|
Family Life & Marriage - by Ben Stapel
The Sacrament where we
meet God, our Father, in the Son and Holy Spirit
|
|
We are family - if …
He replied, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples,
he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.
those who hear the word of God and act on it
are my brother, and sister, and mother.
(Mt 12:50, Lk 8:21)
Jesus is God; he is one of us
(Jn 14:11, 17:21)
I am in the Father - the Father is in me.
(Jn 14:20)
You are in me, I am in you.
I kept my Father's commands - I stay
in his love
… keep my commands - ... stay in my love
(Jn 15:10)
A family starts at a wedding - Jesus was
invited too(Jn 2:1-9)
Mary said: "Do whatever he tells you."
Jesus told them: "Fill the jars with
water."
They filled them to the brim.
The head waiter tasted the water that had become wine.
A family yearns for a child to hold in
their arms(Is 49:15-16)
Can a mother forget her infant,
Be without tenderness for the child
of her womb?
Even should she forget, I will never forget you!
See, upon the palms of my hands
I have written your name …
(Cf, Mt 23:37, Lk 13:34) |
P
s
a
l
m
91
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
W
h
o
a
b
i
d
e
i
n
h
i
m |
Jesus dwells among us - if …
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit
Behold the handmaid of the Lord
Let it be done to me according to your word
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us.
(Lk 1:26-38, Jn 1:14)
Jesus shares his Father with us - if …
(Jesus says: ...) The Father loves me
I love you - the Father loves you
(Jn 15:9, 16:27)
(Mt 11:27)
No one knows the Father but the Son,
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal
him.Jesus shares his mother
with us - if we invite her
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the
disciple
whom he loved, he said …
"Woman behold your son."
He said to the disciple, "Behold your
mother."
… The disciple took her
into his home. (Jn
19:26-27)
Jesus yearns for me - my name is marked
in his hands
[Thomas] said:
"Unless I see the (nail) marks
in his hands … I will not believe." …
[Jesus] said to Thomas, "Put your finger
here, and
see my hands, bring your hand and put it
into my side,
be not unbelieving,
but believe!" (Jn
20:25-27) |
|
It is in the family that we are fully united with one another, it is
where we belong, where they can't throw us out.
God is family, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, truly one, fully giving one to
the other, without limit, unrationed. (Cf. Eph
3:14-19)
Jesus, the anointed, only begotten Son of the Father, only Son of
Mary, makes her part of God's family,
and he makes us part of God's family. Our names are marked, hammered,
into his hands. - Let us learn from him.
As family we talk together, we grieve, we pray, we eat, and work
together, we sleep together, we dwell together.
Jesus shares his entire family with us - his Divine Family, his human
family - Do we share our family with him?
He talks with us in his word and in the Eucharist, he weeps with us
(Jn 11:5-36), he prays
with us as family (Mt 18:19-20)
He eats with us (Rv 3:20),
he works with us (Mk
6:35-44), he sleeps with us
(Mk 4:35-41, Lk 8:22-25),
he dwells with us (Jn 14:23)
In the Eucharist Jesus fully shares his body and his life blood
with us, holding nothing back; making it fruitful:
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
(Jn 6:56) Whoever remains
in me and I in him
will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Who
does not remain in me … will wither
(Jn 15:5-6)
(Cf. Eph 5:15-33) In marriage, a man and woman fully share their persons
and their lives in Jesus, holding nothing back -
making it fruitful: For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two become
one flesh; they are no longer two but one flesh; therefore what God has
joined together no one must separate. (Mt 19:4-12)
Jesus said, "Let the children come
to me, and do not prevent them
- the kingdom of heaven is theirs
(Mt 19:14)
Whoever receives a child ... in my name, receives me. Whoever
causes a little one to sin ... (Mt 18:5-6)
As a parent, I show my children how to live (they see all!) -
when necessary I tell them - I cannot force them.
Sadly, in the 1960's contraception became widely used. An explosion
naturally followed to destroy the family by divorce,
abortion, adultery, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS,
cohabitation, single parenthood, domestic violence,
broken families, infertility, same sex marriage, and more. Paul VI and
John Paul II explained how true sexual union is the
sacramental act of God's grace in marriage, symbolizing Eucharistic
union; any interference in this act hinders grace.
Let us continue our prayer for the family's return to God's vision from
the beginning: unbroken fruitful unity.
(Jn 12:3-7)
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and dried
them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance ...
Judas … said: "Why wasn't this … given to the poor?"
Jesus said, "... Let her keep this for my burial. You always have the
poor, but you do not always have me." (Cf. Jn 13)
Let me extravagantly anoint the feet of each one in my family
NOW - while they (and I) are still here.
This article is one of a
series of Bulletin articles addressing one of the twelve areas for which
our Lord requested that all in
the Charismatic Renewal in the Archdiocese of Detroit intercede.
Ben Stapel is a member of the Holy Spirit Prayer Group at St. Sebastian
Church in Dearborn; he serves on the DCCR
Assembly. If you are led to pray for
Families,
please call Ben at 1-313-292-1294.
See below:
Eph 3:13-19,
Jn. 13:2-17, Psalm 91 |
Top of Page
Ephesians
Chapter 3: 13-19
13 So I ask you not to lose heart over my afflictions
for you; this is your glory.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is
named,
16 that he may grant you in accord with the riches of
his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the
inner self,
17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the holy
ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Top of Page
Luke
Chapter 13: 2-17
2 He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because
these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater
sinners than all other Galileans?
- 3
- By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you
will all perish as they did!
- 4
- Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower
at Siloam fell on them 3
--do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who
lived in Jerusalem?
- 5
- By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you
will all perish as they did!"
- 6
- And he told them this parable: "There once was a person
who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came
in search of fruit on it but found none,
- 7
- he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have
come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found
none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'
- 8
- He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year
also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and
fertilize it;
- 9
- it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it
down.'"
- 10
- He was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
- 11
- And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been
crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely
incapable of standing erect.
- 12
- When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman,
you are set free of your infirmity."
- 13
- He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up
straight and glorified God.
- 14
- But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus
had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, "There
are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to
be cured, not on the sabbath day."
- 15
- The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites! Does not
each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from
the manger and lead it out for watering?
- 16
- This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for
eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on
the sabbath day from this bondage?"
- 17
- When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done
by him.
Psalms
Chapter 91
1 You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who
abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 Say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress, my God in
whom I trust."
3 God will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from
the destroying plague,
4 Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you
may take refuge; God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.
5 You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the
arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the
plague that ravages at noon.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at
your right hand, near you it shall not come.
8 You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked
you will see.
9 You have the LORD for your refuge; you have made the
Most High your stronghold.
10 No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near
your tent.
11 For God commands the angels to guard you in all your
ways.
12 With their hands they shall support you, lest you
strike your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, trample
the lion and the dragon.
14 Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows
my name I will set on high.
15 All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with
them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor.
16 With length of days I will satisfy them and show
them my saving power.
Top of Page
|
