​My son and I have been meandering through the hugely enjoyable 'Knight of the Holy Ghost: A short history of G.K.Chesterton' by Dale Ahlquist. So much of what Chesterton wrote is still so fresh and so relevant to our world today. However it was a few lines from Ahlquist's introduction to Chesterton's 'What's Wrong With The World?' that stopped me in my tracks.

You can find them of pages 73-74 of the paper edition:

'What's wrong with the world?'
There are four main things wrong with the world: big government, big business, feminism and public education. Why? Because they all undermine the family, which is the basic unit of society, the thing that must be stable for society to be stable, the thing that must be strong for society to be strong, and the thing that is most under attack in our society today.

What's the solution?
It must be to restore the family to its proper place. We need a family-based economy and a family-based social system, where both state and commerce are subordinate to the family.

So what does this look like? What could it look like?

A starting point is Abraham. Even further back we recall that in Genesis, marriage and family is God's idea: God's plan. God took Abraham and tested him many times before beginning a family through him that would become a nation: a nation unique in the world, because it is a single family and structured on family.

When Israel left Egypt, the 12 tribes marched tribe by tribe in order. Each tribe had its designated position when they camped. Each tribe was subdivided into clans, and each tribe and clan had a leader who could speak for the whole tribe or for the whole clan. When they went into battle, they went into battle as family groups co-ordinated together these leaders.

It took WW1 for the British to re-discover that the battalions composed of 'pals' from the same region achieved more and had fewer casualties that battalions composed of people who were initially strangers to each other. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06d87pz

Even centuries later at the return from Exile, Nehemiah excluded anyone who could not prove membership of a clan. The vast majority could do this, which is impressive indeed, and shows that descent from a great-grandson of Abraham was a source of pride, value and identity. It also shows the lengths they went to keep meticulous records. All the so called 'boring bits' in scripture listing genealogies upon genealogies proclaims that God is faithful to the promise He made to Abraham, and these are the ongoing witnesses to God's faithfulness to that promise.

This gets even more interesting when it comes to the Levites, where even choirs and gate keepers are according to the membership of a particular family line. Traits and giftings of talent run through family lines like a pulse. Watch a few episodes of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' if you need to be convinced.

Even ancient cultures knew this:
https://www.enhancetv.com.au/video/who-do-you-think-you-are-charlie-teo/50588
In ancient China families had centres for ancestor worship that kept records of family membership. Families that consistently produced outstanding warriors, administrators etc were given plaques of official recognition by the emperor. Charlie Teo is a case study for saying that they still are.

If you are still not convinced that family matters to God, recall the immediate preparation God did in Israel before Jesus began His public ministry. The angel that visited Zechariah before John the Baptist was even conceived had this to prophesy about John's ministry: 'He will bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom that the virtuous have, preparing for the Lord a people fit for Him.' Luke 1:16:17

Which in turn is a reference to Malachi 3:23-24, the last verses of the Old Testament, 'Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before My day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.'

This then, is the kind of preparation for a major move of grace that matters. Restoring family relationships is the key, par excellence, to opening up hearts to receive the Gospel.

Should you need further convincing, recall that the 4th Commandment is to honour your father and your mother. In God's economy it is more important than the 5th Commandment, you shall not kill, and the rest of the 10.

Family matters. Family matters greatly to God.

When you look after what matters to God then blessings flow. Read about the positive impact that pro-family policies are having in Hungary: https://catholicherald.co.uk/dailyherald/2019/04/25/the-west-can-learn-a-lot-from-hungarys-pro-family-policies/
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2019/03/26/hungarian-minister-convinced-pro-family-outcomes-are-linked-to-policy/
https://www.christianpost.com/news/make-families-great-again-hungary-seeing-more-babies-less-abortions-through-pro-family-policies.html

If we are serious about being a Church 'Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform', then explicitly pro-family initiatives have to be a part of that, especially initiatives that help estranged family members be reconciled with each other.

Yet, at the moment, when it comes to the majority of Plenary Council submissions that fall under the 'Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform' theme (a.k.a. Theme 6), anything to do with family is barely on the radar.

This is the theme most likely to have to address the child abuse scandals. However the focus has been on its clerical manifestations, when it isn't a church issue as much as it is a family issue. If you go back and look at the origins of a perpetrator's abuse, in many cases the perpetrator was himself or herself abused by a relative, and some in a chain going back generations. Unless with God's grace we are able to out-root the evil at the family level, we cannot hope to remove it from the clergy level.

Family is far more important to God and His purposes than we can even begin to imagine. Chesterton saw that over 100 years ago. Maybe reading 'What's Wrong With The World' will help us begin to comprehend that.
​
#PlenaryCouncil #PlenaryCouncilTheme6

1st Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation
“Hail, [rejoice] full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28). At first sight the term chaire “rejoice”, seems an ordinary greeting, typical in the Greek world, but if this word is interpreted against the background of the biblical tradition it acquires a far deeper meaning. The same term occurs four times in the Greek version of the Old Testament and always as a proclamation of joy in the coming of the Messiah (cf. Zeph 3:14, Joel 2:21; Zech 9:9; Lam 4:21).

The Angel’s greeting to Mary is therefore an invitation to joy, deep joy. It announces an end to the sadness that exists in the world because of life’s limitations, suffering, death, wickedness, to all that seems to block out the light of the divine goodness. It is a greeting that marks the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News.

