“THE HOLY FAMILY IS IN DANGER OF INSULT; NOT EVEN BECAUSE IT IS HOLY, BUT MERELY BECAUSE IT IS A FAMILY.” 

~ G. K. Chesterton – New Witness, December 10th, 1920 

Read that again please and take note of the date on which it was published. The longer I am a student of Mr. Chesterton’s writings, the more often I find myself marveling that he seems to be—in a sense—timeless. 

What he wrote in 1920 could just as easily have been written by someone this week, as we all know that the family is under attack. Perhaps more subtly at times the attack on the family takes the form of disregard. As corporate, educational, and governmental entities cancel the words husband, wife, mother, father, son, and daughter, one can easily imagine that the very word family will also be jettisoned. 

Of course, the attack on the family is an attack on God, who is revealed to us as a family—The Most Holy Trinity. Jesus Christ is conceived in the womb of Blessed Mary and is born into a family. Jesus sends the Apostles forth to baptize us into His family, the Church. 

So yes, as Mr. Chesterton said, the Holy Family endures insult “merely because it is a family.”