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December 30, 2023: Our Redemption Begins with the Incarnation of the Christ Child
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As we come to the end of another year in world history, a history that began some time back when God said “Let there be light” billions of years ago, we pray for the elusive search for peace in our world. When God created the world, there were no factions that came with the Lord’s act of love. There was no division. No turmoil. No infighting or out-fighting. There was no Red Sox vs. Yankees (that was a recent development when compared to the age of the world). There was no bickering, family spats, no cursing other drivers on the road as we think we’re the only perfect drivers. There was no emergency surgery, no kidnapping, no armed robberies, hijacks, carjackings, and no death stares from across the room as I see one spouse giving to another once in a while. No. The world was absent all this friction that we brought on over the past handful of millennia and longer. Boy, I can’t wait to return to God’s original purpose in heaven one day, where Jesus is my only Lord (for he truly is the only one), where Blessed Mary is forever beautiful and perfect, and where I can play a card game of Go Fish with four former fishermen called to be Apostles. I’ve heard through the grapevine the Peter, Andrew, James, and John have never been beaten at this game. I predict I will be the first one to take them down.
When God said “Let there be light,” making a decision that He seemed to regret in the Book of Genesis, a regret the Lord has since taken back (thank God), the Holy Trinity made a decision in perfect unison, which they always do, that us creatures who cause Him so much trouble, like an out-of-control 2-year old, are actually worth redeeming. Some would ask “Why?” There have been times I was one of them doing the asking. “Why, Lord, would you redeem such wretched creatures like myself and a bunch of others I’ve seen in the news along the way?” But, it’s when I’m blessed to meet a genuinely good person, a person who lives a life of goodness and love, even though they may struggle with being successful at times, that I can understand why God concluded that we are of the redeemable sort.
I think of a couple of recent funerals at which I presided to allow myself the continuance of understanding why we are redeemable, despite the fact that we continue to beat each other up, both verbally and physically, each day in this world (I won’t say God-forsaken world. It’s hard to say this phrase when writing a column on our redeemability, which God thinks we are). A short number of weeks ago, yours truly presided at the funeral of Marion Falcone. I didn’t know Marion prior to her passing into life eternal. However, I did get to know a few things about her husband Louis (Louie) since his wife’s passing. Although God creates us all differently, and Louie and his wife Marion were very different people, there had to be much in common during their 67 years of marriage. For if Marion was anything like Louie in the person he was (I did Louie’s funeral one month after his wife’s funeral), then I can understand with the greatest joy and pleasure how God has deemed us redeemable in body, spirit, and soul. Their qualities as a married couple, which is one theme of family life we share on this Sunday’s Feast of the Holy Family, were qualities that would make any relative of theirs proud of the lives they lived and the work they accomplished during their 90-plus years of life.
Another funeral that helped me to understand God’s decision to consider us redeemable was that of a former classmate from grammar school at Worcester Central Catholic on Temple St. (the old St. John’s High School). His name is Mark Milewski. Mark recently died at the age of 63, was one month older than the writer of this column, and was a genuinely good person throughout his life. And I do mean genuinely good. I used to run into Mark once in a while when visiting his place of employment, the now sold C&R Tire on Randolph Rd. in Worcester, where this good guy worked for a few decades. It’s where Marked helped to support his family as a devoted husband and father of three daughters. There was nothing complicated about him. Mark was a pleasant man, always ready to shake a hand in greeting. He understood what was important in his life: God and family, staying close to both with God in the lead. The relevant family theme on this Feast of the Holy Family in Mark’s life is that of a faithful husband, loving father, and friend. May God grant this long-ago friend from grammar school the eternal rest he deserves for his faith and love for God, and for his beautiful family.
