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SUNDAY-SATURDAY
Christmas-New Year's Issue
December 22, 2002 - January 4, 2003
volume 13, no. 148
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No matter our walk in life, there is no reason why we cannot pattern our behavior on the exhilarating example of the model family - the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Every aspect of our lives has a familial aspect to it whether it be by blood, the Church, religious organizations, our sociological ties, etc. It is in our exemplification of role models in our lives that will determine if our family ties with the Holy Family are strong, lasting, and bear good fruit.
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"The Holy Family is the only family that has entirely succeeded in its mission for God, as perfectly as any family could. We know the mission of Jesus Christ very well, that is, to declare the Gospel as Incarnate God and to announce that the Kingdom of Heaven, His Kingdom, was and is at hand. In so doing, the Lord is a perfect model to all of us of how to live the Gospels, Him Whom we should imitate, and in a special way for priests, who are true models of Christ on earth."
When we speak of the Holy Family we should first of all be greatly humbled, because by this means God is manifest to us, not as something intangible but rather in a mortal form for the whole world to see, and we hope, to hear and believe. We can say that what is most outstanding about the Blessed and Holy Family is the singular devotion of each member of it to God and His perfect will. God was foremost in the life of the Good Lord Jesus, the Blessed Mother, and Saint Joseph everywhere and in everything. They were human just like us, but also extraordinary in the sense that their eyes were always fixed on Heaven. They never failed to put God first, and to put His words into life in everything they did. And because of this, they won great favor with God in earthly matters and were called to Heavenly dwelling places. Winning much merit for us also, there is no greater name to which to ask assistance as we go about our earthly lives than that Name of the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ. And among mortals who are blessed with Heaven we can do none better in our pleas and petitions than to seek the help and guidance of the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph. The Holy Family attained the pinnacle of what every mortal family should be like. In all of their actions and words, they showed that God pervaded their hearts and minds and souls without ceasing. They were a lamp shining atop a great hill for all to see; they were sweet bread from Heaven for parched and dry minds and hearts, and souls.
The Holy Family is the only family that has entirely succeeded in its mission for God, as perfectly as any family could. We know the mission of Jesus Christ very well, that is, to declare the Gospel as Incarnate God and to announce that the Kingdom of Heaven, His Kingdom, was and is at hand. In so doing, the Lord is a perfect model to all of us of how to live the Gospels, Him Whom we should imitate, and in a special way for priests, who are true models of Christ on earth. And Jesus' mother and foster father entirely succeeded in their life's work through God's blessing and peace upon them. The mission of the Blessed Mother was to be entirely subservient to God, and She was, accepting that Her person would be God-Mother, Theotokos, the Mother of God; in so doing She became spiritual Mother of all peoples who accept the Lord and believe in His earthly mission. By doing thus, She is also a model to all women for the holy conduct of motherhood. And the mission of Saint Joseph was to take Mary as his wife and to be the foster father of the Lord. In so doing, he is a model to all men for the holy conduct of fatherhood. Therefore we have no further to look than the Holy Family as a model of how to live as both individuals and as family members awaiting the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace. Remembering them and reflecting on their relationship can do more good than all the "self-help" and family counseling books that were ever written.
Now there are many kinds of families, and we would like to acknowledge some of them. Firstly and foremost there is Christ and His Church. The bridegroom nourishes His Church spiritually. He did so when He walked among us, and now through the Counselor, the Paraclete. There are even church groups and religious associations of laymen that are meant to act for mutual support and guidance under the clergy and religious. There is the Church Militant, we on earth, but neither should we forget the communion with saints, that is the Church Triumphant, and with those poor souls in purgatory, the Church Suffering. Then there is the family that consists of father and mother and children which we often think of. It is a mini-church, so the priests tell us, and that is because there within it is God, and the creation of new life in Christ Jesus through that family, through the spouses. Even those families without children, or without natural children, are still families in the sense of modeling Christ and His Church, and great spiritual fruits, great life in the Spirit, still can come of them. And for those with children, God becomes manifest also at conception, within the new lives, because He tells us: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." There are also the families of religious orders, which even go so far as to often call one another father and mother and brother and sister. These families are entrusted with many important things before God, and because of this they often take vows of poverty and chastity and obedience, to be greater imitators of Christ but also to imitate the Holy Family.
