the eyes, beyond the seen. It is our connectedness to God’s holiness, like the Christening gown, and Paul’s instructions on service, all are ways we meet and connect to God’s holiness.

Reality:

Our nature is iconic. We are in key relationships, and every aspect of our relationships must have the character of an icon.

Paul was asking Christians to see true reality. For the slaves of Paul’s time, their masters were icons of Christ. By serving them, they were seeing and serving Jesus. For the McCenna family, the Christening gown is a key icon defining their family relationship with Jesus.

We need to break out of our one-sided, definitional view of reality. We need to see clearly — the iconic nature of our lives in our relationship with God.

Whatever we do, whatever we see, we must first and foremost see ourselves as part of a real and present relationship with God. God is not apart and separate from us, on some different plane, in a far off heaven, but God right here, right now.

Family:

Paul often wrote about the body of Christ. Christ is alive in the holy communion of community. Jesus wants us to live in relationship.

Family is the key icon of relationship. If we see family as just a bunch of folks who share genetic traits, who might look somewhat the same, who may live in the same house — if we stop at what we see, we’ve missed the point. If we see family as just a definition, we’ve missed the point.

Family, people joined together, are the icon of God’s reality in the world. Family points to the way God lives.

Today:

Today our Holy Polish National Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Christian Family. Today we venerate the family as the icon of Christ.

How we relate to each other in family must be first and foremost grounded in the reality of what family is; its iconic nature.

The iconic nature McCenna family shows us that family is eternal, more than what we see in front of us. It is generations of family all interconnected. Whether living with us on earth or in the heavenly kingdom, we remain together, joined in love.

Our family relationships need to be seen for what they are. As icons of God’s love, we need to praise and venerate family. As icons of meeting God, we need to live holy lives as family. Our homes must be filled with holiness, and must be the doorway where young and old get to know Jesus. Our families must bring holiness to the world.

As family, we are more than a dictionary definition. As icons, we are the true presence and work of God in the world.

Our families are icons to the world. In the icon of family, friends, neighbors, and community we see, meet, and enter into a relationship with God. Family is the doorway, the window to the heavenly, the holy.

With love, respect, prayer, and worship we proclaim and venerate God as family. Husbands, wives, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins — all of us as family — all of us as an icon of God. Amen.