Going back to the Book of Genesis, which we hear proclaimed in the Year B Cycle of readings for the Holy Family Feast, we hear God’s call of Abram, not quite yet Abraham (I’m still waiting for God to change my name. Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, or Big Papi would be just fine). In the sadness of his life, and because Abram has a wife (Sarah), there are no children to be found in their marriage. They have been skunked by some biological fact that will not allow this couple to be with child. Which happens to be one of the worst – if not the worst – curses a married couple could endure in the eyes of distant neighbors at the time of Abram. I do pray this western “attitude” of bringing more than one child – or zero children – into the world will cease in the not-so-distant future. Not only is this not very good for a nation’s economy not having enough workers, but it’s also not good for the general beauty of our world. Children may drive their parents crazy at times, but children also make the world a much more interesting place, to say the least. They are the essence of God’s beautiful creation.
As the story of Abraham goes, God reveals a small touch of his redeeming will by telling the faithful one that his descendants will be as numerous at the stars. And God wasn’t referring to Hollywood or some sports team. The Lord referred to Abraham’s future family as countless as the objects in the high sky. A family numerous in count, and a family called to be devoted to and worship the one true God, the God of Abraham. If God thought we were not of the redeemable sort, then why would the God of creation help create a large family of faithful believers through the persons of Abraham and Sarah, those who would be called sons and daughters of the Most High? God likes abundance when addressing the issue of life. And the Lord prefers abundance over the possibility of a small remnant when addressing the issue of how many offer him true worship.
On this Feast of the Holy Family, we understand with joy, I pray, that our God is a God of the family. The idea of family may be seen in a few ways, beginning, of course, with our own families. Those who look like each other; those who grew up in the same household; those who shared their toys as kids (yea, right!); those who ate meals together at the same table; those who told thousands of stories over the many years under the same roof, stories about the events of their personal lives; those who rode the bus together to school, and stood up for each other when some bully or wiseguy tried to intimidate our brother or sister; those we have grown old with in years; the ones we prayed with as one in the name of Jesus; and those we’ve felt the obligation to care for when they grew sickly, especially deathly sick. This family is the first unit in any healthy culture and society. And as this family unit remains under attack today in an exceedingly godless culture, we remain firm as living examples of what God had in mind when he created Adam & Eve.
Another family unit that is central to how God created us, finding worthy of redemption, is that of the national family, if you will. We have all kinds of such families in our world. Americans, Mexicans, Canadiens, Ghanaians (Fr. Enoch), French, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Icelanders up north, Columbians and Peruvians down south, and all those good people in Central America, to name but a few national families. People who take good pride in their heritage, called to share it with others in peace. This type of family unit does God’s will, making us redeemable, when each nation seeks the good of all others, and not only oneself. Is this a pipe dream? Some would think so, but don’t count me among them. The family as a nation lives out their better angels when caring for one another within their own boundaries, for sure, but also living an attitude of caring for others in need of assistance in some way. I like to think our America has done this to a large extent over the past two and a half centuries, with some mistakes along the way of course. But we are a nation that has responded to the needs of other nations in crisis or having to deal with the ravages of Mother Nature.
The last family unit, which I consider to be the most difficult one that God sees as redeemable, but Jesus has already redeemed despite its countless failures to be worthy of redemption, is that of the world family. By this, I mean a family of one as made in God’s image and likeness. Every person who has ever lived has this in common with all others who have been conceived in their mother’s womb. The perfect oneness of this family won’t happen until Jesus returns and renews the creation as a whole. Then, true oneness will be realized only through God’s power without our help. However, in the meantime, we are called to strive for this oneness as a world, which really means world peace. A peace that can be driven only by peaceful leaders who seek true peace and not control, and peaceful people who reject all violence as a means of “righting any past wrongs.”
For Christians, we know our redemption begins with the Incarnation of the Christ child. Our redemption is raised on the Cross of Jesus, and shown to be victorious in his resurrection that destroyed the power of death. There is no better place to begin this matter of redemption than with the Holy Family of Nazareth. A family of love, peace, and all the virtues combined.