There are also families of sorts when we work in secular places. These of course are secular, but none of us should be so sterile-minded as to think that nothing good can come of such associations. The Lord tells us: "Love your neighbor as yourself", and He says this not only so that we might win Heaven ourselves, but also so that those who are called by God among the unbelieving, those stragglers preordained before the beginning of time, like Saint Paul, might also gain Life. Some of us may feel even that a teacher or other mentor or even our employer or some famous figure who we don't actually know is a sort of father-figure or mother-figure, or sister or brother figure. There is nothing wrong with this so long as there is sanctity in the relationships. Does this real-life person we look up to imitate Christ and the Holy Family? If so, good! But if not ... all good families are put together by God for strengthening one another and building one another up, in holiness and love.
Families are very important for our spiritual uplifting. Was not Saint John the Baptist, greatest among the prophets, the herald of Christ? In fact they were flesh and blood family, and good trees bear good fruit. We are not meant to be islands, and to do so is to neglect the mercy and goodness of God. Hermits are hermits not to get away from people but to devote more time to the Heavenly family of God. In this case of hermits, God Himself is the hermit's immediate and unfailing family. And prophets are prophets not to isolate themselves from people but to call their attention to the things that God is most concerned with, things of the moment as well as things foretold. Anyone who is aloof and wants nothing to do with people, yet calls himself a hermit or a prophet is a liar. Two men can sharpen each other like a sword, it tells us in Proverbs. But the man who goes it alone is like the devil, who decided that he was better than God and superior to other beings. Yes, he has his demons with him, but the relationship is not familial. It is simply an association of evil beings who have nothing more in common than that they are damned to the eternal fires. And so it will be with all who are not counted worthy of Life. There is no family in Hell; there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth, and endless indignities and horrors and provocations, just as one would read in a horror novel, if not worse. Hence, we should mention more directly about how it might be possible to escape such an unhappy end through the good family.
In particular we would like to speak about the Holy Family and its relationship to our natural families, as it is helpful to reflect on the nature of that event which we commemorate, that is, the Incarnation of Our Lord and His Nativity, in which He humbled Himself so much as to be born into a family of mortal father and mother. Now it is said in certain Apocryphal books that Saint Joseph had been previously married; being quite old when the Virgin was betrothed to him. Though Saint Jerome tends to discount these, they provided an inspiration for many an inspired Christian artist (for example, Raphael's "Espousals of the Virgin"). In any case, we can say with more or less certitude that since Saint Joseph was a mature man, and probably died before Jesus' earthly ministry began, he was likely to have been significantly older than Mary. The Catholic Faith teaches that this marriage was chaste; there were no relations between Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother, and She, ever Virgin. Mary and Joseph agreed to this because they both renounced earthly perks entirely for the Kingdom of God; they saw the higher good and what was to come of their nuptials. Of course it does not mean that having children in marriage is wrong; quite the contrary, for God tells us: "Be fruitful and multiply". But some people are called to serve God in certain ways, and other people in other ways. We all have our strengths for pleasing God, though no one is perfect, and when we use those strengths that He gives us it pleases Him and we find favor with Him. And let us not think that some person with supposedly great talent is the one who will actually please God. We know that the humblest among us will be the greatest, and the lowly will be called great, because God calls the poor and sick and lowly to His banquet table, whereas very few who are wise will even get a foot in the door.
