The Baptism of Our Lord Year B 2015

 The Baptism of Our Lord (B)     

         (Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11)

Behold, I tell you a mystery are words of St. Paul in his first letter to his converts at Corinth (15:51), and they are most applicable to our consideration of today’s celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord.  Let us first of all look at John and his work of baptising or immersing.  For preference I will use the word “immersing” because John was not baptising in the way we understand the word as disciples of Jesus.  John had been sent to warn the People of God that a great judgement was imminent, and that they would have to mend their ways if they were to be able to survive that judgement.  He had a special message for those who, having fallen away from Temple and synagogue worship and daily obedience to the Law, now wanted to return to faithful Jewish practice.  In keeping with the seriousness and the urgency of the situation, John proclaimed to those now coming in crowds to hear him preaching by the banks of the river Jordan that merely ritual immersions or lustrations were not enough: those who were truly repentant needed to bring forth fruit worthy of such repentance by actually starting to do what was right and just; they must, he said, first of all bring forth visible, tangible, proof of sincere repentance, for God would be satisfied with nothing less than true righteousness, personal as well as ritual.   Those aware of, and sorry for, their personal failings had to make it clear to the Lord and, initially, to John also, that they were sincerely turning away from evil: being resolutely intent on both amending their future ways and making a measure of present atonement for past misdeeds.  God alone could cleanse a sinful heart, John proclaimed, and, He would indeed cleanse the heart of those who, in accordance with John’s exhortation, showed their repentance by sincerely taking upon themselves the practice of righteousness.  Once the heart had been cleansed by God, then the immersion they were seeking from John could profitably purify the body; for bodily purity was of the utmost importance to all Jewish believers who wished to be acceptable to God through obedience to His Law.  The whole person, inside and out, had to be prepared to do the whole of God’s will, which demanded right human behaviour together with true and acceptable divine worship.

We now turn our thoughts to Jesus.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all tell us about the immersion of Jesus by John in the Jordan.  Only two of them, however -- Matthew and Luke -- tell us about the birth of Jesus; Mark and John do not mention the manner of His birth, presumably because for them, Jesus’ public significance only began with this wondrous event of His immersion in the Jordan.  How are we to understand these differences in approach?  We should note that although Matthew and Luke tell us of the conception and birth of Jesus, they make no mention whatsoever of the growing Child doing any marvels in the power of the Spirit: all such mighty deeds only come after His immersion or baptism; in that respect they are at one with Mark and John. 

So we can see that although Jesus was indeed conceived of the Virgin Mary by the working of the Holy Spirit, and given the name Immanuel, ‘God with us’, as Matthew and Luke tell us:

The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God;” (Luke 1:35)

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us”; (Matthew 1:23)

nevertheless, for both Matthew and Luke, the Child had -- like every other child -- to grow slowly, through childhood to youth and through youth to manhood, before He could finally attain the maturity required for His role as Saviour.  This St. Luke (2:52) explicitly tells us:

Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.

As He grew thus, Jesus became filled ever more and more with the desire to know, love, and serve His heavenly Father, as we recognize from the occasion when -- still physically and psychologically only a youth -- He was lost to Mary and Joseph in Jerusalem. There, He was totally entranced listening to and talking with the doctors and scribes in the Temple about the God of Israel Whom He recognized as His own true Father.  He had forgotten all about returning to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, and wholeheartedly desired and was prepared -- even then and there as, possibly, a fresh ‘bar mitzvah’ youth -- to begin His public witness to His  heavenly Father.  Only after being found in the Temple by Mary and Joseph and admonished by His mother, was He willing to be led back to His home in Nazareth – without, in the least, apologizing for such commitment to His heavenly Father.

He grew not only before God but also before and with respect to humankind around Him, becoming, in the process, ever more aware of His own humanity which, though sublimely pure and holy, could not as yet enable Him to do all that He longed to do for His Father and all that needed to be done for His People. 

