Friday, January 2, 2015
Where does the family begin?
Call to holiness
,
Christmas
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EMacke
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Family
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Love
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Two years ago on the eve of the Feast of the Holy
Family, my husband and I headed out in the lightly falling snow to attend our
first wedding as a married couple.
Inside the church, white Christmas lights contrasted against green trees
and red ribbons. Poinsettias
filled the sanctuary.
The wedding began normally – a beautiful bride in
white walked down the aisle. Her
father gave her hand to that of her soon-to-be husband. But when the readings were read, the
priest announced that something was slightly different.
Rather than choose their own readings from the list
of suggested options, this particular couple chose to use the readings and
prayers for Sunday’s vigil Mass – the prayers and readings for the Feast of the
Holy Family.
After Communion, instead of processing to an image of
the Blessed Mother, the couple walked to the Nativity sitting at the edge of
the sanctuary and consecrated their new family to the Holy Family.
It was the scene of this new little family, formed in
a simple yet beautiful Mass, that came to mind when I read these words of St.
John Paul II in his “Letter
to Families”:
“In the
Church, the treasure of the family has been entrusted first and foremost to
witnesses: to those fathers and mothers, sons and daughters who through the
family have discovered the path of their human and Christian vocation, the
dimension of the "inner man" (Eph
3:16) of which the Apostle speaks, and thus have attained holiness. The Holy Family is the beginning of
countless other holy families. The Council recalled that holiness is the
vocation of all the baptized. In our age, as in the past, there is no lack of
witnesses to the "gospel of the family", even if they are not well
known or have not been proclaimed saints by the Church. (#23)
 |
| Patrick Sweeney, "nativity-scene" is licensed under CC 2.0 |
It’s easy to think of the Holy Family as the
exception – a small unit of two perfect people (one of whom was God) and a
virtuous man whose voice is utterly silent in the Gospels. The Holy Family seems to be very holy
but not exactly a family – something more like a museum or a reliquary or a
monastery.
“The Holy
Family is the beginning of countless other holy families.” My friends who celebrated their second
wedding anniversary this past weekend witnessed this truth quite literally as they
prayed together in front of the manger scene, looking to the Holy Family as the
source and strength of their own family life.
It is true for every family, whether they are aware
of it or not. The grace of Jesus
Christ, born in a humble stable in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, born into
a family, pours into our own families
and invites us to embrace holiness together.
The holiness of our holy families might not entail
the epic moments of the Holy Family – traveling to another city by donkey,
welcoming the visit of three kings, departing for Egypt to escape a murderous
king – but our own moments of discernment, transition, hospitality and
uncertainty can be entrusted to Jesus, Mary and Joseph as we respond to God’s
call in our lives.
Where have we seen this holiness? How are we called to live this
holiness? The holiness of changing
diapers in the middle of the night, of sacrificing sleep to go to work to
provide for food and shelter, of caring for a sick spouse – these everyday
opportunities are the makings of great saints, whether or not their names are
known.
Having just celebrated Feast of the Holy Family this
past Sunday, as we look at the Nativity scene, we can ask ourselves what
witnesses to the “gospel of the family” surround us. Perhaps we have never noticed their quiet testimony to the possibility
of becoming a holy family. Whose family life reminds us that
holiness is possible (and beautiful)?
How do these witnesses encourage my family to become more and more a
holy family in 2015?
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Thank you, Emily for the beautiful insight. I am eager to share this post and the website with my adult children. Thank you for all you do.
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