Today, during our family morning prayer, Isaac punched Anya. Last night, I feel asleep while praying the family Rosary. Alicia had already fallen asleep and, thanks be to God when I awoke, the children were miraculously asleep as well. Two months ago I began a movie on Netflix: The Patriot with Mel Gibson. Since then I’ve managed to watch 45 minutes of that movie over the course of 5 late nights. That accounts for every second of my fatherly free time during the months of September and October. This summer our six year old son, Isaac, lamented that we do not have a large in-ground swimming pool in the backyard. I told him that he’d be welcome to dig the hole for that pool and he immediately got to work. To this day the hole remains approximately 8 in. wide and 5 in. deep, but he’s worked diligently and frequently during backyard play time. One of the problems is that he gets distracted with his shovel and begins chopping down our trees. When you see me at the parish, it’s a marvel that I even manage to have my hair combed or my teeth brushed at all. What’s the connection between these disjointed family stories from the Darnell household? Family life is unpredictable, chaotic and exhausting – and I love it more than anything I’ve encountered in this world. Family is the living image of God for me where I encounter Jesus Christ and become formed to bring the image of God to the world. I’ve found that authentic family life sets me totally free.
The family has been an outstanding theme, project and grace of Christianity over the centuries and especially so this past year. Two Synods on the Family and a World Meeting of Families has occupied most of the Church’s work in 2014/15. The family is the fundamental, essential cell of civilization that’s meant to sanctify the world as a sign of and preparation for heavenly communion. In this bulletin article, I’d like to reflect a bit on the opening key -note address to the World Meeting of Families that was given by his Excellency, Bishop Robert Barron entitled: Living as the Imago Dei (Image of God), the Source of our Joy.
Christianity proposes that God creates from a sheer act of love. In the Creation Story the last creature in this procession of creation is the person (humanity), represented by our first parents Adam and Eve. There, in the Garden, Adam has a three-fold office of priest, prophet and king (foreshadowing Christ the Lord) in which Eve participates. Bishop Barron likens this order of creation to a vast “liturgical procession” of which the person (Adam and Eve) has the task of leading all of creation in a great chorus of praise to God, rightly ordered. In the Biblical vision, humanity is the one through whom the entire universe gives right praise to God, noting our priestly office. As prophet, Adam names the animals – even before his partnership with Eve – according to their intelligibility authored by God thereby making humanity the sole teller of God’s truth. As king, Adam tends to the Garden of Eden. The beauty, harmony and order of the Garden is meant to be brought out to the entire world. Adam’s mission, then, is to “Edenize” the world making God rightly praised, speaking the truth according to God’s designs and to bring God’s good order to the whole of creation. What happened to that original plan?
After the fall from grace, sin entered the world. Adam and Eve, and the whole of humanity, began to worship and praise false gods: power, pleasure, esteem, attention and wealth, to name a few. This caused the loss of our priestly identity and office. We also lost our prophetic ability and office when we stopped “cataloguing” according to the Divine intelligibility. Instead we catalogued (or told “truth”) according to ourselves, based on our whims, attractions and desires that needed to be re-ordered. Last, we persons forfeited our kingly office and mission when we privatized our faith and mission to “Edenize” the world bringing God’s harmony and order to everything.
Where does the family tie into this paradigm for Bishop Barron? It’s only in the rediscovery of the Imago Dei (Image of God) that we persons can, in Christ, regain our three-fold office as priests, prophets and kings. A person, and a family, that practices right praise at home with prayer, Mass attendance and the celebration of the Sacraments while giving glory to God can then go out into the world to teach right praise. A family that practices moral truths, virtues and a type of freedom for the good is a family that can engage in prophetic speech and is thereby able to be that prophetic voice to the world. Last, a family where missions are encouraged, where there is care for the poor, empathy and solidarity for humanity, a consistent prolife ethic and social justice for all is a family that can now go out on mission to the world and “Edenize” the whole of creation bringing God’s good order and harmony. If the family lacks this three-fold office, then the whole civilization will also lack the Imago Dei.
Today, the Church exhorts the family to be the Imago Dei in the world. The Catholic family is like the sleeping giant that, when awakened, will renew the face of the earth. All of us with families know that family life is unpredictable, chaotic and exhausting. Despite the overwhelming, often quite humorous, stories within our families let’s look deeper and encounter Christ in our families so we can become formed to bring the Imago Dei to the world. Then, families can go out on mission to teach right praise of God alone; to engage in prophetic speech proclaiming God’s truths to the world; and finally, to resist the temptation to privatize our faith, but instead to go out on the march bearing Christ to the world thereby bringing peace, order and harmony to every place.
~Benjamin Darnell, Director of Faith Formation