Eventually however, having reached full maturity in His manhood, Jesus left home in Nazareth and sought out John immersing in the Jordan all those dissatisfied with themselves in their relationship with the  God of Israel, because that was the one place in all Israel where God was most providentially present and active, and because He, Jesus, was totally consumed with longing to actually begin the mission demanded of Him by the very nature of His Being, Son of God and Son of Man: a mission for the glory of  God and His Chosen People, and for the salvation of mankind.  Ultimately however, He sought out John in response to His Father’s secret inspiration – Whose loving appreciation of and condescension towards human nature is most wonderfully to be seen in His ‘dealings’ with Mary the Virgin of Nazareth and Elizabeth, with John the Baptist here beside the river Jordan, and with Mary the Mother at Cana -- that He might, on this occasion of John’s immersing of Jesus, publicly commission His beloved Son for His Messianic ministry and also show His Fatherly appreciation of John’s lifelong work of preparation for this manifestation of His Son, before it would be brought to its brutal earthly conclusion in the dank, dark, solitude of a royal dungeon.

Now we are prepared to understand the meeting of John the Baptist and Jesus at the banks of the Jordan.  Jesus stepped forward, manifesting not only His longing to glorify His Father but also His personal awareness of His human nature’s enduring inability to fully support Him in that.  He needed His Father’s ‘sending’!  In that sense Jesus was the first fruits of all those who were, are, and ever will be, repentant; because Jesus was totally, absolutely, aware, of what none of us are ever sufficiently aware, namely, that God alone is good, and that human nature can do no such good of itself.  The failure to appreciate our natural nothingness leads ordinary sons and daughters of Adam into sins of all sorts; with Jesus it simply made Him long, with excruciating desire, for that crowning fulfilment which only His Father’s sending of Himself and Gift of the Holy Spirit would impart.

The Father was indeed well pleased with His Son.  He had sent His Son made flesh to glorify His Name and save His People from their sins; and, in pursuance of this aim, the Child’s growth in holiness had not in any way separated, cut Him off, from men; on the contrary, His gradual human development had been such that, together with an ever greater awareness of and longing for His Father, He experienced an ever deeper compassion for His People and understanding of the trials and sufferings of mankind.  The God-given-Child was now on the threshold of becoming the perfect God-made-Man His Father had planned; and so, in the sublime fullness and perfection of His humility, He stood before John the Baptist beside the river Jordan; and although John was allowed the fulfilment -- in God’s condescension -- of immersing Jesus, it was the Father in heaven Who embraced His Son rising from the waters, and Who bestowed on Him the Gift which is the Holy Spirit to ultimately prepare and finally empower Him for the task which lay immediately before Him: His conquest of the devil in his own homeland, the desert, and His Messianic proclamation of God’s salvation to Israel.  And so, as we heard in the Gospel:

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.  On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” 

Thus Jesus was presented to God’s people as the sinless leader of all those who have become aware of their human needs and inadequacies, and in that He was and is at one with all repentant sinners of all times: for although He did not, and indeed, could not, share their personal sins -- sin being totally alien to His nature and Personal character -- nevertheless, their human needs and personal, godly, aspirations are to be found in Him, sublimely transfigured and transcended. 

He rose up out of the immersing waters and His heavenly Father embraced Him, as the Psalmist (19:5) puts it, like a strong man ready to run his race. John had indeed prepared the Chosen People for Him Who was to come; and now, here on Jordan’s bank, the Father confirmed the original gift of His Son, by His messianic bestowal of the Spirit, thus enabling Jesus -- the messianic Son of Man -- to take up the baton for the final stage in God’s saving plan as foretold:

He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.  (Micah 5:4)

Jesus was, indeed, become the good Shepherd, Who would lead His flock in full awareness and understanding of their human weakness, revealing to them heavenly things with divine authority, whilst empowering them to walk along His  way by granting them a share in His own Spirit.  And thus, ultimately, will He lead all of us who persevere in docility to His guidance and obedience to His teaching, into our glorious fulfilment as children of God: in Him, and with Him, become co-heirs to eternal life in the heavenly Kingdom of His Father and our Father.    

