On this Feast of the Holy Family, the message I believe the Lord has for us is: "Don’t mess with the family!"

Sounds like something "the Godfather" might say, although it would have a very different meaning coming from his lips!

Why would God say to us, "Don’t mess with the family?"

Basically because the family is his idea, and it’s not wise to fool with any of the Lord’s ideas. There was a television program on in the 1950’s called "Father Knows Best." Well, that’s precisely what we are supposed to believe as Catholics: that our Father in heaven knows what’s best for us; thus, we must conform our lives to his plan.

And part of his plan concerns the very structure of the family. This is clear in the new Catechism, paragraph 2202, where it says, "A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated."

I love the way that’s worded. You see, there’s a subtle reprimand in that paragraph—a reprimand leveled at those governments and other groups which would try to redefine the norm for family life. For example, in our culture right now there are those who tell us that two homosexuals should be permitted to adopt a child, and that in the process they will form a "family"—a family every bit as legitimate as one involving a validly married husband and wife.

Not so, says the Catechism! It says there that the state does not define the family, God does—and has! The obligation of the state is to recognize what God has already declared! And he declared it way back at the dawn of creation. Genesis 2: 24 says, "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." In commenting on that passage, the editors of the New American Bible state that "[The author of Genesis is here stressing] the fact that [the] conjugal union is willed by God."

And God willed that the fruit of the conjugal union include children. As he said to Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve!), "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it."

In this regard, one point of clarification should be added. Some of us grew up in families which were incomplete in some way. In many cases, that fact was beyond our control. From the age of fourteen, I grew up in such a family—that’s how old I was when my dad died of cancer. My mom, my sister and I still shared our family bonds and commitments, but things were definitely not the same after my father’s death. Our family structure was incomplete. That was no one’s fault; it’s just the way it was. Consequently, even though my mother did an excellent job raising us by herself, I would never, ever say that the single parent household should be considered the equivalent of the household which has a loving mother and father who are united to one another in the sacrament of marriage. There is a big difference. I know, because I lived in both settings. The household with loving, married parents is the norm. That’s what we see affirmed in the Catechism and in the Bible.

The Catechism says something else that’s worth quoting today, and which helps to make clear why we must not "mess with the family." It says "the family is the original cell of social life." What does that mean? Basically it means that healthy, strong families make for a healthy, strong society. Of course, if that’s true, then so is the opposite: broken, weak families make for a broken, weak society.

And also for a weak Church! The Catechism calls the Christian family "a domestic church." Thus it’s legitimate to say that the universal Church is made up of millions and millions of "domestic churches": the Jones domestic church, the Smith domestic church, the Suriani domestic church, etc. But if many of these domestic churches are broken and weak, that will have the effect of weakening the bonds of love and commitment present in the universal Church. Common sense should tell us that.

I think this should help us to understand why our culture is currently in such disarray, and why the Church is not as strong as it should be: Families—domestic churches—have (generally speaking) been weakened in the last half of this century. And make no mistake about it—this weakening has occurred because all too many people have been messing with the family "big time"—especially in various academic, medical and government settings. I mentioned one example of this phenomenon a few minutes ago: the drive to legitimize homosexual parenthood. But, unfortunately that’s not the only one.

How about abortion? There’s no greater attack on the family than that one, which takes the life of one member of a family, and kills the conscience of another.

And, lest we forget, the abortion phenomenon in our nation is rooted in the sexual revolution, which attacked (and is attacking) marital fidelity—and thus, the family.

Several weeks ago—just before the November election—someone sent me the following, via e-mail. Here we see not only the social and spiritual, but also the economic consequences of "messing with the family" through legalized abortion and artificial contraception. Listen to this poignant paragraph:

In the late 1980’s the Social Security System began to show cracks, and concern began to appear in the last presidential election of that decade. A little history shows why. In the 1960’s the birth control pill hit the market. When the pill failed, there needed to be a backup method to prevent birth. What happened? The Roe v. Wade decision was handed down in 1973 legalizing abortion. There have been 1.5 million abortions per year (the real number is much higher). Add 16 years to that date and you come to that time (1988-89) when the Social Security System began to have problems. The very people who would have entered the work force at 16 were dead—not one cent from their hard work would ever feed Social Security. With 1.5 million abortions per year—every year since 1973—the Social Security System is in need of a real fix. You can help make this happen by finding every pro-life candidate and voting for them. If this fix is made immediately, the system will start to be healthy in 16 years, when these children join the work force.

This insight that I received via e-mail is verified in an article which was written earlier this year by John Mueller. Writing in the Family Research Council’s Family Policy magazine, Mueller says, "By reducing the size of the population, abortion has correspondingly reduced the size of the economy . . . legal abortion is perhaps the single largest American economic event of the century."

How ironic: all those elderly in our state and around the country who voted for so-called "pro-choice" candidates because they were concerned with the economy and saving Social Security: these elderly persons were actually shooting themselves in the foot (so to speak).

Don’t mess with the family!

God tells us that today, for our own good!—for our own social and spiritual good, AND (believe it or not) for our own economic good. Maybe more of us will remember that in the next election!

And by the way, do you know who the Biblical Poster Boy is for those who do try to mess with the family?

King Herod! He tried to mess with the Holy Family, and in the process he messed-up many other families, bringing death to hundreds of babies and heartache to their parents.