Holy Family--being mindful of love

The Birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God as a human, reveals true power!

Power is love.

Power, love, is the capacity and the desire to do good for others, and also the action of doing good for others.

God gave of God’s very self to become human.

Jesus Christ gave of his very self to forgive, to heal, to welcome.

The Son of God gave of his very self to die on the cross.

The Father raised him up, not to lord it over us, but to show us Love.  The Father forgives us; for our own good.

How mindful are we of this love?

This Way of Power and Love that Jesus reveals and calls us to, is the way of that brings true joy into our world, and into our lives.

This way of power and love of Jesus brings reconciliation and peace between people and communities.

This way of power and love can bring to us freedom from so much that causes suffering in our lives.

How mindful are we of this?

See, I think this feast of Christmas and this feast of the Holy Family makes us reflect on how mindful, how aware we are in our own minds, hearts and actions, of love; and how much more we can be.

All of our readings make reference to seeing beyond ourselves, to helping others, and the root of this occurs within a family.

Families teach us, or fail to teach us, of the power of love.

Strong families create mindfulness towards the needs of others; which spills beyond the home out into the world.

I think this is the wisdom that Joseph and Mary gave to Jesus as he grew in their household.

Children will see parents giving of themselves for each other, and learn from that.

Children will see parents helping others within the community, and learn from that.

Children need to see us adults forgiving one another, seeing us deal with the anger that we have in constructive ways.

Otherwise, we condemn them to joyless, self-centered, egotistical lives; which seems way to prevalent already.

This means we adults, we need to be more mindful of just how much (or little) love actually forms part of our lives.

I love that image in our Gospel of Simeon.  It says the Holy Spirit was upon him.  The Holy Spirit is the love of God, so Simeon must have been always aware, always mindful of love about him.  This is what drew him to the Family.

Note, it doesn’t make him a feel-good, naive man.  He knows that the Christ and his way of true power and love will cause division.  

He knows very well the ego at the human heart, and people will resist.  

Yet, he trusts in God.

How mindful are we of love?

I have met people who come to church all the time, pray in quiet before mass, receive communion, and yet the words that came out of their mouths towards others…  shocking.  Lacking love towards others, full of venom and spite.

And I have met people, always willing to give of themselves.  They help out whenever asked.

They do not respond to hurts with more hurt, but they work through their anger, and forgive.

I have met husbands and wives, good people, who spend the time with their kids; listening and playing, even though they are tired; and who also make a point of showing their kids how to help others.  That is power.

I’ve seen young adults willing to act silly for their nieces and nephews, willing to bring happiness to them.

I know people always willing to plan their plans aside whenever a friend calls in need.

See it’s not about huge grand gestures, but often the little sacrifices we can give for others.  That is true power.

How mindful are we of love?

Eucharist and our whole Sunday experience, ideally, makes us mindful of Christ and of what true power and love are about.

We celebrate and remember that God gave of God’s self, made a sacrifice, for our sake.

Sunday, a day of sabbath, means that we re-forge our bonds, not just of family, but also of community. We stop and be mindful of how much, and how little love is part of our lives.

Everyday we pray, we pause and reflect on God, God’s love and we open ourselves to a different way of thinking and a different way of acting...and we let ourselves be changed.

There is this wonderful tale.  A grandmother and her granddaughter were walking along the ocean after a big storm.  They saw thousands of starfish laying on the beach, stranded.  The little girl asks her grandmother:  “Where did these come from?”  The Grandmother replies: ”From the ocean, that is where they live.”

“What will happen to them on the beach?”   “They will die.” Says the grandmother.

The little girl runs and starts to pick up the starfish and throw them back into the ocean.  The Grandmother becomes a angry, because she doesn't see the point, so many starfish.  She calls out to her granddaughter:  “Stop, what are you doing?  It won’t make any difference!”

The granddaughter stops, holding a starfish in her hand:  “It will make the difference to this one.”

How mindful are we of love?