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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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As part of my ministry as chaplain to a pro-life club at the University of Portland, I interacted for many years with a wonderful group called the Equal Rights Institute, or ERI. One of their primary missions is to train pro-life advocates to have conversations with abortion supporters, especially on high school and college campuses. They take a very data-driven approach to this mission, testing out many pro-life arguments “in the field” and employing or modifying their arguments accordingly. Their over-arching desire is to try to identify those pro-life approaches that are not only accurate, but, more important, would move the hearts and minds of people who aren’t yet pro-life. They often remind the students they train that the goal is not to win an argument or a debate, but to win over people.
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Justice is real, and justice will triumph, but justice unfolds in God’s time and according to God’s eternal plan. These are lessons – both comforting and challenging – from today’s readings. In the first reading, the prophet Nahum gives thanks for the downfall of Assyria and its capital Nineveh around 600 BC. Their empire, centered in what is now Iraq, had oppressed and violated surrounding nations for centuries; they had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, with its ten tribes of Jacob, and nearly destroyed the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, until God miraculously intervened. It is fitting, then, that the prophet Nahum sees Assyria’s destruction as an instance of God’s righteous judgment and an act of favor to His people. And yet, we know from history that the Assyrian conquerors would be replaced by the Babylonian conquerors, who would be replaced by the Persians, who would be replaced by the Greeks, who would be replaced by the Romans. And each of these powers would, to varying degrees, oppress or seek to destroy the Jewish nation and even the people of God. And so, the fall of Assyria was a true and powerful sign of God’s righteousness, but only a foreshadowing of the ultimate peace and justice that the people of God still wait for in hope.
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Today’s Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist is truly unique among the saints. Not only is it one of only three birthdays celebrated on the Church calendar – the others being the birth of Jesus on Christmas and the birth of Mary on September 8 – but it’s actually a higher order of celebration than even Mary’s birthday. September 8 is what’s called a feast day, whereas today we celebrate what’s called a solemnity. So, for instance, if September 8 happens to fall on a Sunday, we don’t celebrate Mary’s birthday that year. But if June 24 falls on a Sunday, we still celebrate St. John the Baptist.
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We all know Venerable Patrick Peyton’s most famous sayings: “The family that prays together, stays together,” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace.” One of the blessings of working here at Holy Cross Family Ministries and getting to know Fr. Peyton better is learning some of his lesser known but no less profound quotes. For instance, on the wall of our conference room is this beautiful Patrick Peyton insight: “The Our Father raises the family circle to the highest level.”
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Our own Biblical worldview is so familiar to us that I don’t think we always realize how truly extraordinary it is. Throughout most of human history and human societies, powerful men have pretty much been able to take advantage of anonymous people with little challenge or consequence. Yet in today’s reading from the Book of Kings, King Ahab – who, though not a good man, still at least initially seems guided by God’s principles for Israel – feels powerless to force Naboth to do his will. It’s only when Ahab’s foreign, pagan queen Jezebel -- who represents the ungodly views of the world -- gets involved that Ahab embraces the notion of his absolute entitlement as king. But, as we will hear tomorrow, Ahab and Jezebel suffer dire consequences for his act of violence. And Naboth himself is not relegated to being some anonymous victim, lost to history. Three thousand years later, we as God’s people still remember his name and mourn the injustice he suffered.
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Jesus’ death and Resurrection is the most important moment in human history, an event of literally cosmic significance. And so, when you stop to think about it, it is remarkable that Jesus chooses to set this infinitely unique and important moment in the context of His traditional Jewish faith and the ritual of Passover. On the night before the Son of God is to die for the sins of the entire human race throughout all of human history, this is what is most important to Him: that He celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples, and so connect this ritual commemoration of Israel’s freedom from bondage with His new Covenant of eternal freedom from sin and death.
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