Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
17 December 2022
Saturday of the Third Week of Advent
“This house is so full of people it makes me sick. When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone.” That’s the famous line of Kevin McCallister in our favorite Christmas movie of all time, Home Alone. Kevin McCallister is of course played by the loveable Macaulay Culkin. In the story, Kevin is the youngest of five children and hates his family because he is always bullied around by his older siblings and the parents seem to ignore him as well. And the height of that neglect is that, as we know, the family travels overseas for the holidays but leaves behind Kevin HOME ALONE in the US. Spoiler alert, in the end, Kevin survives the holidays and even protects their home from burglary. More importantly, the chaotic McCallister family reconciles as they realize that Christmas is all about family. One moving scene is when Kevin prays: “Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back. No toys. Nothing but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff. And my aunt and my cousins. And if he has time, my Uncle Frank. Okay?”
I recall this beloved movie because our Gospel today features the Family tree of Jesus Christ, what is technically called the Genealogy. And at first glance, we can already see how chaotic this family of our Lord, perhaps more chaotic than Kevin’s family. There you have Abraham who tried to sell his Sarah twice to a princes or kings, King David who committed murder so he could have the woman he lusted after, Judah and his brothers who sold the young Joseph, and many more. One would expect a more decent family tree for the Messiah but what we find is a family of cheaters, killers, prostitutes and so on and so forth. This then begs the question: why did God choose this family line to be born into? And the answer of course as Theologians tell us is clear. First, realistically, there is no such thing as a perfect bloodline; even the so-called Royal Family or families have skeletons in their closets. The family tree of Jesus thus looks Family or familiar to us. It mirrors our own chaotic families, it represents the whole of humanity. Secondly, which is the more theological point, the sovereignty, freedom, power, and love of God is greatly manifested in his selection of this so-called chosen people or family. The implication is that as God embraces this particular bloodline, he welcomes ALL in his family, sinners and saints alike. Indeed, he desires for everyone to be saved. Also, by producing a savior from this flawed family tree, God raises our dignity, and proves not only that God writes straight with crooked lines but as Paul says, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Finally, that Jesus enters into a historical family implies that the locus of our salvation is the family. The savior could have saved us in any other way but the fact that he saves us by becoming part of the broken human family must mean that God recognizes that our families are sinful and broken. In fact, oftentimes, our deepest wounds and hurts come from the Family, and so it is where healing and salvation must take place.
For all these reasons then, it is no accident that Christmas, as the McCalister realize, and as we say all the time, is all about family. As we gather as families this Christmastime, let us then pray for more love, joy, understanding, healing, forgiveness in our families. Let us pray that Jesus embrace, protect, and save our families. AMEN.
Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM
Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
17 December 2022
Saturday of the Third Week of Advent
“This house is so full of people it makes me sick. When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone.” That’s the famous line of Kevin McCallister in our favorite Christmas movie of all time, Home Alone. Kevin McCallister is of course played by the loveable Macaulay Culkin. In the story, Kevin is the youngest of five children and hates his family because he is always bullied around by his older siblings and the parents seem to ignore him as well. And the height of that neglect is that, as we know, the family travels overseas for the holidays but leaves behind Kevin HOME ALONE in the US. Spoiler alert, in the end, Kevin survives the holidays and even protects their home from burglary. More importantly, the chaotic McCallister family reconciles as they realize that Christmas is all about family. One moving scene is when Kevin prays: “Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back. No toys. Nothing but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff. And my aunt and my cousins. And if he has time, my Uncle Frank. Okay?”
I recall this beloved movie because our Gospel today features the Family tree of Jesus Christ, what is technically called the Genealogy. And at first glance, we can already see how chaotic this family of our Lord, perhaps more chaotic than Kevin’s family. There you have Abraham who tried to sell his Sarah twice to a princes or kings, King David who committed murder so he could have the woman he lusted after, Judah and his brothers who sold the young Joseph, and many more. One would expect a more decent family tree for the Messiah but what we find is a family of cheaters, killers, prostitutes and so on and so forth. This then begs the question: why did God choose this family line to be born into? And the answer of course as Theologians tell us is clear. First, realistically, there is no such thing as a perfect bloodline; even the so-called Royal Family or families have skeletons in their closets. The family tree of Jesus thus looks Family or familiar to us. It mirrors our own chaotic families, it represents the whole of humanity. Secondly, which is the more theological point, the sovereignty, freedom, power, and love of God is greatly manifested in his selection of this so-called chosen people or family. The implication is that as God embraces this particular bloodline, he welcomes ALL in his family, sinners and saints alike. Indeed, he desires for everyone to be saved. Also, by producing a savior from this flawed family tree, God raises our dignity, and proves not only that God writes straight with crooked lines but as Paul says, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Finally, that Jesus enters into a historical family implies that the locus of our salvation is the family. The savior could have saved us in any other way but the fact that he saves us by becoming part of the broken human family must mean that God recognizes that our families are sinful and broken. In fact, oftentimes, our deepest wounds and hurts come from the Family, and so it is where healing and salvation must take place.
For all these reasons then, it is no accident that Christmas, as the McCalister realize, and as we say all the time, is all about family. As we gather as families this Christmastime, let us then pray for more love, joy, understanding, healing, forgiveness in our families. Let us pray that Jesus embrace, protect, and save our families. AMEN.
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