“Every baptized person should consider that it is in the womb of the Church where he is transformed from a child of Adam to a child of God.” (Saint Anslem).
Christmas is fast approaching and the time to spend time among family is also speeding towards us, and as I have been slowly working to prepare myself for the increased family interactions of Christmas time, I have been reflecting more about family.
And in reflecting on family, my thoughts have returned more and more frequently to reflect on God Himself. For GOD – Our God – is a RELATIONSHIP… That is the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity! In other words, God Himself is a family!
You see, the Father and the Son are family and the LOVE between them is the Holy Spirit. And so, being a PERFECT Father and a PERFECT Son, the LOVE in that Family of the Trinity is PERFECT and results in a PERFECTLY EQUAL PERSON of the Family – the Holy Spirit.
And this is why Christ’s sacrifice – His CHOICE to sacrifice Himself for LOVE of us – is how we can reconnect with God. You see, when God created us, He created us to be His CHILDREN. Scott Hahn writes in his book, “Swear to God”… “By blessing the seventh day, God swore a covenant to His world. He is not just a proprietor of creation. He is not just the master of a race of slaves. He is Father to a family.”
The problem came with the fall of humankind. It was in that moment of Original Sin that humanity BROKE the BOND of that family. We literally LOST our place in God’s Home because we rejected the Will of the Father – of the HEAD OF THE HOUSE! And we were lost forever. There was no hope. And just as a parent morns when their child is lost to them – how much more did God morn to lose His beloved creatures FOREVER? How sorrowful was the infinite sorrow of God?
And feeling the sorrow of the Father, the Son, SACRIFICED HIMSELF to save us… He sacrificed Himself to save miserable unworthy, ungrateful, sinful me!
“Jesus is the Son common to both ‘families’. Joseph, in his relationship Jesus, was an earthly image of the Heavenly Father. Mary, who conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, became the very image of the Spirit in the World.” And it was Christ who was the connector between this FALLEN earth and that ETERNAL heaven (Scott Hahn in his book, “Joy to the World”)!
And because Our Blessed Mother was so intimately connected with God – as the “handmaid” of the Father, the “mother” of the Son and the “spouse” of the Holy Spirit – she too suffered. Saint Anslem tells us that “While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son's life, a life that she loved far more than her own.”
And it is for this reason that “Our veneration of Mary is an essential part of our imitation of Christ. We follow Him not just by honouring our own mothers, but also by honouring whomever He honours.” (Scott Hahn, “Catholic for a Reason II: Mother of God”).
And so, as I reflect on families this Christmas, I give thanks to God. Because as Saint Vincent Ferrer said, “Every baptized person should consider that it is in the womb of the Church where he is transformed from a child of Adam to a child of God.”
And as a “child of God” I can dare – despite my weakness and my ingratitude, despite my disrespect and sinfulness, despite my weakness and my miserableness – I can dare to pray…
And that is surely the most joyfully wonderful miraculous thing in the entire world…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.