All in the Family
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January 5, 2025Christmas was an especially happy one in the Johnson household in 2024. All of our four children were able to come together under the same roof, something we have not been able to do in 4 years. Having grown children now, scattered over four zip codes and three time zones has made family gatherings difficult. In addition, my sister and her family, who live in Mexico, were also here. We had a wonderful time and a full, noisy house.
Spending these special days with our adult children, grandchildren, one of my siblings and her family, as well as nearby family, reminds me of the importance of family relationships and family connections in our faith journey. Simply being together helps to build bonds of unity in ways that can only happen when we are physically present with each other.
Face to face conversations about faith and our attempts to live it can help edify the members of a family. The gentle presence and witness of family members who love Jesus and are doing their best to be faithful is very encouraging. Spending some holiday time with my sister Elsa, for instance, whom I don’t see very often, helped me to remember our shared faith journey and her role in mine. While we both had our youthful excursions and explorations into different religions, we came to the conclusion that we can’t have a more full experience of Christianity apart from the Barc of Peter. This is not to say that Christians of other stripes do not experience intimacy with Jesus in their own way, but there is nothing like resting in the knowledge that the Catholic Church, while not perfect, contains within it the historic pedigree, and even the wounds, of our Lord Himself. The Catholic Church is not beautiful because it is made-up of perfect people, it is beautiful because it’s full of imperfect, hurt, and sinful people and yet, Jesus abides in it.
The importance of family influence, and that of siblings can be seen in the stories of our favorite Saints. Just last week, the Church remembered St. Basil the Great who came from a very saintly family in the 4th century. According to one historical article Basil has Christian martyrs in his family tree. It’s no surprise then to see that Basil’s parents, St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia, also raised St. Macrina (older sister), St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebaste and St. Naucratius (younger brothers). I would love to have been a fly on the wall during those dinner table conversations.
Saints Cyril and Methodius were also siblings who sharpened each other in the Faith. Unlike Basil and Gregory of Nyssa whose feast days fall on different days (January 2 and January 10) We will celebrate brothers Cyril and Methodius’ feast day on February 14. This pair is known for their missionary work, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Eastern Europe in the 9th Century.
Saints Benedict and Scholastica are a powerhouse brother and sister team, twins actually, that together transformed monastic life in 6th century Italy. Benedict was the first to leave home to live as a hermit and established what would become the monastery in Montecassino. Scholastica followed suit, establishing a community of religious women, considered the first order of Benedictine Sisters near her brother’s monastery.
In 2015, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin were canonized together and in 2020. A cause for sainthood has been opened for the parents of St. John Paul II, Karol and Emilia Wojtyła. Clearly, the important role of parents in guiding their children in their Christian life is being recognized in the Church.
Church history is full of wonderful stories of married couples, families, and siblings who were passionate about their faith and were devoted to our Lord, and just like God worked through marriage and family to bring the world holy men and women then, He continues to work today to sanctify marriages, and children now.
In our hard, secularized, pagan world, it is hard to imagine ourselves as saints. It seems like an unreachable goal. It is harder to imagine the alternative though. The Faith we profess as Catholics is the same as that of our ancestors, it is the same faith as the Saints. It is how we choose to live our faith that separates us from all the Holy Men and Women we sing about in the Litany.
Twenty-twenty five (2025) can be the year we choose to say it: “I want to be good, I want to follow Jesus, I want to be a Saint,” and begin to act like it. We can start by being good to our spouses, our children and our friends. As someone once said, following Jesus is not about where we have been and the mistakes we have made, it’s about where we are going and the good we are capable of. Let’s become saints together. Our Church has provided us with plenty of role models to follow!
