Family Valued

"Family Values" is a phrase thrown around with great frequency, but not with much detailed explanation. On this Feast of the Holy Family, I am moved to reflect on the value of a family from which "family values" flow. The Holy Family is held up before us as the ideal upon which to model all family life. Look at the simplicity, the poverty, the dependence on God's plan, the humility before the congratulations from shepherds as well as Wise Men, and the determination to hold together as a family when threatened by King Herod's jealousy. The drive for survival as a family forced them to flee in the middle of the night, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Eypt, and stay there until I tell you." (Matt 2:13), and become refugees. The Holy Family knew stress, challenge, threats of extinction, not unlike what all families in some way experience today. Think of families where there is no income, where there has been a recent death of mother or father, where there is threat of separation, or where there is separation. Families who have members serving in Afghanistan or other hotspots around the globe, or who are mourning the death of a son or daughter killed in action awhile ago or recently. What pain, what a challenge to put family into perspective, to see it as the blessed gift that it is, something to be appreciated, cherished, and be put as top priority on the list of things to preserve and make grow. It is a unit based on love, where love is experienced, and from where it leaps out into the life of the community and the globe. Who can put a price on daughters who come to their parents and say they don't want a lot of "things" gifts, and would rather see the money to be spent on them, given to the poor? Love has been learned. Family is seen not only as the members living under one roof, but far beyond. Our Marist Family Spirit is warm, human, welcoming, generous, the benchmark of our charism. It flows from hearts that know no bounds, from community valued, from family valued. Lord, thank you for the gift of the Holy Family and for our families, wherever they may be geographically and in their stages of growth. Help us to see them as gift, and as the place where we learn to love and grow in love. Give us patience where there is need for change, help us find strength in you to presevere when times are tough, and help us to keep you as the center of our family life. Amen.
Bro. Rene