God created our world with an amazing order and unity, if we only have the eyes to see it.
I remember taking philosophy classes at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Seminary years back when I was dabbling with the idea of becoming a theology teacher. After learning a number of the mind-boggling theories from the philosophers throughout history, I remember one of them in particular (though the man’s name escapes me). When this philosopher looked at a diagram of the structure of an atom (during his time, this was the smallest level of matter known) he saw a tiny universe. With his theory, he implied that all things in the universe work together as building blocks of one another in a great cosmic organization that only could have God as its creator.
This is the type of thinking that my mind has been ruminating on regarding the place of our Regnum Christi movement in the Church and in society after reading the document the Principles of the Regnum Christi Charism, and the accompanying letter from our territorial directors. After meditating on the words within these documents, certain aspects stick out in my mind – especially the novel idea that our movement, with all its various ordained, religious and lay members, is a Spiritual Family.
In the Regnum Christi Movement, there are various categories of members: single and married lay people, lay people who consecrate themselves by taking on and practicing the evangelical counsels and religious and priests of the Legionaries of Christ. Each one lives according to their own vocation and state in life, with a function for the good of the one body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-29), as members of one charismatic and apostolic family.
In addition to this segment from the Charism document, a portion of a letterwritten by Fr. Luis Garza LC, director of the North American Territory, to Legionaries in the territory, reflecting on our apostolic work for the future, also struck a chord with me.
5. Youth and the family, the challenges for the future
All the recent popes have said that youth are the hope for the future and have dedicated a lot of their energy, thought, and love to youth. The youth holds the future of the world and the Church in their hands. The Church is facing one of her greatest and most difficult challenges in reaching out to youth. We have to admit that the efforts of the Church at large have produced little results and that it is difficult to counter the bombardment youth receives from all sorts of stimuli of this culture. But young people are nurtured in a family. So strengthening families is the key for a solid society and a vibrant Church. Regnum Christi and the Legion should see here two of the greatest battlegrounds for the future. We should dedicate our best energies to establish solid youth ministries that could offer the Church convinced young Catholic men and women who build the Kingdom in their lives and in those around them. Youth work is really important, and it is something we can do well. But parents are the primary educators of their children, and the family is the place where we learn to love one another and to love God. We need to evangelize parents to make a lasting impact on youth.
Considering these words, what better way is there for us to evangelize young people and families in general, then to become the best spiritual family we can be in Regnum Christi?
I was talking with some of the “spiritual mothers” in our movement (referring to our consecrated women) and we agreed that a useful exercise for our movement might be to prayerfully read the document written by the late great John Paul II – Familiaris Consortio — On the Christian Family in the Modern World — when considering the place of our movement going forward.
During those theology studies that I mentioned earlier, I became a fan of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, and in particular, his teachings on the significance of the Holy Family. During courses I took at the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, I learned more about the role of Mary and Joseph, who were both married and celibate at the same time. I learned how their marriage “embraced the Heavenly marriage (Christ and his Church, discussed in Ephesians 5) and earthly marriage simultaneously, literally effecting the marriage “of Heaven and Earth.” Their marriage was and is “the image of both vocations” – married and celibate religious. Though Joseph did not beget Christ physically, he imaged perfect human fatherhood, and Mary imaged perfect motherhood. Their celibate marriage was “superabundantly fruitful.” Through the Holy Spirit, they bore and raised Christ, and after him, “countless spiritual children through the Church.”
I remember attending a Marriage Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2009, and writing an articleafter hearing Bishop Ronald Gainer discuss the importance of that simple life lived by the Holy Family in Nazareth. He called the Holy Family a “prototype for all human families.” Their life illustrated God’s sacred order for a fruitful and harmonious family life. Using the ideas of John Paul II, he said the structure of the Holy Family, and of all human families for that matter, reflects that of the Holy Trinity.
“There are three, bonded and knit together by love,” he said.
The Bishop exhorted Catholic families to be models for others and “a leaven” to change society.
“The family is the most fundamental unit of society,” he said. “They are a sign of God’s life giving love for all in Jesus Christ.”
In an October 26, 2012, letter written by the territorial directors to all member of Regnum Christi, they write:
Let us open our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s work in our own lives as members of this spiritual family and to the reflections of the other members. Together, let us renew our love for Regnum Christi so that we continue on the path God has chosen for our sanctification and service to the Church and our brothers and sisters.
I heartily agree.
Jesus himself showed us the way to be that “leaven” in society – so others will know that we, as Regnum Christi members, are with his Church and for his Church.
“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
John Paul the Great, Mary our Mother, and St. Joseph, patron of the family, pray for us.
