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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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The second day of February is always special. It is forty days after the Solemnity of the Birth of Jesus. In the Bible, forty days is a sacred time of cleansing and readiness before something holy happens. Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai before receiving the Law. After childbirth, a mother waited forty days before being purified and presenting the child in the Temple. Noah endured forty days of rain before the world was cleansed and renewed. Nineveh was given forty days to repent and change. Even today, the Church gives us forty days of Lent, time to cleanse our hearts and prepare for a new life. Today's feast has multifaceted perspectives. Do we discuss the mother's purification after birth, thanksgiving, and offering the gift of a new child? Or the revelations of Simeon and Anna? Or Candlemas and Jesus as the light to the nations? Today is also the World Day of Consecrated Life, to thank God for the gift of consecrated life, religious sisters, brothers, monks, nuns, and consecrated lay people. Today should be a good day to focus on both parents together, In the image of Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus in the Temple, we have a wonderful model of husband and wife united in practicing the faith and in raising their child in the faith.
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We are in snow season here on the East Coast. Having grown up in the African tropics where the sun comes out almost every day, snow season is something to behold! From the abundance of snow, people created snowball games. From the snowball, people created the analogy of a “snowball effect.” Out of the snow one can create snowballs, and when you throw a snowball downhill, it rolls and picks up a lot more snow, becoming big and bigger, and gaining even higher momentum as it rolls downhill. The “snowball effect” is an analogy about something that starts small and speed yet grows larger and its speed accelerates.
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We have at some point told someone you are just or someone told us we are just. Justice presupposes both inner disposition as well as outward expositions. It is how I view myself and others inwardly that generates my actions towards myself and others. Thomas Aquinas will say justice is a capability of doing what is just and of being just in action and intention. That means my deed presupposes fulfilling my desire or interest. But our will which in a way generates justice is not perpetually just. It is only God’s will that is perpetually just. God will alone remain eternally just (Anselm). However, the desire to do good promotes the tendency of doing good. If I desire to do good always then the action to do that good will likely occur and be sustained in me. In desiring of doing good and attempting to do it I generate a virtue. If I desire to be just and try my level best to administer justice in my dealing I will be practicing justice.
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Miss Clara, a fourth-grade Catechism teacher told her kids one day: Children, let me tell you today about a quiet man, who used to be immersed into much reading and writing. This man was big and gentle, but because he stayed silent, people thought he wasn’t very smart. One day, his friends played a trick on him. As he was busy writing, one of them pointed to the window and shouted, ‘Look, there’s an angel!’ He ran to see, but there was nothing there. Everyone laughed.”
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Normally on the day of ordination, parents or guardians walk the person to be ordained up to the bishop, they do a ritual of handing him over. Simple as that may appear, but it has great significance in both the life of the one to be ordained as well as his parents. He leaves his family of origin and surrenders to the authority of the bishop a representative of the wider spiritual family; to serve all as he shares in Jesus’ priesthood. For the parents, it’s an act of letting go and not holding on, much less the generosity of offering their child to God.
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Whereas today’s gospel speaks about the Lord calling his first disciples, I invite you to focus on the relational matters that existed between David and King Saul that we have been reflecting on throughout the week. We have been hearing readings from the Book of Genesis specifically telling us about the complex dynamic that developed between David and King Saul. In our first reading today, David who was a loyal servant to King Saul, is on the run because the King thinks David had become too popular and the King feared David would take over his Kingdom. The complex relationship was borne out of jealousy and insecurity around power. We heard today that David, who had suffered so much harassment and persecution by David, got an opportunity to get revenge and destroy King Saul, but he restrained himself.
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