Hope for Becoming Holy Family

Ania and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary on December 17. Freed (respectively) from the domination of sexual abuse and homosexuality, we worship the One who became flesh to set us free in our bodies.

We both thought we were too broken for marriage, but our Living Waters communities spoke a more hopeful word. God’s family intervened on our behalf and infused us with expectancy.

I don’t know where I’d be without God’s holy family. Incarnate Jesus met me in my divides and brought His comfort and joy. He did this most powerfully through Christian men like Fr. Brian Kane, Archbishop Chaput, and Andrew Comiskey. I linger long at the manger these Christmas days. I’m full of gratitude for what He’s done and who He used to accomplish it.

This time last year, Ania and I faced some real barriers to getting pregnant. Were we infertile? We cried out for God’s intervention, and He sent Drs. Anne Nolte and Michaela Behrens. These messengers of hope assured Ania and me that their medical interventions would significantly increase our chances of pregnancy. O, we of little faith!

We’re expecting our baby girl in May 2025.

When I contemplate today’s Feast of the Holy Family, I recall the times in which God’s will seemed implausible for Mary and Joseph. Angels (Greek: “messengers”) always showed up to declare otherwise.

Like any disciple called to hope against the odds, Mary and Joseph needed God’s messengers to help them remain steadfast to God’s promises. Mary’s miraculous pregnancy hinged on an impartation unlike no other (Lk 1:34). Joseph's engagement to the Mother of God required a dream to liberate his obedience (Mt 1:20). Fleeing murderous Herod, Joseph was angelically propelled to take Mother and Child secretly into Egypt (Mt 2:13).

This holiest of families acts as the model for all of us. They trust the message of the messengers. In lively faith, they wait for God to move and do the impossible.

“Silently [the angels] bring the questions of God and proclaim to us the miracles of God, with whom nothing is impossible…To wait in faith––no longer because we trust the earth or the stars or our temperament and good courage––but only because we have perceived God’s messages and know about His announcing angels, and even have encountered one.” (Fr. Alfred Delp, Advent of the Heart)

While waiting for our own miracles, we too can become messengers of hope.

Ania and I just finished our first Living Waters group at our local parish. We started the first weeks wearied by our fertility journey. But that didn’t stop us. How could we forget what God had already done in our lives? Remembering His marvels sparked expectancy for Him to move again. Mercy primed and prepared us to become a “holy family” for others. God surprised us with this new life as we poured out in hope to the broken.

Today I marvel at Ania bearing this baby girl. She witnesses of the wonders He has done. Today, may you hope afresh in your becoming holy family.  

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