Nurturing Our Holy Families

Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways. (Psalm 128)

We all want to be blessed by our Lord God, right? Today, on the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, we need to learn how to walk in his ways as we, assisted by his divine grace and guided by Holy Scripture, find out his plan for our own family.

In docility of heart, from the first reading (Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14) we learn that, from the dawn of humanity and into the end of time, the Lord God has in mind for every one of us only what is called “the traditional family.”

The reason is simple: only a traditional family is designed to be the venue chosen by him to create new life without infringing upon the rights of its children. Those who do not fear the Lord or, worse yet, trample upon his design for humanity and consider as equally acceptable other concepts of “family,” display arrogant self-centeredness and foolish myopia. 

God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons…he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and when he prays, is heard. 

Sirach 3:2-5

From this reading, we learn that those who fear the Lord, i.e., obey his laws, including those about traditional families, can expect life to bloom and to spread without infringing upon no one’s rights. 

But that should be a badge of honor! 

The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians (3:12-21) goes into the details of the attitudes the Lord urges all members of a traditional family to strive to exercise with goodwill and humility. If humility is not present in every member of a family, love is impossible and life becomes much, much harder for everyone. Humility is that most precious inner disposition that enables us to acquire the attitude of Christ Jesus of considering others as more important than ourselves and of placing their wellbeing ahead of our own. (cf. Philippians 2:3-4)

Our traditional family is the most precious gift God has given us. If you have trouble appreciating this awesome gift, you should consider what Satan is hell-bent, around the clock, on doing to destroy it. Most of the time he does it through his sinister, like-minded minions who love destruction, deception, chaos and death as they prey on lonely, confused teenagers and lead them to commit suicide. This latest one is perhaps Satan’s most successful enterprise with the assistance of some AI chatbots. But he is successful also with ubiquitous pornography, sex-texting and subsequent extortion, all designed on turning people, created into the image and likeness of God, into sex objects.

Satan employs compliant schools, from kindergartens to universities, to yank children away from the guidance, support and love of their parents and from a personal relationship with the God of life, who called them to their fulfillment only as either male or female.

To two-daddies’ families, Satan gives the suggestion of hiring a womb to get a baby for themselves. To two-mommies’ families, Satan suggest a trustworthy sperm bank to get one of the two impregnated. And the list of Satan’s activities goes on.

It is because of Satan’s relentless work of destruction that Mother Church offers to our consideration this gospel passage (Matthew 2:13-15,19-23).  

From Mary and Joseph, we learn that life is born, nurtured and protected by love. However, given the presence of pure evil, if we care for our family, we must be willing and ready to inconvenience ourselves and to face hardships for their sake.

This we pledge to do, because the very future of humanity hangs in the balance.