The Epiphany 2015

             The          Epiphany                                           (Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12)

It is commonly thought that the technical terminology of some Church documents and theological writings makes them not only largely meaningless but even conducive to spiritual indifference for ordinary Catholics.  And yet, because such doctrinal terminology has been finely tuned over many centuries by some of the greatest minds and the deepest hearts among the disciples of Christ, in many cases it most subtly articulates supremely beautiful truths about God and His great goodness toward men, truths well able to kindle ardent flames of divine love and glowing words of divine praise from faithful men and women still to be found who -- in even these most modern times -- are able to quieten worldly worries and the multitudinous noises and distractions of society around them long enough for them to dispassionately listen to, thoughtfully appreciate, and gratefully learn from the teaching of Mother Church.
 

Our God is unique and transcendent in all His perfections, such is the teaching of both Christian philosophy and Catholic dogma: He cannot be contained within any limits because He is infinite, and infinity is limitless: He is the Almighty and the All Holy, whose sovereign Power sublimely expresses and sustains His incomparable Wisdom and supreme Goodness. 

In line with such appreciations of God we find in today’s Gospel reading that the Magi first became aware of the proximate birth of the Christ through the appearance of an extraordinarily bright star in the heavens, whereupon and without delay, they set out to follow its lead, bearing as their first gift, incense for the most holy Being announced by this new heavenly phenomenon.  Their high expectations were to be abundantly confirmed by certain shepherds – mentioned by Saint Luke -- who reported that, as they were watching over their sheep in the fields during the night, an angel from heaven appeared to them proclaiming the birth of One most Holy, and that a veritable multitude of the heavenly host thereupon joined the angel, singing the praises of God and the glory of the Child Whom the Magi had been so diligently seeking, with the words:
 

            Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth.
 

The Magi, having long followed the lead of the star from heaven, had expected to find the One they were seeking among the highest on earth, that is, in Jerusalem, the city where the great God of Israel had chosen to dwell; perhaps, indeed, at the court of him who was the present Rome-favoured king of this Chosen People and builder of their glorious Temple which was one of the wonders of the Roman world.  Consequently, in line with this expectancy, they had brought with them a second gift; this time, one of royal gold.
 

They had been well received by Israel’s king, Herod, who, after having summoned and enquired of his most learned scribes and scholars, priests and sages, encouraged the Magi in their search for the Child with an oracle taken from the age-old Jewish scriptures:
 

You, Bethlehem, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.
 

The Magi, therefore, confidently proceeded in their search for the Child by continuing to follow the star of great beauty in accordance with the ancient oracle, taking grateful advantage of the royal encouragement given them in the holy city of Jerusalem where the One to come was clearly foreknown, expected, and -- it would seem -- reverently desired.
 

However, since no limits can be set to God’s perfections, though God is indeed limitlessly in majesty, He is also limitless in humility: He is greater than all, yet there is none more lowly than He.  Therefore, when the Magi eventually arrived at the spot over which their guiding star seemed to have stopped, they saw -- to their surprise indeed, but not to their dismay -- that there was little more to be seen than a house or shelter containing a manger, in which:
 

They saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him.

This was not what they had expected to find, and yet, turning to take up and offer their gifts, they realized how wondrously wise had been the Power that had brought them thus far; for, bringing forth their gifts, they found – as intended -- not only frankincense for the holy and gold for the great, but also myrrh, essential indeed -- and again intended -- for the anointing of high priests and kings, and also – and this was quite unintentional -- much appreciated for the weak who need to be embalmed in death, and for the lowly and rejected who need succour and comfort in their pain and distress:
 

Nicodemus came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. (John 19:39-40)
 

They brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it; and then they crucified Him.  (Mark 15:22-24)
 