In the greeting of the Angel Mary is called “full of grace”. In Greek, the term “grace”, charis, has the same linguistic root as the word “joy”. In this term too the source of Mary’s exultation is further clarified: her joy comes from grace, that is, from being in communion with God, from having such a vital connection with Him, from being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, totally fashioned by God’s action. Mary is the creature who opened the door to her Creator in a special way, placing herself in His hands without reserve. She lived entirely from and in her relationship with the Lord; she was disposed to listen, alert to recognizing the signs of God in the journey of his people; she was integrated into a history of faith and hope in God’s promises with which the fabric of her life was woven. And she submitted freely to the Word received, to the divine will in the obedience of faith.

Audience 19 Dec 2012

2nd Joyful Mystery: The Visitation
Mary went to see her elderly cousin Elizabeth, whom everyone said was sterile but who instead had reached the sixth month of a pregnancy given to her by God (cf. Lk 1: 36), carrying in her womb the recently conceived Jesus. She was a young girl but she was not afraid, for God was with her, within her.

In a certain way we can say that her journey was - the first "Eucharistic procession" in history. Mary, living Tabernacle of God made flesh, is the Ark of the Covenant in whom the Lord visited and redeemed His people. Jesus' presence filled her with the Holy Spirit.

When she entered Elizabeth's house, her greeting was overflowing with grace: John leapt in his mother's womb, as if he were aware of the coming of the One whom he would one day proclaim to Israel. The children exulted, the mothers exulted. This meeting, imbued with the joy of the Holy Spirit, is expressed in the Canticle of the Magnificat.

Is this not also the joy of the Church, which ceaselessly welcomes Christ in the holy Eucharist and brings Him into the world with the testimony of active charity, steeped in faith and hope? Yes, welcoming Jesus and bringing Him to others is the true joy of Christians!

Address Vatican Gardens 31 May 2005
 
3rd Joyful Mystery: The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem
God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfils the promise of the prophet Isaiah: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us.

God’s sign is that He makes Himself small for us. This is how He reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with His strength. He takes away our fear of His greatness. He asks for our love: so He makes Himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into His feelings, His thoughts and His will – we learn to live with Him and to practise with Him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made Himself small so that we could understand Him, welcome Him, and love Him. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way He teaches us to love the weak. In this way He teaches us respect for children. The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life.

Homily Midnight Mass Christmas Eve 2006

4th Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
It is important to note that these two acts — the purification of the mother and the redemption of the son — did not require a visit to the Temple. However, Mary and Joseph wished to fulfil all the prescriptions in Jerusalem. And it is precisely through the prescriptions of the Law, that the principal event is transformed, it becomes the “presentation” of Jesus in the Temple of God, which means the act of offering the Son of the Most High to the Father who sent Him (cf. Lk 1:32, 35).

The words of the Prophet Malachi: “Behold”, says the Lord, “I send My messenger to prepare the way before Me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming... he will purify the sons of Levi.... Then the offering... will be pleasing to the Lord” (3:1, 3, 4) are fulfilled in Jesus because, thanks to the faith of His parents, He was taken to the Temple “immediately”; and in the act of His “presentation”, that is, the “offering” of Him in person to God the Father, the themes of sacrifice and of the priesthood clearly transpire. The Child Jesus, who is presented in the Temple, is the same person who, as an adult, would purify the Temple (cf. Jn 2:13-22; Mk 11:15, 19ff) and above all make Himself the sacrifice and the High Priest of the new Covenant.

The “salvation” that Jesus brought to His people, and which He embodies in Himself, passed through the Cross, through the violent death that He was to vanquish and to transform with the sacrifice of His life through love. This sacrifice was already foretold in the act of the Presentation in the Temple, an act without any doubt motivated by the traditions of the old Covenant, but that was deeply enlivened by the fullness of faith and love.

Homily 2 Feb 2013

5th Joyful Mystery: The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
The first witnesses of Christ's birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant Jesus but also a small family: mother, father and newborn son. God had chosen to reveal Himself by being born into a human family and the human family thus became an icon of God because of its interpersonal love and the fruitfulness of this love.

The 12-year-old Jesus stays behind in the Temple in Jerusalem unbeknown to His parents who, surprised and anxious, discover Him three days later conversing with the teachers. Jesus answers His Mother who asks for an explanation that He must "be in His Father's house" that is God's house (cf. Lk 2: 49). In this episode the boy Jesus appears to us full of zeal for God and for the Temple. Let us ask ourselves: from whom did Jesus learn love for His Father's affairs? As Son He certainly had an intimate knowledge of His Father, of God, and a profound and permanent relationship with Him but, in His own culture He had learned prayers and love for the Temple and for the Institutions of Israel from His parents. We may therefore say that Jesus' decision to stay on at the Temple was above all the result of His close relationship with the Father, but it was also a result of the education He had received from Mary and Joseph. Here we can glimpse the authentic meaning of Christian education: it is the fruit of a collaboration between educators and God that must always be sought. The Christian family is aware that children are a gift and a project of God. Therefore it cannot consider that it possesses them; rather, in serving God's plan through them, the family is called to educate them in the greatest freedom, which is precisely that of saying "yes" to God in order to do His will. The Virgin Mary is the perfect example of this "yes". Let us entrust all families to her, praying in particular for their precious educational mission.

Angelus 27 Dec 2009
 
These texts from the speeches of Pope Benedict XVI have been edited from the originals to get them to a size suitable for meditation with the Rosary on First Saturdays.

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Below is a printer friendly PDF version, 3 x A4 pages in length.