Today is the feast day for the Holy Family. Yeah!

 

Jesus may be the “only way to the father,” the “Lord of Lords,” “King of Kings,” “Bread of Life,” “Light of Life,” “Messiah,” etc….. but he wants us to see him as our brother and friend. “One of the family,” as they say….HIS family!

 

His incarnated life on earth bringing divinity into humanity was by means of family relationships with EVERYONE called by the Father to listen to follow Jesus, ie., those doing the “will of the Father” like Jesus,” – and that was the case right up to the very end of his time on earth, even after his resurrection just before his Ascension into heaven when he met the women on their way back from the empty tomb and said: “…go tell my BROTHERS to go to Galilee where they will see me…”

 

It was people doing the Father’s Will Jesus told us were members of His loving and caring family…a family that started and ended for Jesus while on earth in His most intimate relationships with his earthly mother and father: Mary and Joseph.

 

 

What hit me really hard when I thought about this feast day this morning was how the devil has made his “Opus Magnum” in these end-times a brilliantly-choreographed, coordinated, multifaceted global attack on children with the goal of destroying all respect for and adherence to the bonds of the traditional family.

 

Bonds such as those depicted in the attached picture, the model of family life for Christians, a model that forms a very distinct type of community: a community of families.

 

When families dissolve, communities lose their power, and the political and economic apparatus of control is then taken by those with power, usually with little or no resistance, and often with compliance and cooperation.

There are two ways for tyranny to be established where people lose their freedom and become slaves to masters:

(1) people lose their LAND and capacity for self-reliance, and their ability to ensure self-determination as a people; and

 

(2) people lose their CHILDREN, stolen with ideological formation that erases their culture and true identity, and by default, the culture and true identity of the people from whom they were born and raised…. supplanted and displaced through assimilation and formation.

 

Both strategies often happen in lockstep, and indeed, we can see much evidence of both trends happening dynamically in increasingly-alarming degrees in many places throughout the world, and are now major social transformation trends in Prince Edward Island.

 

This end-time spiritual warfare within which we are engaged may be in many respects “invisible” – as per the nature of “spiritual” – however, if our spirituality is to be authentic, it will be made visible in the transformative effects of our actions, but only if they are delivered in the peace and power of God’s Holy Spirit in which we reside as we act.

 

So I am presenting you with a challenge, and the rationale is as follows:

 

The devil is dividing families left right and center these days, advancing his troops in the battlefield, so we need to not only hold the line for ourselves and our immediate families, but begin to heal the breaches if we are to make any advance in the spiritual warfare.

AND… that DOESN’T happen solely with prayer – although it must start continue and finish with prayer – it is brought about through caring and courageous action!

 

There’s hardly a page in Scripture that doesn’t make mention of the need to bear with one another, forgiving and healing breaches if and whenever they happen.

 

We may have been ‘formed’ with a sense of ‘human justice’ about how to handle occasions when we are hurt, betrayed, or otherwise ‘sinned against’ by someone close resulting in alienation, negative feelings, and suspicious imaginings, which falls far short of the “Will of the Father” we are called to follow. Remember Jesus told us we’re supposed to act like our Father in heaven: perfectly!

 

“Suspicious imaginings” are the real killers of the working of God’s Holy Spirit within us, because those imaginings render a ‘real’ relationship into an abstract one created in fantasies, further distancing us from the person we’re already alienated from as a result of sin of some kind from someone.

 

Usually that ‘human justice’ imagining we engage in involves scenarios where we conclude that the person either comes to us and ‘admits and confesses, seeking forgiveness,’ or the breach remains – it is justice, and fair….so we tell ourselves.

 

But again, we are to be perfect – that means to discern as God and act as God – who shines his light on the evil and the good equally.

 

We are not to go for the ‘eye-for-an-eye’ way of thinking, but act always with loving and merciful intentions.

No wonder then that Scripture tells us we are even called to take the initiative and GO TO the person that acts wrongly against us, causing damage to our relationship: he onus always falls on us to seek healing in all situations and occurrences of such breaches:

 

 

Reflecting on some of the MANY scripture quotes about forgiveness and seeking healing in our relationships helps to make the transition from being in control of our own heart [a ‘control, marked by fear, hurt and a gnawing sense that we are really powerless to act effectively] to one of empowerment by the Holy Spirit to act boldly and bravely, with confidence and conviction:

 

 

 

 

 

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

 

 

 

 

 

My prayers today will be that all those who take up this challenge will be blessed and successful in their efforts, which will be assured, that is if control of the “heart” is indeed handed over to God, who is Peace, who acts with intentions of mercy and love, accomplishing all He Wills.

 

 

May the Peace of Christ control your heart!

Amen!