Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
One of the great blessings in my life as a priest, when I have the opportunity, is to visit people’s homes for dinner and/or house blessings. It’s good to see families in their home environment, even with all the messes and drama that can happen from time to time. As the ritual for a house blessing states, the blessing is a sign that the family is welcoming Christ into their home.
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| Zacchaeus' sycamore tree in Jericho |
In some ways, this practice of inviting the priest into the home stems from the Gospel we heard today, when Jesus invited Himself to visit the home of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, for his part, was very happy to oblige, and “received [Jesus] with joy.” We don’t know what was on the menu for the meal Zacchaeus prepared, but we do know that some became very upset, because Zacchaeus collected taxes for the Romans, and that job often included taking more than even what the Romans asked for, to line a tax collector’s pockets. Still, Jesus says that He came to the house of Zacchaeus because He came to seek out and save those who were lost.
How do we welcome Jesus into our homes? Do we welcome Jesus into our homes? A phrase that has been used, especially since the Second Vatican Council, but which dates to the early church, is the domestic Church. No, this is not the calm, passive, housebroken Church (as in a domesticated animal). The term domestic comes from the Latin domus, meaning house. But the phrase domestic Church does not refer to having Sunday Masses in the home, either. The domestic Church is the family, “as centers of living, radiant faith”, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. The Catechism continues:
It is here [in the family, the domestic Church] that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way “by…prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity.” Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and a “school for human enrichment.” Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous-even repeated-forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one’s life.
Families are not something added on to the faith; they are part and parcel of the faith, and the way that the faith is passed on and learned, in all its facets.
This presumes that the exercise of the faith is not something that happens only on Sunday. If the only time that we have contact with God is at Mass, even though the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, then we are starving ourselves of the life-giving sustenance of our relationship with God. Our faith is not meant to be observed only in these four walls on Sundays and holydays. Our faith is meant to permeate our entire life, especially what happens in our homes with our families.
Part of the symptom that people do not live their faith out at home is the desire to force all sorts of devotions into the Mass. The Catholic Mass has a particular set of structures, music, gestures, which are noble, yet simple. The more emotional, dramatic aspects of our faith are good, but are meant to be lived out more during the week outside of Mass, especially in the home. Praying the Rosary, Praise and Worship music, clapping hands, spreading hands, lectures on this or that aspect of the faith can all be good things, but do not belong in the Mass. People are hungry for the devotional life, because it is important to our life in Christ. But the devotional life is not meant to be forced into the Mass. If people more fully lived out the faith at home, they wouldn’t feel the need for those devotional aspects during Sunday Mass.
So what does living as a domestic Church look like? What are things that every family should do? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops lists a number of things that families could and should do to more fully exemplify their role as the domestic Church. I’ll list a few.
-Read Scripture daily as a family, pray together, not just before meals, but in the morning or evening, in a time that works best for your family. Don’t only use formal prayers (which are good), but also heartfelt, unstructured prayers, too.
-Pray a family Rosary, or even simply a decade.
-Have a crucifix in a prominent place in the home, and in each room.
-Utilize an Advent wreath or a poor box for Lent.
-Visit different churches and shrines as a family.
-Show love for each other, and connect that love to the love that God has for us.
-Talk about how God is helping you in good times and bad.
-Make Mass a priority each Sunday and holyday, as well as going to confession regularly.
-Install a holy water stoop inside a door so that people can bless themselves on entering or exiting the home and as a reminder of baptism.
-Show the importance of donating time, talent, and treasure to the Church by what you say and do.
Those are just ten ways; there are many more that you could invent or find. But the important thing is that, whether you are single person, a family of two, or a family of ten, that Jesus is welcome in your house, and that Jesus’ presence in your house is evident.
