20201022 THE SANCTITY AND UNITY OF THE FAMILY
22 October, 2020, Thursday, 29th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading |
Ephesians 3:14-21 © |
A prayer that faithful may know the love of Christ
This is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 32(33):1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19 © |
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
For the word of the Lord is faithful
and all his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his love.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or: | Ph3:8-9 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I have accepted the loss of everything
and I look on everything as so much rubbish
if only I can have Christ
and be given a place in him.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 12:49-53 © |
How I wish it were blazing already!
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!
‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’
THE SANCTITY AND UNITY OF THE FAMILY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Ephesians 3:14-21; Luke 12:49-53 ]
Since ancient times, the basic unity of society has always been the family. A strong and united family is the bedrock to build a strong nation. Marriage and family are sacred and not just secular institutions. Religious rites often accompany every marriage. The family is not only the nucleus of society; it extends also to the tribe or clan as well. Allegiance to the family and the clan was a serious obligation. Being disowned by the family or the clan was possibly the worst form of excommunication. Therefore, if one wants to belong to the family or clan, one must follow the culture, practices and religion as well.
However, the cohesiveness and sacredness of marriage and family have gradually eroded today. We have lost the sense of the sacred in the institution of marriage and family. This is due to increasing number of divorces, dysfunctional families, migration, financial independence of the spouse, demands of social life, and the pursuit of one’s career and business. Of course, the primary reason is the loss of the sense of the Sacred in this secular world. With God put aside, all the moral and cultural values have lost their foundation. Marriage is celebrated as a mere social event. With the acceptance of same-sex union and even the adoption of babies by same-sex couples, marriage and family are in disarray.
However, religion is also one of the causes of division in the family. We are very much aware that if a member of the family were to change religion, the entire family would be so upset and there would no longer be peace in the family. Having a different religion often means having different values, different cultures and social and religious celebrations. Many families are broken because parents have different religions, and the children are confused as to which one is right. Consequently, members of the family tend to go on separate ways because they have separate friends and communities to which they belong. At times, there could be bitter conflicts over doctrines and values that further divide the couple or the family.
Jesus was cognizant of this reality when He said bluntly, “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Jesus was very much aware that accepting Him would cause division in the family. More so for the Jews because they placed great emphasis on the family and their race. They considered themselves as the People of God and the only people eligible for entry into the Kingdom of God. We can imagine how scandalized they must have been when they heard the truth that Jesus spoke about.
Why did Jesus come to bring about division in the family? He should be bringing unity and peace instead! Indeed, Jesus is our peace and the one who reconciles the human family. He comes to reconcile us all as one family, not just our individual family but also the entire human race. St Paul, writing to the Colossians said, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:19f) And to the Galatians, he made it clear, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) So the mission of Jesus, the baptism which He had to go through, was to “bring fire to the earth” so that humanity will go beyond just seeking unity in one’s family or tribe or nation but the unity of the entire human race. This is because we are all one family of God.
This is precisely what St Paul wanted to teach us in his prayer to the Holy Trinity in today’s first reading. Our ties with each other must go beyond biological to spiritual ties. What binds us together is that God is our common Father. “This is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name.” In saying that God is our Father, he was speaking of God’s paternity and His Fatherhood. In His paternity, we recognize that God is the origin of all life. He is our creator and our source of origin. This is what we mean when we say that God is our Father. It does not mean that God the Father is male. All humanity have one common origin in God.
However, God’s fatherhood is different. We are speaking about His love, care, mercy, and compassion for us. We can never know the Fatherhood of God other than that He has created us and that He is above all in power, majesty and glory, intelligence and knowledge. But through Jesus, we see the face of God in and through Him. In all that Jesus said and did, He mediated the Father’s face to us. Hence, in the gospel, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (Jn 14:6f) The Church does not have a liturgical feast in honour of the Father because we can worship the Father only through Jesus. Without Jesus, the Father remains pure Spirit, the Unseen God to us. All our conceptions of God the Father are derived from our relationship with Christ and our knowledge of Him in the Holy Spirit. This was what Paul wrote, “Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.”
Because of this, the human family draws it image from God. The man is called father because he is the origin of human life since he gives the seed to the woman. Of course, it is the woman who nurtures the human embryo to become a full-grown baby. She is called Mother because of her nurturing role. This is why in the bible, it is stated in no uncertain terms, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gn 1:27) Man and woman, husband and wife, together mediate the paternity and fatherhood of God. We are not just biological parents of our children, but more importantly, we are called to exercise our fatherhood and motherhood by radiating the love of God to each other and to the members of the family.
Besides revealing to us the true image of God our Father, Jesus also reminded us of the indissolubility of marriage between a man and a woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mt 19:5f) He also taught us the importance of looking after our children well. “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt 18:6) Indeed, if we protect our marriages and our families, we can truly build the family of God. Then all of us, regardless of nationality, will be one family.
This is why Christ insisted that we put Him as the center of our life. If Christ asked us to accept Him, it is in order that our understanding of family would be larger than merely our own family; and our love will be deeper and wider because we will learn to love like Christ. Only through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, can Christ live in our hearts “through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love”, we “will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth” of God’s love in Christ. The Church, which is the family of God, is called to be a sign and instrument of unity of the human race. By staying close to the Church, the mystical body of Christ, we become one with everyone.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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