Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
This summer my husband and I and our four children, ages 12 to 5, were blessed to be able to attend a family retreat. We spent 5 days intentionally spending time together, praying together, laughing together and refocusing our family on Christ. We spent this time reconstructing our domestic church.
Today’s Gospel calls to mind this experience for me. We came into this retreat as many families do – losing sight of the immense blessing each member of our family is. We were taking each other for granted, snapping at each other and quite honestly being selfish and unkind towards one another. At one point the retreat focused on forgiveness. What a powerful gift we have in forgiveness. We hear Christ tell the apostles, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” I think sometimes we lose sight of how immensely powerful this loosing and binding can be, especially in our families. It’s so important to set time aside and practice the art of both sincere apology and sincere forgiveness. I know that when I have asked forgiveness from someone and truly feel forgiven, I can quite literally feel myself getting looser, feeling less bound up – feeling free. While it’s important to do this for all our relationships I think it’s especially important in our families.
Today’s Gospel ends with the sentence, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them”. Reading this Gospel today I found myself recalling the retreat. Over the course of the week, through the various activities and prayers I found myself praying about this line in a new way. In our family, six of us are gathered, not always do we remember to gather in God’s name, but we’re getting better. Think about how beautiful it would be if every time you were together with your family, living life – eating dinner, cleaning the house, running errands, doing dishes, you not only remembered that God is in your midst but you actively called God into your midst.
One of the families on the retreat shared with us their dinner practice – each night at the dinner table they check in with each family member about a highlight and challenge of their day and a prayer request that they bring to the table. Encouraged by their sharing we have adopted this practice, and it has really transformed our meals. Dinner together is no longer just about saying grace and eating together but now it is a place of shared prayer and a place to uncover the deep desires of my children’s hearts. We are able to gather in God’s name, feel God in our midst and turn our hopes and fears over to the Lord, who will journey with us away from this dinner table and out into the world. I think if we can remember that gathering in God’s name can also mean gathering as a family our small domestic churches will not only grow in faith but thrive and foster faithful Christian disciples. Amen.
—AJ Grimm