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July 19, 2007
Modern Day Persecution and Catholic Family Life
It is highly unlikely that the average Christian living in a modern Western society would have to give up his life for his faith. But as any committed Christian knows, persecution is in store for anyone who tries to follow Christ and his conscience, formed by the Church’s teachings, to the best of his ability. In modern times, it would seem to me, family life is on the forefront in the Christian’s war with the culture of death.
I continue to be unpleasantly surprised by the comments and scorn people place on parents who decide to have more than one child. My mother, who was the 5th of 10 children, told me of several condescending comments people made to her about her parents when she was growing up. Now my wife and I have experienced it too, and we only have two children! What causes eyebrows to be raised in our case is that our children are thirteen months apart, and some people just can’t withhold a condescending comment because of that. I’ve gotten comments like, “If your wife gets pregnant again soon, we need to have a little talk!”, or “what are you gonna have, like, 10 kids?!” or “slow down, there, buddy!”. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are incensed at the Church for not “staying out of their bedroom”, but so many (of the same) people have no problem making “bedroom” comments of their own.
A married couple’s being happily open to life is probably the strongest statements of faith in God they can make in our society, which values utility and profit much more than life. The beauty of this is that all married couples can evangelize in this powerful way. You don’t need a degree in theology, articulate arguments well, or be a charismatic public speaker. You just need faith that if you put the kingdom of heaven first, then God will provide for everything else.
When there are so many things that attract husbands and wives which might give them more comfort, security, success, or prestige, being open to life is a statement that says “We trust God to be in control of our family”. If God blesses that openness with the fruit of life, then that statement is made visible to everyone, and is powerful force for evangelization. Large families are truly inspirational.
Having said this, we must be careful not to discriminate against small families; just because a family is small doesn’t mean the parents are closed to life. I pray that all couples called to have large families will faithfully respond to that call, and evangelize the world through them.
God bless,
Daniel
Posted by jay at July 19, 2007 09:01 AM
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