05 October 2024 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends, 

Our Readings today invites us to take a look deeply on our human relationship. And going through the Readings of today, the theme of ‘Family‘ comes vividly and comes strongly, the First Reading, the Second Reading and also the Gospel.

And as we look at this Sunday’s Reading and take a step back a week before where we had our Pastoral Assembly, where we wanted to deepen our reflection on ‘inclusivity, care and unity‘, and a particular focus on ‘Family‘, it makes us realise of the importance and the centrality of family in any community and in our lives.

Family is a foundation of human relationship and we find it as a reflection of God’s love. And that is our basis.

And Family, dear friends, is the first experience of love where we encounter one another, where we are loved and when we love.

And Family is a place of forgiveness.

Family is also a place that we grow in our awareness of community and those around us.

And within the Family, dear friends, we learn how and what it means to love others and to love others as Christ loved. 

So these puts us as a basis of any family relationship. And you and I, dear friends, are called to participate in this life, participate in this reflection of God’s love towards one another, especially in our families.

And last week’s Conversation of the Spirit where we gathered together to reflect, many things were highlighted especially areas that we need to work on.

We came to understand a lack of respect, a lack of communication, a lack of humility, betrayal, anger, jealousy and many, many others. These reflections that we ponder upon gives us new insight of how we have lost the focus on Jesus and how we have lost that sense of relationship that we have with one another.

And that whole journey, dear friends, made us also realise that our families are not perfect. Our families are limited in many ways but we are called to nurture one another in love and in faith, in and through our families.

And like Mary, Joseph and Jesus, we too have our own struggles, have our own challenges, have our own obstacles in life that we need to confront with. But we can learn from the Holy Family. They put their faith and their trust in God’s plan and their love for one another carried them through as a family.

And the Fathers of the church in Vatican 2 says the family is a domestic church, a church which builds itself with love.

And parents become the first educators of faith towards their children. And this is where, dear friends, family becomes a place where we transmit faith, where we grow in faith, and we also embrace faith.

In our homes too we can reflect in small, small little ways because it is a domestic church, how love can be exercised in the way we care for one another, in the way we reach out for one another and the way we listen to one another.

And these small acts of listening, of forgiving, of respect, of patience makes us mirror God’s love towards one another.

So it gives us, dear friends, a deep realisation of the importance of family, the importance of how we need to allow our families to grow in faith, in love, to be that reflection of God’s love, not only to one another within the family but also to people around us. Because if we focus on our families, we focus on our community, the community becomes an extension of our family.

And when we are able to transform, mould and shape our families more and more into the image of God’s love, then we become a transforming power or agent of change in the world.

And family, dear friends, is also a place where we serve. We serve one another because of our love for one another.

And today as we look at all these young people who will be renewing their commitment to serve at the altar, it also must remind us that family is also a place where we serve. Serve not only because it is a privileged position but because of the love that we have for one another.

So I hope and I pray that all our altar servers may continue to have that kind of commitment, that kind of love for the community as they serve at the altar. Because what they do at the altar is also a service to the community in how they are showing their love for you. 

And you too, dear friends, as parents, as you encourage your children to serve in the various church ministries, they too become agents of hope, agents of love and agents of mercy.

But we know, dear friends, in every family, in every ministry, in every community, we face challenges. But how do we confront those challenges as a family?

Because these challenges that we face in our current situation are full of expectations, are full of conflict, full of division and yet we see all around us, especially with wars all around the world, that somehow or rather that lack of trust, that division, that lack of unity, the lack of peace has made them become more and more divided than becoming united.

Yet we find, dear friends, family as a place of refuge, a place of support, a place of strength. And we need to ask ourselves how is our family, how is our community a place of strength, a place of support and a place of refuge for not only us but for everyone?

And one of the ways that we can rebuild, renew and restore families is that gift of forgiveness and the gift of unity. Because these are the greatest gift that we are bestowed upon in the family. When we are confronted with challenges, when we are confronted with divisions, when we are confronted with disagreement and disunity, we must forgive.

We must allow forgiveness to heal our wounds.
We must allow forgiveness to restore our relationship.
And we must allow forgiveness to foster a deeper unity among us in our families.

So let us pray, dear friends, that as we embark on this journey as church, to focus our attention on families as we move forward. Let us pray that we as a community may grow in our strength as individuals, as families, as we try and restore our families, our community with patience, with kindness, with forgiveness and love.

And ultimately, as we embark ourselves as we grow in inclusivity, care and unity, let us pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that each one of us may play our part to become reflections of God’s amazing love to one another.

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