“Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins, he who honors his mother is like someone amassing a fortune.” Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
The Christmas season is especially cherished for its family reunions and family celebrations. Yet for many people, either through distance or circumstance, or past family conflict, or the passing away of a loved one, the actual experience of family intimacy did not come to fruition. And the spiritual blessings which come with these intimate and unrepeatable moments seem to have been lost forever.
The Mystical Body: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10663a.htm
Yet, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, members, through baptism, of the Universal (Catholic) Church of Jesus, time and space need not be barriers to sharing our family’s love. Prayer, united to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Most Blessed Eucharist, slowly heals wounds which deny forgiveness; prayer, united with belief in the Communion of the Saints and the blessing of Purgatory as heaven’s door, keeps our departed kin close at heart in the Spirit of God’s Triune Love; prayer for our parents, our children, our siblings, our extended family members, in Loving will over hurt emotion, for their good, and the good of future reunion, no matter the past circumstances, brings forth ‘atonement for sins’ while ‘amassing a spiritual fortune.’
The Communion of Saints: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04171a.htm
“Happy all those who fear Yahweh and follow his paths…Your wife…Your sons…Such are the blessings that fall on the man who fears Yahweh.” Psalm 128:1-5
The nuclear family--mom, dad, and children; mom and dad married; mom-woman, dad, man; married through the Sacrament of Marriage, sanctioned in Christian matrimony-- has been under attack for its vital role in reproducing the foundation of this great Judeo-Christian nation. Destroy the family; erect new models of ‘family’ through alternative moral ideology, and watch the Judeo-Christian fabric tear from all sides. Secularize God into a private corner, paint religion as the bastion of right-wing-bigotry and ignorance, and re-create humanity as Pro-choice-pioneers of a utopian happiness through whatever means is democratically chosen in popular culture, and you have what is now a full blown culture war. The followers of the Son of Yahweh, following His Way, versus the followers of relativism, skepticism, hedonism, materialism, and the lords of pop-utopia.
The Nuclear Family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_family
“You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love.” Colossians 3:12-21
Only in the Way of Jesus can we hope to keep the family together in an atmosphere which breathes contempt for the Traditional family. Only in prayer and honest--and compassionate--dialogue can we hope to engage our society in the coming 2012 election, and witness to the dignity of human life in each and every person, born and unborn, and witness to the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman; both vital cells for the American Body, now and in the future! This is not a call for discrimination against other ‘family arrangements.’ All human persons must be respected for their inherent dignity. All! Yet other images of ‘family’ and all other ideologies of ‘choice’ must come to a perspective of respect for the original (founding fathers) dignity of Traditional Marriage and the right to Life—alongside liberty and the pursuit of happiness—as bedrock to the ‘exceptionalism’ of America.
American Exceptionalism: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/American_exceptionalism
“When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile, the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favor was with him.” Luke 2:22-40
Only in the Way of Jesus, the Law of the Lord, can we be filled with wisdom, in God’s good favor, in protecting and nurturing our greatest gift--in Life and Marriage and family—the nucleus of a lasting nation.
This was written while prayerfully meditating upon today’s commemoration of the Holy Family, JESUS, Mary, and Joseph. Hopefully, I have been faithful!
Let me know what you think at tranz4mation@comcast.net
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