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Our Lady - Star of the Sea |
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Homily for Holy Family Sunday, Year A, 2010
The story of Holy Family fleeing to Egypt makes
me reflect on my own
family experiences. Nineteen years ago, my
family was called to an
interview with American people in Saigon in
order to go to the United
States. I remember, two weeks before the
interview, my dad told his
children that we have two weeks to think about
either staying in
Vietnam or leaving with them to the U. S. He
gave us a freedom to
decide our future because we were all over
eighteen years of age. My
family was on the edge of division because some
of my younger sisters
and brother did not want to leave. They did not
want to leave their
friends. After weeks of praying and discussing
with each other, we
decided to leave Vietnam together. I thank God
for the unity in my
family. We left Vietnam without any plan for our
future. However, we
trust in God’s providence for our future.
St. Matthew did not tell us how the Holy
Family dealt with all kind
of problems of language and culture shock in the
foreign country. When
we first came to Oregon, I attended Portland
Community College. A
group of Vietnamese used to chat about culture
shock in the United
States. A friend shared with us that the
communication within his
family was changed dramatically. He said: he and
his mom could not see
each other and talk during a week any more. His
mom left home for work
from 5 am, so when he got up, his mom was gone
already. He stayed in
school till 10 pm every weekdays, so when he
went home, his mom was on
bed already. One morning, he got up and found a
note on his door. The
note said: “Dear son, I don’t see you the
whole week.” It was a shock
for him. They lived in the same house, but could
not see each other.
We all shared the same experience with him; in
America it is hard to
have dinner together every day.
Through my observations and reflections about
family values, I think a
healthy Catholic family should have God as their
center. When we pray
together, go to Church together, our family bond
is strengthened. We
used to think that cultures and family
traditions can bring a family
together, but cultures and traditions may be
changed over time. So I
think only faith should be the main cause for a
family to stay
together. When we keep the same faith, although
our children live far
away from us, we still have some connection; for
examples: we can
still remember each other in our prayers.
Dear friends, staying together as a
family is very important in our
time. When the secular society tries to destroy
family unity, we, as
Catholics, must stand for it. The first reading
and the second reading
remind us that our family cannot survive if each
of us do not practice
virtues like: compassion, kindness, humility,
obedience, gentleness,
patience and forgiveness. Generally, we have to
do everything we can
to keep our family together. We should include
everyone, and exclude
no one from our family.
Remember that we all have a bigger family
outside our biological
family that is our church family. We also have a
responsibility for
it. We still have to keep God’s commandments
and the Church’s laws.
Dear friends, today let us refresh our
relationship with our own
family and our church family again. Let us
reconcile to each other and
find our trust in each other again. Let us
support each other more. If
we can do these things, our family will
certainly go through all the
challenges in our time. May all of us can see
Holy Family as a model
for our faith. Amen.
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