The Catholic Home ~ Fr. Edward F. Garesché, S.J.

THE CATHOLIC HOME

By Fr. Edward F. Garesché, S.J.

Your own home should be for you the dearest spot in the world.

No other place on earth is so important for you and for yours. To the home all men come for rest, consolation, family peace and holiness; for refuge from the dangers and difficulties of the outside world, for affection, friendliness and joy. From the home goes out to the State and the Church a priceless influence which makes for goodness, honor, peace and that true prosperity which is the life of nations.

The word “home” is one of the richest and noblest in the English tongue. Around it cluster the dearest memories, the holiest obligations, the fondest and tenderest recollections of mankind. For you, yourself, for your family, for your friends, it is of supreme importance that you should have a truly Catholic home.

The more truly Catholic is your home, the more holy your life will be, the more happy and holy the life of all with whom you come in contact. Singular importance, therefore, and weighty consequences attach to the right management and governing of your Catholic home.

It is most significant that the Founder of our holy Church, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, gave only about three years to the public life, in which He preached, instructed the Apostles, and laid the foundations of His Church. He gave ten times that many years, about thirty years in all, to setting an example for the Catholic home.

At Bethlehem, in Egypt, at Nazareth, we see Jesus, Mary and Joseph forming the perfect Catholic family, an example to all after ages. The nearer the atmosphere and life of your home approach to those of the Holy Family, the more truly Catholic you will be, the more your home will deserve the holy title of a Catholic home.

In a few weighty words the holy Gospel of St. Luke gives us an idea of the home life at Nazareth. After telling the beautiful story of the nativity at Bethlehem and describing the presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, the inspired writer goes on to narrate this touching story:

“And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city, Nazareth; and the Child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him; and His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the Pasch.

“And when He was twelve years old, they, going up into Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast and having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not, and, thinking that He was in the company, they came a day’s journey and sought Him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance, and not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking Him.

“And it came to pass that after three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions, and all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers.

“And seeing Him, they wondered; and His Mother said to Him: ‘Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.’ And He said to them:

‘How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’ And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them.

“And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And His Mother kept all these words in her heart and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men.”

By meditating on these simple words we may see how much the Holy Spirit here teaches us about that home at Nazareth. It was a home in which kindness, love and dutifulness reigned supreme. Though Jesus was truly the Son of God, King of kings in His own right and Lord of lords, still as a human child He obeyed His Blessed Mother and His foster-father, St. Joseph; and “was subject to them,” living with them the normal life of a good and pious family.

Though St. Joseph was not the highest in merit, he was the highest in dignity and authority and our Lord in His human nature deferred to his guidance. While he labored to support that little family, the Blessed Mother, like a good housewife, took great care of her spouse and her Son. Earnest, faithful work on the part of both the father and mother of the family made the days speed swiftly and happily and secured all that was needful for that little home.

We can enter in imagination into the house at Nazareth and see how simple, yet how clean and orderly and happy, was the life therein. The Blessed Mother must have been the best of all housewives, for she knew that it was the will of God that she should do her best to make her home peaceful and happy, and she had been chosen to be the virgin spouse of Joseph and the keeper of the holy household.

Her perfect consecration to duty, her unwavering diligence and self-sacrifice, the joy she felt in doing everything possible for the security and happiness of Jesus and of Joseph, are a model to Catholic mothers. The more they become like the Blessed Virgin in interest and diligence, in self-forgetfulness and holy effort for their husbands and their children, the more happy they will be and the more holy will become their homes.

St. Joseph is a model of Catholic fathers. He was a man entirely devoted to his home and to the task which God had given him as being the head of that holy household. He was a man, every inch of him, and a man of God, full of strength and goodness, pure enough to be worthy of the dignity of spouse of the Mother of God and wise and strong enough to guide the fortunes of that little household through the terrible dangers with which it was threatened by the cruel Herod.

It was Joseph to whom God sent an Angel as a messenger, as St. Matthew tells us, who appeared to him in sleep and bade him take the little Babe of Bethlehem and His Mother and fly into Egypt, for Herod would seek the Child to destroy Him.

It was he who arose with simple obedience to the voice of God and took the Child and His Mother by night and returned into Egypt and he who labored there to support them in that strange and heathen land, until the death of Herod, when again the Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: “Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the Child.”

“Who arose, and took the Child and His Mother, and came into the land of Israel; but, hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod, his father, he was afraid to go thither; and, being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee; and coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets: ‘That He shall be called a Nazarene.’”

If all Catholic mothers imitated the perfect self-devotion of the Blessed Mother and her inward spirit of perfect love of God and if all Catholic fathers modeled themselves after the example of the pious fidelity of St. Joseph, what faithful Catholic homes we should see in rich mansions as in poor cottages!

It is the heart of the father and mother which makes the home and not splendid furnishings, nor magnificent edifices. Indeed, it is easier to have an ideal Catholic home with simple living and in a humble cottage than in the midst of pomp and luxury.

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