Now Mary was a young teenager when She was betrothed to Saint Joseph, most everyone agrees, yet by the supernatural graces God gave to Her, She was able to do everything that was asked of Her, and She did it with an entirely willing heart and mind. There was never any hesitation in any of Her actions, because She knew the path to God as perfectly as any mortal human ever could, and Her will was a mirror and obedient servant to the will of God. She was called, chosen, and She accepted and obeyed. And therefore Her union with Saint Joseph was enabled to be an entirely pure and spiritual union. Marriage is first and most importantly a spiritual union, and secondly, and only if it is God's will, a physical union. The spiritual union is of far greater importance, and that is what God shows us in the marriage of Mary and Joseph. Without this holy spiritual union there can be nothing pleasing to God in the marriage, because God is spirit, and we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And that is why many marriages fail today. To be sure, a holy child may come out of a spiritually poor marriage, but it is only by a miracle that God does, and the spouses do not please God at all by acting unspiritual and without truth, and this, we say with humility and trembling, because we are all sinners. Though a teen, Mary accepted the pure spiritual union of marriage in deference to God and His holy will. And in so doing She is called blessed by all Nations, and ever will be, even unto the Kingdom of God. She is the pure spiritual Mother to all who are born of the Spirit, because She responded affirmatively to God and put His matters above earthly worries and cares. Yes She was human, and Her heart, though Immaculate, was pierced by the sufferings that Her Son underwent for the many of us, but still She accepted what God put before Her as the only path to Life.
Jesus Himself, though God, accepted the humbling circumstance of being a son, in the human sense, son of Mary and son of Joseph, born in Bethlehem in a manger, and called a Nazarene, and He, the cause of great joy to all awaiting the Kingdom of God. The angels in Heaven announced His incarnation with trumpets, floating through the air in the clouds, and mortals too, shepherds and kings and such, great and small, did Him homage, even as a little baby in a manger. His humble origin did not put off those who saw the spiritual aspect of this penultimate event, because the spiritual has nothing in common with secular bravado, that is, riches and honors and all that accompanies them. Rather the spiritual has to do with our eternal salvation and true riches and honors, and these, by the grace and mercy of God our Father. It is why Jesus taught us how to pray to God, calling Him: "Our Father Who art in Heaven", which describes the Divine nature and the relationship between God and Man, which is spiritual. In so doing Jesus found favor with men and merit with God; He did all that was asked of Him and fulfilled all that was written about Him. Never, since the beginning of time, and never again, has any man done what was asked of him perfectly, except for Our Lord and Savior. Christ is Captain and Chief of the Heavenly Host, yea, but more than that, He humbled Himself as a man and was obedient to God in all things. And in so doing, the curtain of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom, the earth shook and the mountains trembled, and the bodies of many holy people left their tombs and visited many people. It should remind us of how extraordinary and difficult it is to gain Heaven; yet through Christ, and His spiritual presence in our hearts, all things are possible.
And so dear friends, we wish you a merry Christmas, but let it be merry most of all in the sense of being a soulful meditation on the Nativity of Our Lord and His Holy Family. They are and always will be a fount for receipt of the Divine strength and grace, to those families who seek and strive, through the power of the Holy Ghost, to imitate Christ and gain Heaven, and this, always by God's righteous arm. Of course, our real families are never perfect, the environment of perfection, rather, existing only in Heaven. However, the imperfect lends itself to the striving for perfection, and striving for perfection is nothing less than what God calls us to as we work out our salvation and that of our families. We are to treat our father and mother and spouses as we would Saint Joseph and the Holy Virgin, and our siblings and sons and daughters as Kris Kringle, the Christ Child. It means above all to give the love and respect that is due to our fellow human beings, created in the image of God, for Jesus tells us: "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, so you do unto me." And also because: "He that does the will of my Father in Heaven is my mother and brother and sister." It is not always easy to imitate Christ and the Holy Family, sometimes it is very difficult, but that is what we are called to nonetheless. And when we do so, as perfectly as possible, we are close to the Kingdom of God, where the family members of God will sup with the Lamb, He Who sits on the throne of Heaven, in spiritual perfection, those who are His beloved and chosen heirs.
Pacem relínquo vobis: pacem meam do vobis, dicit Dóminus
My peace I leave you; My peace I give to you, saith the Lord
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