January 7, 2024
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Recently, I found this quote on a popular spiritual website: "Here’s the famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, 'All happy families are alike; each miserable family is miserable in its own way.'”
Happy families are happy because they have one center, one focus, one goal, one purpose: doing the will of God. Holiness is the reason for happiness. On the other hand, there is a definite link between the absence of God in a family and its unhappiness and its misery and its wretchedness. All unhappy families are unhappy - each in its own way because each member of the family worships a different god, a different idol – himself or herself! Each pursues a different interest and different goal and more often than not those things collide with each other. My pastoral experience certainly verifies this truth. The absence of God means the absence of forgiveness, of mercy, of patience, of understanding, of respect and reverence for the other. The absence of God means the absence of self-restraint, of self-discipline, of self-sacrifice for the happiness of others. The absence of God leads to burnt-out, to boredom, to betrayal, to abandonment, to infidelity, to addictions, to using others and taking advantage of others. And that is why all unholy families are unhappy. If you don’t believe me, watch the TV series NYPD Blue, or Breaking Bad, or the Sopranos!
In front of the collapse of the Christian civilization, the Holy Family is our hope, and each of your families is the world's hope. If every remaining Christian family would strive to be the Holy Family in the midst of this world - right where they are: in their neighborhoods and cities and towns and villages, then what happened at the beginning shall be happening again. These islands of Christian virtues and love are the only places authentic happiness and true joy remain. These pockets of authentic Christianity continue to exist through family members who learn to live for others, to give of themselves for others - walking in the Light of the Gospel. Perhaps, then, the secular world, empty of God and all traces of holiness, being sad and despairing, will again find its desire for God to be rekindled and awakened. In a world that has lost its God, the Light of Heaven shining out from every Christian family serves as guiding light for the rest of humanity groping on the dark road looking for its home.
