Holy Family 8.1.12 Charity
The epistle today gives general guidelines which would be applicable to all Christians about how we should behave towards each other.
If we are to be Christian we must behave like Christ, having His mind and heart. If we cannot be as good as Christ we must at least strive to be, and be sincerely sorry for when we are not.
On the feast of the Holy Family we apply these words especially to our own family inter-relationships.
If charity is always important and necessary it is particularly so in families, where people live in close proximity for so much of the time, and where the potential for great happiness or unhappiness is at stake.
When a family lives something like according to these ideals there is peace and harmony and a good chance that the children of such a family will grow up to a bright future. When there is a severe defect of charity in family life there is much misery and the children can suffer as to their future development.
Think about the sins you confess most often in Confession. How many of those would be committed against other family members? Most people spend a fair proportion of time at home; so it follows that a lot of their decisions for good or evil will be on the domestic front.
Some would argue that home is a kind of a neutral zone as far as morality goes. I have to be nice to people at work, but at home I can be my natural self – the argument would run!
No, there is no neutral zone when it comes to the obligation of charity. The commandments do apply at home and even more so because of the foundational role of the family.
For instance, a parent has a greater obligation to be charitable to the children not only because the children are other people - ‘neighbours’ so to speak - requiring to be loved, but also because there is a teaching or example factor involved.
Husband and wife are required to love each other anyway, but all the more so to be models for their children to imitate.
So charity at home is even more necessary than it is in other places, but it is still necessary in those places too.
And here we could say that our concept of family must go beyond the one we live with to include all members of the Body of Christ, actual and potential.
Of course we cannot love everyone in the world to the same degree as we love those closest to us, but we can at least observe whatever charity requires of us in each case, and most of all desire earnestly the salvation of every other person.
We should love those in our own families but not in an insular or exclusive way as though only our own families matter and the rest of the world is not our concern.
True Christian love is inclusive. We can love people in different ways and degrees but in such a way that no one is left out or abandoned.
The Holy Family was way above average as far as loving-one-another was concerned. They set a high standard which probably no other family can reach, but we can at least draw closer to that standard.
We may have lapses of charity but we cannot excuse them by saying it is impossible to be charitable in all places and times. It is possible because the grace to make it so is available to us. We just have to ask.
In our present world the traditional family is under attack. We must defend all the values involved here; and most of all we must make the family ‘work’ by showing forth to the world the degree of Christian charity which is expected of us – by Christ Himself.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, help us!
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