BROADCASTS.com

b'(Sir.3:2-6,12-14;\\xa0\\xa0 Ps.128:1-5;\\xa0\\xa0 Col.3:12-21;\\xa0\\xa0 Mt.2:13-15,19-23) \\xa0 \\u201cLet the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.\\u201d \\xa0 A man is a man, a woman is a woman, and children are children \\u2013 this does not change with time or culture.\\xa0 All are called to be one in the love and sacrifice of Christ; all are one holy family. Why do we find it necessary to make excuses for Holy Scripture and the \\u201cpatriarchal family pattern\\u201d it reflects and \\u201cthe subordinationist family ethic of the Biblical culture\\u201d (from the commentary of the missal from which I take today\\u2019s readings)?\\xa0 How is it we have lost the beauty of Paul\\u2019s words on the complementary nature of the conjugal relationship?\\xa0 How is it the family has become bereft of Christ? One would think Paul states, \\u201cHusbands, beat your wives,\\u201d instead of \\u201cHusbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them,\\u201d by the way his text is avoided like the plague.\\xa0 Why such ignorance of what is actually present in Scripture?\\xa0 And if the Scripture is perverted, why do we not \\u201cin all wisdom... teach and admonish one another,\\u201d instead of casting the wisdom of the Lord from our presence, or rationalizing it away.\\xa0 Is it a sin for a wife to be submissive, to respect her husband; for children to be obedient toward their parents; for the husband and father to lay down his life for his family?\\xa0 Is power to be defined by the dictates of the world, or by the cross?\\xa0 Do we desire to control, or to love? \\u201cBlessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!\\u201d\\xa0 Here is the key to our roles, in the exclamation of our psalmist.\\xa0 \\u201cDo everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him,\\u201d Paul summarizes his teaching.\\xa0 Hear in his letter the call to \\u201ccompassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another,\\u201d even as the Lord has done with us.\\xa0 Be led by the Word of the Lord and His instruction and guidance.\\xa0 You, husbands, do you reflect Joseph\\u2019s obedience to the Word of God brought by the angel?\\xa0 Do you care for your families as God calls?\\xa0 Are you mothers like Mary, moving according to the protective hand upon your hearth, your house?\\xa0 And children, do you honor your father and mother\\u2019s authority over you as Jesus, who, though the Son of God, humbled Himself to be the child in this Holy Family?\\xa0 Let us all be as Christ \\u2013 honoring, obeying, humbling ourselves\\u2026 in a word, loving one another as He has loved us.\\xa0 Then we will be of the family of God. \\xa0 Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. \\xa0 Music: "Vision of Children" (2nd part) from The Innocent Heart, first album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. \\xa0 ******* O LORD, call us out of Egypt to your holy land.\\xa0 YHWH, obedient let us be to you, and serve one another.\\xa0 It is your will that we love one another, that we act with humility and patience, always forgiving and living in peace.\\xa0 Indeed, let us reflect the life of the Holy Family. Was not Joseph obedient to your every word, dear LORD?\\xa0 Did he not have in his soul only to protect your Son and His Mother?\\xa0 Did he think of himself at all?\\xa0 O let all fathers lay down their lives in such a complete manner! And was not Mary obedient to Joseph (who was obedient to you)?\\xa0 Did she not recognize, O LORD, that your will was being accomplished through his instruction, through the inspiration upon his soul?\\xa0 Did she stop to question his actions?\\xa0 Did she think herself better qualified, being the Mother of God?\\xa0 O let all wives be so respectful of their husbands! And was Jesus not obedient in all things to Joseph and Mary, He who was Son of God and God Himself?\\xa0 Did He invoke His superiority over them?\\xa0 O God, let all children so honor their mother and father!\\xa0 Let all walk in your ways, in your way of sacrifice, and so be blessed as the Holy Family.'