>>There’s a story about four brothers and sisters named everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody.

There was an important job to be done, so the parents asked everybody to do it. Everybody was sure that somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was everybody’s job. Everybody thought that anybody could do it and nobody realized that everbody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that everybody blamed somebody, when actually nobody blamed anybody.

Does this sound familiar to anybody?

[laughter]

I like that one.

[more laughter]

Today we celebrate the feast of the holy family.

As a child and teen a great deal of my life and the life of my family was spent around our kitchen table in park ridge. It was around the table that our family shared meals together. Mother constantly telling me, “Greg, slow down. Eat slower. Where’s the fire?” Or “If you don’t eat your vegetables, you don’t get any dessert.”

It was around the kitchen table when I was two years old that I jammed peas up my nose and then got rushed to resurrection hospital.

It was around the kitchen table that I frequently found myself wearing a sweater, not because I was cold because my mother was cold. Therefore, she thought I also had to be cold.

It was at the kitchen table I frequently would play games with my brothers and sisters and quietly did my homework. The joys as well as the sorrows from my memories around the kitchen table in my home.

Today’s readings offer the important insights of grounding the family in our relationship with God. The old testament reading stresses the responsibilities of children to parents.

While Paul’s letter suggests a pattern of life based on love and mutual forgiveness. The gospel adds that a family provides the context for growth – physically, mentally, and spiritually.

The challenge of today’s readings is to read all human existence as the family of God. The Christian family, not any family, the Christian family is where nourished, hope is sustained, and love is evident.

It is around the table of the Lord that we gather to be strengthened and nourished with holy communion. Not alone but in and with the Lord, even if we live alone.

A family is not made in heaven. A family comes in a kit and has to be put together.