Faith and Family / Sean Gallagher

God draws families and the Church to himself in comings and goings in this life

In life on this side of eternity, nothing stays the same. There are always comings and goings. That is true for the world as a whole, including families.

They start with a man and woman meeting, falling in love and discerning that God is calling them to marriage.

If God so blesses them, they welcome children into their marriage. As the years pass, relatives in their extended family die, some after a long life, others maybe more unexpectedly at a young age.

Friends and neighbors can play important roles in the life of a family as they come and go through the years.

Those children who were welcomed at their birth eventually leave the nest and form lives of their own, discerning their vocation, possibly forming families of their own if God calls them to do so.

And that husband and wife who came together through God’s grace earlier in life eventually part ways, at least in this life, when our heavenly Father calls them to himself.

God in his providence plays a role in all of these comings and goings in this ever-changing world. They are moments in which he invites family members to be drawn in love closer to him and each other as they journey together each day closer to the kingdom of heaven.

What is true of individual families in this regard is also true of the Church, the family of faith that our Lord created and brought to life through the Holy Spirit.

Comings and goings occur all the time in the Church. But they came to the fore for the faithful around the world in a special way in the past few months as Pope Francis died and Pope Leo XIV was elected to succeed him as bishop of Rome.

We mourned the passing of Pope Francis much like families do when a beloved parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle dies. And we celebrated with joy when Pope Leo first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, much like families gladly welcome a new child, a son- or daughter-in-law or a grandchild.

Catholics across central and southern Indiana similarly rejoiced earlier this month when three men took a new place in our family of faith when they were ordained priests.

And early next month, Catholics in many parishes across the archdiocese will say goodbye to beloved pastors and parochial vicars (associate pastors) who may have served them for many years, and welcome new ones in their stead.

Moments of people coming and going in our families and in the Church in this life are sometimes marked by sadness and uncertainty. At other times, they are occasions of joy.

That they will happen at some point or another is unavoidable. But God would not allow these moments to happen without offering his grace in them. He uses them as steppingstones to draw families and the Church closer to himself. So, when we naturally get caught up in the feelings of such moments, remember God is using them as means to give us something far greater.

The constant change of life and the mixture of emotions that come will go away when, with the help of God’s grace, we are all welcomed into the heavenly wedding banquet.

There are no goings there, only comings as our heavenly Father draws more and more of his adopted children to himself out of our changeable time into his perfect eternity. †