Any of you who have a sister or brother
Know about sibling rivalry.
Every family with siblings growing up together
Has some sort of sibling rivalry
That they have to deal with.

Going back to Thanksgiving,
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my brother’s home.
It was wonderful.
One of the best we’ve had—probably 30 people there.
We went home and went to bed, and the next morning
I woke up to a text message from my sister Barb.

Barb and I have always had a bit of sibling rivalry, truly.
And she wrote me this one sentence,
This one text message:
“Know that I love you very much.”

So I texted back to her and said,
“Barb, I think you sent this to the wrong person.”
And she wrote me back and said,
“No, I sent it to you.”

I haven’t forgotten that.
It was just wonderful.

You know, I was thinking about my family.
Think about your family.
Think about the Holy Family.
Every family has its ups and downs.

There are wonderful moments to celebrate,
The difficult moments when they hold each other up and together,
And the difficult moments when there might be
Disagreement and argument.
That’s just the nature of family.

Every family has had challenges.
And in the Gospel today, we hear about the Holy Family—
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

They too had incredible challenges
Early in the Child’s life,
His life being threatened by Herod,
Who wanted to put the Child to death.

Then the Angel appears—
An Angel is always a messenger of God—
Appears to Joseph in a dream.
He says,
“You’ve got to get the Child out of here.
You’ve got to get Him to a safe place.”

So Joseph, being obedient, listening—
That’s what the word obedient means—

Listening to the warning of the Angel, takes the Child and Mary
And they flee to Egypt for the Child’s protection.
As I say, every family has its challenges.
Every family has its ups and downs.

But what creates family, what holds family together,
Is the ability to truly listen to one another,
To be present to one another,
To acknowledge the needs of the other within the family,
And then to support one another.

To support one another is family,
And how important that is.

We live in a time and in a society
Where family life is questioned
And it’s challenged often enough.
Life is difficult for everyone.
Life can be difficult for every family.

What holds the family together
Is the bond of Charity, the bond of Love,
The bond of being grateful for one another.

Think about your own family today and let us
Be instruments of God’s Peace in the world
To enhance and to make better this world in which we live.
That is how the Kingdom of God is brought about slowly,
In God’s time, and through our good efforts.