A little Filipino girl approached me on the street begging for food some years ago. I handed her a can of soda drink I had with me. I was surprised when she did not open the can but ran across the street to her mother and her little brother who were also begging on the street. The mother opened the can, drank from it, and then gave it in turns to each of her children to drink from the same can. They shared the little can of drink amongst themselves.
It was a touching reminder for me about what family was all about. It is not about having much or all that we need. That little girl could have hidden and drunk it all alone but she brought that little can of drink to share with her mother and sibling. She reminded me that family is where we freely receive and share our love and life for the mutual support of all the members.
In the Holy Family, Mary and St. Joseph also shared intimately in the very life, mission, and suffering of Christ. Jesus did not miserly keep His redemptive mission to Himself but shared it with His parents. Simeon prophesied the suffering that Christ would endure, “This child is a sign that would be contradicted.” He also prophesied that Mary would intimately share in Christ’s own suffering, “And you yourself a sword will pierce.” The members of the Holy Family freely and willingly shared in each other’s joys and pains.
Simeon added that this mutual sharing in each other’s suffering will bring blessing to many others, “So that they thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Our hearts would be transparent to the light of Christ because Mary and St. Joseph freely shared in the joys and pains of Jesus’ life and mission.
This sharing blossomed into Mary supporting Jesus all throughout His life, helping Him to fulfill the will of God for Him, even up until that painful moment of His death on the cross and burial. This mutual sharing and support led to growth in the members of the Holy Family. Mary advanced in faith and love by “pondering all these things in her heart,” while the child Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of the Lord was open Him.”
When families become places where love and life are freely received and shared in such a way that the members grow in fidelity to what God plans for them, God blesses the family members. He also blesses others outside the family through the sharing and supporting family.
The Holy Spirit had promised Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah. Simeon longed for that day. God fulfilled this promise to him through a family that showed mutual sharing and support and also obeyed God’s own plan for marriage. The same Spirit that brought him to the temple, “He came in the Spirit to the temple,” is the same Spirit that inspired Mary and St. Joseph to obey the laws of God concerning the firstborn sons, “They took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord.” Simeon is blessed and his wish is fulfilled through the faithful married love of Mary and St. Joseph and their fidelity to God’s plan for marriage in their time.
When we grasp this point that God wills to bless this world through married love and family life that is lived in accordance with His plan for marriage in every age, then we should be deeply concerned about the violent unrelenting attack against marriage and family life that we are seeing today. These many forms of attack prevent families from being places of mutual reception and sharing of life and places of mutual support in Christian growth.
We have the continuously growing trend of cohabitation where men and women live together without the sacrament of marriage. They do not only reject God’s laws for marriage but refuse to allow God raise their union to the sacramental level capable of sanctifying them and their children. We also have the growing acceptance and normalizing of “same-sex” marriage which remains completely closed to the gift of new life and is a violation of the natural complementarity of the sexes in authentic marriage.
We also have a contraceptive mentality that basically separates the unitive and procreative purpose of marital intercourse and refuses to cooperate with God’s plan for bringing into this world new life. Then there is the monstrous act of abortion that destroys the life of the infant in the womb and gravely scars the mother. Lastly, there is the no fault divorce that separates parents without due reason and has disastrous effects on the children.
My dear brother and sisters in Christ, as members of the family of God in Jesus Christ who believe that the greatest good in our lives, Jesus Christ, came to us through a family, we cannot be silent or indifferent in the face of all these attacks against the family and married life. There are so many “Simeons” in our day searching for a life-changing encounter with Christ and this encounter comes through the family, either the family of the domestic Church or the family of the Church itself.
Let us begin to defend and promote family and married life by being grateful for our own families. There is no perfect family. Our families are places of both joys and pains, laughter and tears, but a place where God calls and gifts us to mature in our Christian journey.
We must also be fully engaged in our families. This means that we are ready to bring our faith and love to the family in a spirit of sharing what we have received from the Lord. We should also support families with our prayers, good example, and witness of joyful fidelity.
Lastly, we should be ready and willing to speak the whole truth about God’s unchanging plan for marriage and family life. We should be deeply saddened to hear members of the Church’s hierarchy even hint on the possibility of having legal recognition of “same-sex” unions at a time when marriage is at an all-time low. Shouldn’t we priests and bishops be bolder than ever in promoting and defending marriage? Have we forgotten that only holy and vibrant families produce good and holy vocations? We shoot ourselves in the foot in terms of priestly vocations when we cowardly refuse to consistently promote and defend marriage in our words and actions.
God is a family of persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The law of marriage and family is written into our nature. That is why God desires to bless each and every one of us in and through the family. That is why we must do all we can now for the sake of unity and growth in families around the world.
The Eucharist we celebrate makes present the cross of Christ and the blood of the Lamb that alone gathers us into the family of God. He offers us grace to live in family, to grow and mature there, to give witness to marriage, and to defend and promote it in the face of these attacks.
But we must not just receive grace from Him; like Mary and by His grace, we must also share in His mission to strengthen others in their Christian journey and bring them all into God’s family. This is how we become the true family of God and God will bless us in our families and bless numerous other searching “Simeons” through our families.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
