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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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Today, we celebrate the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this memorial of the Queenship of Mary, the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has asked us to pray and fast for global peace. One of the titles of Mary is “Queen of Peace.”
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There’s an old Irish saying, which goes; “The most beautiful road is the one that leads you home.” We are on a journey, with a destination in mind. But if we’re honest, most of us pack for life as if this world were the final destination, extra baggage, emergency snacks, a few “just in case” projects. We live as if we are settling in for good, when in reality, we are all just passing through the departure lounge. And speaking of travel, let me share with you a story my friend forwarded to me. There is this couple from Minnesota, they were experiencing a freezing and severe winter. And so they decided, well, why don't we go down to Florida to experience some good weather? And they said, well, why don't we see if we can stay at the same hotel where they honeymooned 20 years earlier? So they made the arrangements. With the last-minute bookings, the only little hiccup was that they couldn't get on the same flight. And so they agreed that the husband will fly down on Thursday; the wife was coming on Friday. And the husband arrives safely at Florida.
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Every generation of young people have the saints for whom they feel a particular devotion. Teenagers and children today clearly love Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized on September 7. It makes sense; he’s one of them, a teenager himself, and someone who effortlessly used the tools of our digital world. Many Catholics around my age, we Gen X Catholics, feel a special connection with today’s saint, Maximilian Kolbe. Maybe it’s because ours was really the last generation to grow up in the shadow of World War II -- with a real consciousness of it as a battle for humanity’s soul -- since many of us had grandparents who had fought in Europe or Japan.
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If you’ve ever been stuck in the slowest line at the grocery store, you know a little of what Moses felt. Forty years of leading Israel through the wilderness was like being trapped behind a customer with 20 coupons, a cart full of melons, and a personal chat with the cashier. Just when you think you’re finally getting out, the lane closes. Moses led the people for forty years, through wilderness, disasters, rebellions, and at the end, God shows him the Promised Land from a mountaintop and God says, “Beautiful, isn’t it? But “You will not enter it. Thank you very much, Now Joshua will take it from here.”
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In today’s Gospel, we see the nitty gritty reality of the Incarnation. The Eternal Son of God chose to humble Himself and be born as a man. And not just a man, but a man living in Nazareth, one of the most insignificant villages in His country. And not just a man living in Nazareth, but a manual laborer. And so, despite Jesus’ powerful teaching and wondrous miracles, the people of Nazareth disrespect Him: isn’t this man just one of us? And isn’t He even one of the more lowly ones among us? And the response of Jesus’ neighbors, when you think about it in merely human terms, actually does make some sense. I mean, before Jesus, can you think of any other great figure in history, anyone who led an important movement, who wasn’t a member of the elite class or a military figure? I can’t. And yet, here Jesus is, proclaiming that He is ushering in the Kingdom of God. Really? A carpenter? From Nazareth? Not a nobleman. Not a general.
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For many years today’s feast day was simply the Memorial of Saint Martha. Pope Francis gave a beautiful gift to the Church by changing it to the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. In doing so, he changed today into a celebration of family.
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