People of God, today we celebrate the Epiphany, the celebration of the glory and majesty of Jesus.  However, I hope that, having come to some appreciation of the rich content of the technical terminology used in the Church’s teaching at times, you are now aware that the glory and the power, the majesty and the beauty, of Jesus in all His perfections, in no way excludes you, because those perfections extend down as well as up, so to speak: God is the greatest, He is also the least; supremely majestic, and yet there is none so humble.  In the Eucharist here at Mass He offers Himself as bread and wine to be our spiritual food, and yet His power is such that He supports the earthly being of all that is around us, while His eternal majesty is worshipped by myriads of angels in heaven.  He reigns in glory and bliss, and yet none -- be they brought ever so low in the bitterness of their sufferings – endure any torment or degradation that He, their Lord and Master, will not take upon Himself and share with them for their comfort and salvation.  In His omnipotent power He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of all; in His wisdom He pervades the heights and the depths as He surveys all times and seasons, past, present, and to come.  Above all, He knows our minds and hearts in all their twists and turns wherein even we ourselves are so frequently and disastrously at a loss.  This He can do because of His great love: the love that originally led Him to make us in His own likeness, and the love whereby He remade us when -- having sacrificed Himself in our flesh for our redemption -- He endowed us with His own most Holy Spirit.
 

People of God, let us understand aright the essence of this divine celebration and manifestation which is the Epiphany: our God is unique, infinite, and transcendent in His myriad perfections; and yet all His perfections can be summed up by these three words of St. John: God is love.  All the divine perfections are varied manifestations of His essential love, and so, divine charity and Jesus’ love for humankind is the key that gently opens for our understanding and gratitude all God’s wondrous doings and awesome plans.
 

For those still daunted and somewhat put-off by the technological scholarship required for the doctrinal expression and defence of God-given truth as well as its theological understanding and development, let love explain all: because love sustains all, love inspires all.  Love, and love alone – divine love, that is – embraces and supports all that Mother Church teaches, all the saving and inspiring wisdom that her Holy Scriptures contain, and all that the human mind can ever rise to understand and come to appreciate about Jesus our Saviour – Son of God and Son of man -- under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and for the glory of Him Who is the God and Father of us all.

                     

Mary, the Mother of God 2015

Mary, the Mother of God  

(Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)

St. Paul who, being totally fascinated by the Risen Christ Who called and commissioned him, hardly even mentions Our Lady, nevertheless gives us a few words in her regard that reveal to us something of the innermost ‘secret’ of Mary:

God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those under the Law.

‘God sent His Son to ransom those under the Law’.  However, His Son was born of a woman under the Law St. Paul tells us … could she, then, have been a woman yet ‘to be ransomed’?  Obviously not!  Therefore, Paul is assuming as known the forestalling ransom of Mary, that is the prevenient grace of her Immaculate Conception, enabling her to fittingly bear and give birth to the Son of God come ‘to ransom those under the Law’.

God did ‘great things’ for Mary as she would not just humbly acknowledge but exultantly proclaim to her cousin Elisabeth; but He dld not -- could not because He would not – do them without her co-operation: implicit, as regards her intellectual appreciation of what was happening to her and planned for her -- such as her Immaculate Conception and the strict Personal Divinity of the Son to be born of her, but totally explicit in her absolute moral self-commitment to the supremely holy and incomprehensibly majestic (above and beyond human comprehension) God of Israel, necessarily involving her relinquishing control of, indeed, embracing total abnegation of, self.  God, I say, would not do such great things for her without her most radical and utterly simple self-commitment in love.  Now, such self-emptiness before Him, such total openness, such absolute selflessness for Him, His purposes and His glory; that indeed, is the secret of Mary:

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

So absolute -- so complete and unreserved -- was the response of Mary to God’s initial words delivered to her by the angel Gabriel, that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else (Luke 11:27-28):

A certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

Blessed are those who hear the word of God, who like Mary let that word freely -- like a threaded needle -- introduce the Spirit of God into their lives, enabling Him to  commence His work in them.  Blessed indeed are those who then, turning neither heart nor head to right or to left, but always, simply and solely, walking in the way of God’s (W)ord and allowing God’s Spirit to lead them where He will.

We can recall here another Mary of whom the New Testament speaks most clearly in this same vein, for she is able to help us learn something more about Our Lady’s ‘secret’:

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me by myself to do all the serving?  The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. (Luke 10:38-42)

Clearly, important choices have to be made, perhaps friends offended and opposition provoked; at times, even good, very good things left aside and behind, for what is better and best in the way of God:  ‘Secretum meum, mihi.’

For further guidance we can also recall the experience of Elijah of old:

At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.   The word of the Lord came to him, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord, the Lord will be passing by.’  A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound.  When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.  A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why are you here? ... ‘Go take the road back to the desert near Damascus.  When you arrive you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram... Then Jehu, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.’  (1 Kings 9, 11-16)

The voice of God had been ardently desired, long awaited, and carefully listened for, by the prophet in his great need.  Ultimately he recognized it by its unearthly calm and peace-enshrining quiet which bespoke of holiness and led him to hide his face in his cloak before it, that thus he might listen more closely and understand most clearly what the Lord would have him do to achieve his destiny: Peace to those who are loved of God.

In our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for the Child found:

            Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in a manger.

So it is for all those disciples whom Jesus has told to take Mary to their hearts as their own Mother: in our search for Jesus, we will find Him, most easily and most surely, with the help and comfort of Mary’s prayerful presence in our lives.  Mary is no mere addition, certainly no complication, for Catholic spirituality.  Indeed, we can readily appreciate the privilege of Mary that enables her to lead each and every one of us to Jesus when we recall that she is not simply the model of the Church, but that, during her pregnancy she was, in all literal truth, the original Church itself, the unique dwelling place on earth of Jesus, God’s Son made flesh, the New Testament Ark of God’s presence among His People; and that she still is the purest essence of the Church, without spot or wrinkle of any sort.  Only in Mother Church can each and every one of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully, and that we will do most surely with Mary’s inestimable help.

St. Paul is quite explicit: it is the Spirit within us Who cries out Abba, Father!

As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into you hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

It is not that, initially, He authorises us, permits us, or even, enables us to cry ‘Abba, Father!’  It is the Spirit Himself, first coming to us as God’s gracious and most gloriously mysterious GIFT -- the sublimely precious fruit of Christ’s sacrifice -- Who thus speaks in us and for us to the Father.  Thus is Jesus, Mary’s Son, born anew in each of us for the Father.   After that, everything depends on just how much ‘room’ – so to speak -- we give the Spirit of Jesus to work freely and fruitfully in us; and that means that we must appreciate, learn from, and develop in our own lives, something of the ‘secret’ of Mary our mother: for that will ultimately determine our human and Christian development as children of God.

We should recognise that Mary is our model and inspiration for our deepest and most personal relationship with Jesus, and in Jesus, with the Father, in so far as she was always most sublimely one with her Son:

Mary kept all these things (that she had experienced and heard concerning Jesus) and pondered them in her heart.

She is the supreme example and the surest guide for anyone seeking salvation, for anyone hoping and longing to find God as our true Father, in and with Jesus.

First and foremost, we should Imitate Mary in her total commitment of trust, and confidence in God the incomprehensible and supremely loving Father:

            Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

And then, by pondering in our heart -- in the power of the Spirit -- the Good News of Jesus handed down to us by Mother Church in her Scriptures and teaching which form us as His disciples, and which, indeed, together with her sacraments, mediate His very presence in our midst as members of His Church, and in our individual hearts, as His true disciples today.

Dear People of God, let us close our considerations with heartfelt words of gratitude and praise for Mary, the Immaculate Mother of Our Lord and Saviour and – ‘thanks be to God’ -- our most beautiful and gracious Queen:

You are the glory of Jerusalem, the surpassing joy (and) splendid boast of (all reborn in Christ). You have done good and God is pleased with what you have wrought.  May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty forever and ever!  And all the people answered, “Amen!”  (Judith 15:9-10)

So be it today: Amen, amen!  Deo gratias!

