On the feast of the Holy Family, we turn our gaze and attention to the deep riches that families bring.
Every family is a place where God fulfills His promises. In the first reading, we heard of God’s promises made to the patriarch Abraham. He is promised a descendant, even though he and his wife are both old, and past child-bearing years. They are able to delight in, and even laugh with, the son of their old age, whose name is Isaac. To paraphrase the words of Karol Wojtyła, the future St. John Paul II, words which he penned during his time as Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków: every family is the basic building block of society. In this, every family is strong and resilient, and yet the family is also susceptible to pressures and forces that seek to weaken it. Carrying Wojtyła’s thought further, every family becomes this place where God fulfills His promises, the promises of his small “c” covenant with every person. A family can be the place where a man and a woman say to each other, we want to do better than our parents, we want to create an environment for our children that will be healthier than the one we had when we were growing up. So, men and women go forth to build this place, many of them go forth with zeal and good-will. Yet, at the same time, the family is also susceptible and vulnerable to many societal pressures which seek to weaken it, and even destroy it. Marital breakdown, divorce, alienation, addictions, and ideologies all contribute to family failure. Fluid identities and fluid relationships add to the strain of family life. St. Eugene de Mazenod, the Bishop of Marseille and founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the congregation to which we belong, himself came from a broken family. His mother and father divorced. Yet, despite these pressures and forces, the family also has the potential of being resilient and strong, and God has the potential to bring forth life even from the most barren of places.
The Gospel recounts to us the presentation of the Lord Jesus in the temple by Mary and Joseph. Simeon and the prophetess Anna “receive,” so to speak, the Lord in the temple of Jerusalem. At the end of the Gospel, we have the verses that “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was with him.” St. Theophylactus, one of the Fathers of the Church, writes, “[Jesus] could have come forth from the womb in the fulness of adult life, but this would have seemed fantastic. So He grew up naturally” (Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, M.F. Toal ed., vol. 1, pg. 169, 1957). It is this “growing up naturally” that families need to provide for children. This natural environment is based upon the love of a man and a woman, who are open to the gift of children, and remain faithful to each other, while not only generating but also educating their sons and daughters. We know of situations where single parents raise children, or where grandparents take up the roles and responsibilities of parents, and raise their grandkids. Sometimes, people raising children in these types of situations display virtue that is indeed heroic. Still, these circumstances should be the exception. The natural situation should be that of a man and a woman, faithful to each other, who are open to the gift of life, and then become primary educators of their children, with the help of teachers and catechists, where appropriate. So, mom and dad should foster an environment where they work hand in hand to educate children, and help them grow in virtue – first natural virtue, then supernatural virtue, such as faith. With faith, everything is possible. God does not expect the impossible – God does not ask mom and dad’s relationship to be ideal or perfect. It just needs to be good enough. God still treats the family as a place where His covenant promises are fulfilled.
So, Father, we come to you in supplication – help us to believe and help us to receive our families as places where your covenant promises are fulfilled. Strengthen the bonds of charity in our families. Give special graces to families in crisis; support with your power families who are doing well. May the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph the Just continue to intercede for families.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, Dec. 31, 2023)