By Eric Girten
The Catholic Kitchen
In the beginning, God created man and woman in God’s image. Not only did God create humanity, but He allowed humanity to become co-creators by providing us with the power to generate new human beings through procreation. What an awesome (in the truest sense of the word) gift. What an awesome responsibility.
Through this spousal union of man and woman in covenant with God, children are able to model the traits of the man and woman (parents) and begin to understand the meaning of this generative cycle in relationship with God, so that they can then carry on the process.
This is the fundamental beginning of community. Once there are enough of these communities bound together, we form society … common knowledge and yet so fundamental to remember. As St. John Paul II noted, as the family goes, so goes society.
From the beginning, the serpent has sought to destroy this union and as we read very quickly in Genesis, there has been quite some progress. Fast forward to today and we find a literal onslaught against the traditional family. This is no coincidence.
I can recite here the litany of challenges and barriers to healthy, human life; but I am guessing these are well known to you, the reader. Instead, I will again sound the horn that each of us as Christians must do what we can to stand our ground.
We fight this eternal battle not with weapons to wound the flesh but those that heal the soul. Ours is not the sword or the lance but faith, hope, charity, love, forgiveness and humility. The greatest warriors among us, I dare to say, are those whose hair may have greyed — but whose souls still burn.
Keep a close watch on the ones who may walk a bit slower, but whose rosaries are worn from use; for they are the ones to stand beside on that day. We sometimes focus much on the children playing in the courtyard (as we should) while forgetting to look upon the ramparts at those who remember days of play long past as they keep a protective and prayerful eye upon the horizon.
Each of us has a vital role to play while we walk this earth, and we are taught this first and foremost in the family home … the domestic church. When we take up our staffs and place our sandals upon our feet, accepting the Christian road, we find that even in the midst of hardship, we find an internal peace that cannot be taken from us.
So, grandparents, remind your sons and daughters to teach their children to someday be worthy to stand upon those walls of the Church, gazing out upon the horizon with their rosaries in hand and smiles upon their faces as they remember their days long past.