Faithful Citizenship in Pa's 1st Congressional District and the Central Garden State: "You will be hated by all because of My name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved" (a prelude to the Feast of the Holy Family?).

Saturday, December 26, 2015

"You will be hated by all because of My name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved" (a prelude to the Feast of the Holy Family?).

Jesus said to His disciples:
“Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for My sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:17-22).

This morning's Gospel may not be comfortable to ears accustomed to "prosperity gospel" distortions. "Following God's will, abandoning yourself to the Divine Providence, will indeed give you treasure in Heaven, but don't expect it necessarily to give you treasure on earth" (Father (now Bishop) Robert Barron, The Dangers of the Prosperity Gospel). Tomorrow's Feast of the Holy Family is a wonderful time to reflect on what the Catechism proclaims about the family:

I. The Family in God’s Plan

The nature of the family

2201    The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities. (1625)

2202    A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated. (1882)

2203    In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties. (369)

The Christian family 1655-1658

2204    “The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church.”9 It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.10 (533)

2205    The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father’s work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task. (1702)

2206    The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising above all from the members’ respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a “sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children’s upbringing.”11

II. The Family and Society

2207    The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society. (1880, 372, 1603)

2208    The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped [sic], and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”12

2209    The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life. (1883)

2210    The importance of the family for the life and well–being of society13 entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty “to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.”14

2211    The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
–the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family’s own moral and religious convictions;
–the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
–the freedom to profess one’s faith, to hand it on, and raise one’s children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
–the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;
–in keeping with the country’s institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
–the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
–the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.15

2212    The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called “our Father.” In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a “unit” in the human collective; he is “someone” who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect. (225, 1931)

2213    Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited to guaranteeing rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations between employers and employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose a natural good will in keeping with the dignity of human persons concerned for justice and fraternity. (1939)

With regard to protecting and promoting the family, we are witnessing the political community and our elected officials fail us terribly! Rather than silence from our pulpits, we need to be reminded that we "will be hated by all because of" God's "name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved"! We MUST witness to the inestimable values of human life and marriage/family!

Click to Email Pa's Congressional Delegation, asking for Co-Sponsorship/Support of pro life and pro marriage/family legislation backed by the USCCB and/or the NCHLA.

Click to Email all of Bucks County's representatives and senators in Harrisburg.

While the world relentlessly tries to tell us otherwise, Christ and His Church tell us that human life and marriage/family are of inestimable value!"

Federal Level

Pro-Life (USCCB)

As per the USCCB, "Action alerts for pro-life issues can also be found through our partner organization, the National Committee for the Human Life Amendment." The NCHLA's "Current Action Alerts" include the following: