Who Belongs in the Family of God?
I have struggled more than usual to write this Sunday’s reflection. Often when this happens, it is because I haven’t allowed myself to become empty enough to hear what it is that God is telling me. Not so, this time. I know where God is leading, but I hesitate to follow.
This weekend we celebrate Holy Family Sunday. It is a Sunday when we remember the significant role that Mary and Joseph, two poor refugees, played in bringing about the plan of God. Two simple, ordinary people who loved God and followed where He led changed the course of humanity. God inspired and led them from an angel’s visit to a stable, the foot of a cross, and an empty tomb. Every step, every smile, every learning, every teaching, and every tear was about family.
This feast has made me rethink family and what it means to be family. God beckons me forward from the microcosm of my own family to look into the eyes of His family around me.
No family is perfect. Yet, it seems we look for perfection, or at least a façade of perfection, when we think of who should be in the Family of God. I am not sure how to be politically correct as I write this, and no doubt some will be offended. But God is calling us as His family to be far better than we are today.
In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus was teaching, His disciples came and told him that His Mother and brothers were there to see him. He responded, “Who are my mother and brothers? I tell you those who hear my words and follow them are mother and brother to me.” He was proclaiming family, His family, the Family of God.
In our lives, our society, and even our Church, we spend an inordinate amount of time deciding who is and is not worthy to be a member, to count. We determine who belongs and who is cut out. Sometimes, with the harshest judgment of all, we even cut ourselves out of the Church, proclaiming our sinfulness as making us unworthy.
Are we, who listen to Jesus’ word and follow Him today, a Holy Family?
In the news lately, we have read that at the Annual National Catholic Breakfast there were protests by Catholics against Catholics, along political party lines over the awarding of the Christifideles Laici Award for Fidelity to the Catholic Church to Attorney General Barr. There is also an ongoing heated debate about whether President-elect Joe Biden, a life-long practicing Catholic, should be denied communion in the Catholic Church.
Have we become Pharisees? We are the brothers and sisters of the Lord. We cannot allow anything to prevent people who seek the Lord from coming to His table or being honored for their fidelity.
Anything includes race, gender, sexual orientation, criminal history, marital status, political leanings, liberal or conservative attitudes, personality quirks, wealth or poverty, mental illness, disability, the marginalized and disenfranchised. Sinners one and all are welcome in the family and at the table of the Lord.
If Jesus turned no one away, how can we? Who are we, as individuals or as a Church, to say someone is unworthy or unwelcome? We are called to have loving hearts and say with Pope Francis, “Who am I to judge?”
It is at the Lord’s table that we know the fullness of love, forgiveness, and metanoia (a change of heart). It is in God’s family where the bickering and divisions, judgments, violence, and hate will end. It is only together, one in the Lord, that we can change the face of hatred, division, and bigotry that have become the plague of our country and our planet.
We are the Holy Family of God; it is time we start acting like it.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
When promoting abortion as Biden has done in his democratic political history and positions and ignoring Catholic Teachings on the subject he has eliminated himself from the Catholic doctrine. His running mate has lived a life of hatred for the Catholic Church even more recently by protesting and refusal to seat a federal judge nomination because of the candidates membership in the Knights of Columbus and the candidates Catholic practices. Your comments reflect your promotion of pro abortion politicians and their votes on the subject in your recent Sunday comments………how very sad that we have leaders in our Church reflecting that. I will never condemn anyone for their beliefs or pass judgement on their salvation…….only The Good Lord will do that. I am surprised at you as I was a good fan of yours. I know that our pastor is a promoter of the democratic politicians and their policies from his past comments from the altar. I will not let any man or woman destroy what little faith I possess. You are entitled to your opinions and a I am entitled not to hear anything from our clergy that promotes politicians that promote abortion which is a sin. I am the worst of sinners and hope that I have confessed my sins in a proper manner in past confessions. But have no respect for any clergy willing to give communion to those politicians that promote and vote for abortion laws. Is there two Catholic doctrines on sin and abortion??? Maybe there is a deep state in our Church hierarchy.
Thank you for your service to our Church.
Carl J. Abbate
Dear Carl,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to write and express your thoughts about my reflection on Holy Family Sunday. Frankly, I knew when I wrote it that some would be upset and angered by it. But as with all my writing, it was born of my prayer.
From the outset let me state clearly that I do not support abortion as a right or a good and I believe in the Catholic Church’s teachings on the matter. The point I was trying to make is that we stand on a very slippery slope when we personally take on the authority of judging who is welcome at the table of the Lord.
The Church’s teaching on abortion is intrinsically tied to its teaching on all life issues. The Church does not have pro-birth teaching it has pro-life teaching. That teaching says that all human life is sacred from the womb to the tomb. Catholic Social teaching even goes further and speaks of responsibility for clean air and water, equitable distribution of resources, and the rights and dignity of every person to be held with value and reverence. What the Church tells us through its social teaching is if we stop defending life at the birth of a child, we are stopping way too soon. Our Catholic faith demands more of us than that when we take a pro-life stance.
As an example of the slippery slope this puts us on, on August 2, 2018, the Vatican announced that it had formally changed the official Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty, calling capital punishment “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and deeming it “inadmissible” in all cases. Should we then refuse Eucharist to any politician who supports the death penalty? Should politicians have to take a Catholic oath that they will vote for and support only the teachings of the Catholic Church in their political role of representing their constituents?
That brings us further down the slippery slope. If we deny communion to a politician for how they voted on abortion, should we not also deny communion to those who do not actively oppose the death penalty? What about the Church’s teachings on birth control? If a politician supports health care laws that help women get birth control should he or she be denied communion? I grant that in the hierarchy of issues all right to life issues are paramount. One judgment tends to lead to another. And it would seem God is the only one who can judge hearts and intent.
Finally, we believe that Eucharist changes us. The areas in us that are in need of conversion can find that grace of conversion through Eucharist. Denying Eucharist is paramount to denying the grace of conversion of heart, mind, and soul. Eucharist is not a reward for good behavior it is a siren’s call to bring us closer to God and to become what we consume.
Again, I thank you for the thoughtfulness you put into your writing and I am sorry I disappointed you. I hope we can continue to seek the wisdom and grace of God together.
Respectfully,
Gwen
Sin
Incredible points. Outstanding arguments. Keep up the amazing spirit.