The Transfer of the Holy Relics of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Tyro
Apostles’ Fast. Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat
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Romans 9:6-19; Matthew 10:32-36; 11:1
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
This passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Our Lord sets our priorities for us in a very stark way is probably one of the hardest to contemplate. Our Lord calls us to put Him above all other things, even our very own family. It is especially poignant that He should establish Himself before all others for in doing this He calls us ever more fully to Himself.
For most of us, our family is at the centre of our lives: we are devoted to our parents, we cherish our children, we love our spouse. All of these attachments are particularly noble, good, and true, and the Church continually acknowledges this not only in its teaching on the sanctity of life and the role of the domestic church in forming us in faith, but it also sanctifies the family through the holy mysteries such as marriage. Yet, all of this comes from God: our parents, our children, our spousal relationship, and first and foremost the love that is present here. So, Our Lord is not saying that He will tear us away from one another but rather He demands that God is at the centre of our lives; that God is our focus; and ultimately, that we constantly affirm and give thanks for the fact that God is the origin and end of all of our love and of all of our lives.
We have a solemn, great, yet supremely joyful duty to acknowledge God before all, including our families. Often in families where there are divisions, or in which various members have fallen away from their faith, or have come to reject God’s love, it can be a struggle for us as the faithful to acknowledge God before them, in effect putting Christ ahead of them and our family loyalty. But, we must through prayer constantly strive to join our families to Christ and, in often courageously professing the faith, we must be prepared to be mocked or dismissed. For we must do this and perhaps suffer in small ways out of love for God and for our family and in this way imitate Our Saviour. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work and to work through our witness to Christ, since “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses life for my sake will find it.”