I want to welcome the 20 young men who are with us this weekend at St. Michael’s for a vocation discernment retreat. They arrived Friday afternoon and will depart Sunday after lunch. If you see them walking around, please welcome them to Tybee Island, and also please say a prayer for their discernment!
The first Sunday after Christmas in the Catholic Church is the Feast which honors the holy family; Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All three of these persons are holy, to be sure! But the idea is…now that Jesus has come to us, we can invite Him into our families and make our families truly holy. Wherever Jesus is invited, He brings truth, goodness, love, and holiness.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has much to say about the traditional human family. “Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The loves of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.” CCC#2201
“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 the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.” CCC#2202
“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.” CCC#2207
The make-up and purpose of the traditional human family was established by God Himself and revealed to us both through natural law and Revelation. It is not in our power to change these truths. With understanding, love and compassion for those persons who are not living in this state, the ideal must still be proclaimed, taught and sought. And we all have people we love whose lives have been tragically affected by divorce, cohabitation and today, so many other arrangements.
The Catholic Church has been here for 2,000 years, and she has proclaimed this teaching on the human family unceasingly. The Franciscan Georgia martyrs were killed, less than a hundred miles from here, for proclaiming that polygamy is not the teaching of Christ, and that those who choose to be Christians could only have one wife. They were killed for proclaiming the truth of the human family.
The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us of the great gift of family life! It is “an intimate community of life and love” (St. John Paul II), and the ideal place for raising children to be healthy, happy, and holy. Let’s all renew our invitation to Jesus to come into our families and to make them holy. There is no situation broken which Jesus cannot fix. There is no family so twisted that Jesus cannot untwist it.
Come Lord Jesus into our families! We love You and we want to be holy.
Fr. Brett Brannen Pastor
PS: Thank you!I am most grateful for the wonderful cards and gifts I received from so many of our parishioners here at St. Michael’s Church at Christmas. Your kindness to me has been overwhelming, and I thank God that I am here with you!