An Australian nun of the Good Shepherd Congregation died a few years ago after a life of entire dedication to God and souls. Her childhood had been passed in the "backblocks" where a priest came only twice in the year. And yet she became a nun, and there burned within her heart the spirit of a Xavier. How did it happen? She was fond of telling you she owed it to the example of her parents. In that remote little home there was union, there was a deeply religious spirit of true piety. Not a night passed without the Rosary; not a chance was ever missed of impressing on the children the truth and value of their Catholic Faith.
It is impossible to overstate the truth that children are impressionable. What they see in their own homes is going to affect powerfully their future lives. To ensure that they go out into the world giving fair promise of making a success of their lives, there is a third characteristic of the Holy Family to be cultivated in the Catholic home.
Eighteen years of Our Lord's life are summed up in a single sentence. "Jesus came with them and went to Nazareth and He was subject to them." Joseph, the least holy, had supreme authority as head of the home; Mary, perfect indeed beyond the power of words to express, was still a mere creature of God; but Jesus obeyed these two, unquestioningly, because He recognized that to them His Father had delegated a share of His own authority.
Catholic parents will realize their weighty obligation to exercise the authority entrusted to them by God. In His place they stand, to train the children He gives them, to prepare them for life here and hereafter. Theirs it is to mold the character by instilling good habits - prayer, and selfdenial, and zeal for souls. Theirs it is to teach the little one control of temper, readiness to give up its toys or childish treasures to another; theirs to say, at a later stage, when and how the growing boy or girl is to act. Happy the parents who have the confidence of their children at the adolescent stage! It will then be too late to capture it if it has been lost or never given during childhood. And one of the surest means of winning the child's confidence is to wield fittingly the authority entrusted by God to the hands of the parents.
There should be nothing forced or subservient about such obedience. If the child is taken in time, a mentality can easily be fostered in which it recognizes that mother and father and all in authority take God's place. If the child wants to love God, and the desire for God is innate in the heart, it will learn that there is no better way of proving its love than by doing what He wants. And what does He want? Mother and father are there to tell.
Again, the enemies of God fight vigorously against this respect for parental authority. Youth is indoctrinated into a philosophy that advocates independence, that tells how to live one's own life, that shakes off divine authority only in order to subject men to slavery. All of which is another excellent argument for developing the love and exercise of authority in our Catholic homes.
On the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany Holy Church celebrates the feast of the Family at Nazareth. No prayer could be more fitting with which to end my meditation than the Collect she there puts on our lips. "O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, becoming subject to Mary and Joseph, didst hallow home life by wondrous virtues, grant that, by their help and taught by the example of Thy Holy Family, we may have fellowship with it forever. Amen."