                                         

The Holy Family Year B 2014

 The Holy Family (B)      

           

(Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40)

Today’s feast and the readings chosen for it by Mother Church invite us to think on the characteristics of family life from the Christian point of view: the family life of a man and woman who have dedicated their union to Christ for God’s glory, for their own fulfilment and salvation, and also that of any children the Lord may give them.  It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; a domestic church.

Notice, first of all, the absolute importance of family for us Christians: the very Son of God could not enter into this world other than by being born into a family.  One parent homes are not of God’s choosing, and, apart from special circumstances which cry to God for special grace, they are not able to provide what God wants for each and every child. Joseph and Mary were never to have sex our faith teaches, but Joseph was essential for the birth of Jesus: the family of God had to be made up of a man and a woman.  Homes of the same sex are not Christian families; they can be state-approved homes, but not acceptable Christian families. Notice here that God the Father, when requiring that His Son be born as man into a family made up of one man and one woman, was not just following an arbitrary rule or law of His own making, He was doing it for the true and essential human good of the Child to be born.   Moreover, because this Child was to be a blessing for the whole world, not just for the Jewish people, God wanted His Son to be born into the family of Mary and Joseph for the guidance of the whole world.  This fact of the supreme importance of the family for the good of children is not disputed among the great Abrahamic religions of the world; nor, on the other hand, do governments of the free world dispute the families’ role and function for the good of society in general.  Nevertheless, governments yield easily to popularity pressures: they seek to promote not only what is good for the people but also, and at times, primarily, what is likely to be for their own good at the next election, as we see today when they pretend that same-sex unions can be accepted as a home suitable for children alongside the Christian family of man and woman.  Consequently we base our appreciation of the nature and role of the family not on any politically correct or humanistic view but on the inspired teaching of the Scriptures, the infallible teaching of Mother Church, and the example of Our Blessed Lord’s divinely human childhood.

In every body made up of several parts, the overriding requirement is that of unity.  Without unity, such a body cannot function aright and will fragment.  That is why, St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians, when telling them how to give glory to God and how -- in modern terms -- to give good press to the Faith, spoke of that one basic and supremely important need for unity in family life.  There was, of course, much else that he could have said about family life, but at this point in his letter there was no opportunity for anything more than what was absolutely necessary, and so he wrote (3:18-21):

Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord.   Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.   Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.

Let us just look at that.   I think that everyone will agree that for men in general, their weakness -- their Achilles’ heel so to speak -- in relations with women and in family life, is a tendency towards violence, together with an excessive love of, and absorption in, work at the expense of personal relationships.  We hear and see the truth of this proved time and time again in the paper, on the TV, and in our local and personal experience.  It would be strange then, wouldn’t it, if Paul, writing in order to preserve and build up unity in the family, gave guidance to married men that is so pertinent and precise -- love your wives and do not be harsh with them -- and then was to be very far out in his prescription for women?  His words to them are just as clear and incisive as those words of advice he gave for men; in the name of Jesus, he told women then, and the Scriptures still proclaim his teaching to women of today: “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”  Submit, that is, when it is necessary, so long as it is “in the Lord” and for the Lord: submit for co-operation, that is, not for servitude.

Now, our everyday experience confirms Paul’s teaching also in this respect.  Modern day feminists cannot abide the thought of ‘submitting’ to men because they look at it from their own individual and personal point of view and interpret it as servitude, refusing to see it  from the viewpoint of the universal Church and of the individual family in which it is intended as co-operation for the overriding-good of unity.   Such women see themselves as rivals to men, not as complimentary to them; and even if the man were their husband, their love for him as a person would not be able to overcome their confrontational attitude to men in general.  Moreover, because they set themselves up as rivals to, and independent of, men, they frequently feel bound to try to prove that they can do manly work every bit as good as men, claiming the right to be boxers, footballers, business tycoons, lorry drivers, front-line soldiers, etc.  There is no doubt that they can, indeed, do many manly things; but -- not actually being men -- it is not surprising that they do not always succeed in doing those things as well as men.  There are other situations where they are able to do traditionally manly work as well as men do, but only at the cost of a certain loss of their own femininity.  A woman can drive a lorry, dig coal, fight in battles, but what sort of a woman will result from such choices?  The assertion of women’s rights is all to the good, for it is the teaching both of Mother Church and the Scriptures that man and woman are of equal dignity and worth in God’s eyes; but the demand for equal rights carried to that extreme which would claim total equality in every respect, will only result in a society where there are fewer and fewer authentic men and women, and more and more human beings of no particular character: men without spirit, unwilling to accept, take on, responsibility, or again without strength of character; and women of no particular grace or beauty other than that of their body endowed with a power which is not quite able to match up to their ego.

Paul’s last bit of teaching on family life concerns the young:

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

Christian parents should never be embarrassed by this their right to obedience from their children.  Children who obey their parents gain a blessing from the Lord, because, Paul tells us, such obedience is pleasing to the Lord, and that is because it is for the good of the children.  You cannot be a good parent if you try to abdicate your God-given right to obedience from your children.  Children, -- young people especially -- should note that they have to show obedience to their parents out of love for the Lord, “It is pleasing to the Lord”; and so there can never be any question of children obeying in what is sinful.  No Christian version of little Oliver Twist would ever go out stealing for his parents, for such obedience would not, could not,  be pleasing to the Lord.

The last admonition is addressed by Paul to fathers because of their tendency towards violence in general, but today we know that it applies equally to possessive and domineering mothers:

Do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 

Every aspect of Christian family life is ordained towards the good of the children: parents in their attitude towards their children are neither to spoil them by releasing them from their duty of obedience nor are they to embitter them by harshness.  And their own personal, mutual, relationship as husband and wife is likewise, in the first instance, for the good of the children, and has to be regulated with that end in view.  Family unity is absolutely essential, therefore the husband must love his wife and renounce all forms of violence, and the wife must respect her husband and be subordinate to him “in the Lord” when and where family unity, peace, and cohesion, requires it.  Their personal fulfilment and sanctification as disciples of Christ and children of God go hand in hand, and are to be attained through that mutual fulfilment of, and submission to, God’s will; the nostrums of modern psychological or social theoreticians can in no way sound the depths of human nature or the splendour of mankind’s destiny.  It is strange that whereas modern society in the West recognizes, with St. Paul, man’s tendency to downgrade love, it is unable and unwilling, frequently indeed afraid to accept the equally noticeable tendency for women to downgrade respect.

Finally, let us have a look at the behaviour of Mary and Joseph in the Gospel.  I will just bring out one or two points for you to note.  First of all, Mary and Joseph both teach the Child obedience by themselves being obedient to the Lord and the Law:

When the days were completed for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.  

Notice that Simeon blessed both Joseph and Mary, but in the matter of the Child’s Personal destiny it was Mary alone he addressed: Mary’s dignity was not in any way lessened or compromised by her subordination to Joseph in family matters.

Finally, try to imagine the joy of both Mary and Joseph when they began to see the fruit of their personal sacrifices:

The Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon Him.

The development of the Christ Child is meant to serve as a model for the nurturing of all Christian children: they are to be gradually filled with wisdom and endowed with grace as their spiritual development goes hand in hand with physical growth.

People of God, bring up your children in a truly loving Christian family atmosphere in accordance with the teaching of Jesus.  A true home, both earthly and heavenly, can only be attained by walking in the power and holiness of the Spirit, along the path prescribed for our well-being by the God and Father Who made us, and trodden -- for our example and encouragement -- by His Son Who loved, died, and rose again, for us.