by EMERSON HYNES
St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota
FOREWORD
The inspiring talk given by Mr. Emerson Hynes of the Department
of Sociology, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, on
"The Christian Family on the Land" at the St. Bede Rural Life
School, in June, 1945, aroused such profound interest that I
received many requests for copies. Mr. Hynes spoke from notes,
and so I asked him to write them out for me.
I am deeply grateful to Mr. Hynes for permitting their
publication in pamphlet form and consider it a privilege to
sponsor the project.
+J. H. Schlarman
Bishop of Peoria
President NCRLC
Sacramental Protection of the Family
The Christian Family on the Lane
(Notes from a talk by Emerson Hynes to the Rural Life Summer
School, St. Bede College, June 25, 1945.)
I AM grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Catholic home and rural
living. For I believe deeply that, even in this tempestuous world, where
headlines dealing with military movements of millions are the order of the
day, where the decisions of leaders are apparently shaping the future of
all of us, where the charter of nations at San Francisco encompasses the
whole world--even in such a world the most important things are still the
Family and the Church.
None of us will question the position of the Church. But I wonder if we do
not have a tendency to regard the family as less important than we should.
Theoretically, of course, we know and preach its place. But in fact we
like to talk and plan in terms of modern science, the state, of so many
billions of units of this and that, of a national income of 160 billion
dollars, of full employment and 60 million jobs, of international economic
and social and military cooperation. Those are challenging objectives. We
are aiming at a better world. And it is a world of mass production and of
science. I do not mean to decry these objectives or to suggest that we do
not need to be concerned with planning on a large scale. It is rather that
we must always keep in mind that all this has meaning only in terms of
human persons and of human families. All this size, all this science, all
this production, is good only if it contributes to better living for
persons. And persons live most intimately and most of their time in that
little unit called the family.
The Family the Basis of the Future
We must see, first, that the family is really the basis of the future. We
cannot start at the top with international organization and imagine that
other things will work out all right. We must start at the bottom. That
does not mean automatically that the top will work. But it is the first
requisite. Hence every leader can have hope and consolation. No matter
how dark the world picture is, he can do effective work. No matter how
little cooperation he gets from others in the wider circle of social
activities, he can always make progress with his own little group. No
matter that society seems to be destroying itself, he can always be
building it by building the families under his care. G. K. Chesterton,
with his flair for seeing the important in the commonplace, once made a
striking analogy by comparing the family to a cabbage. A prosaic soul, he
said, would think, while walking in the garden, that a cabbage was a very
ordinary vegetable. But a man of vision would be struck by the grandeur,
by the monstrousness of that gigantic head of cabbage growing from a tiny
taproot in the soil. That something so large and bulky could come from one
little root! So it is with the family, which seems small, like one of
millions of roots in the fields. But it bulks large in importance as it
grows and matures. In itself it is "wild and elemental." It is dwarfed by
the whole field, yet it is a supreme object in itself. It is the place
where the basic processes of life occur by nature: birth, growth, and
death. It is able to produce the greatest love and the greatest hatred,
too; the greatest joy and equally the most stinging sorrow.
So we must recognize the importance of the family in the lives of men. We
must shape our thinking to better the family; and in so doing we shall be
performing the most important and most revolutionary work possible. We can
never be discouraged if we are improving family life. Now, there are two
important places where I suggest that we can begin to improve family life.
Neither will be examined exhaustively, but points for thought and
discussion should be raised. These two aspects are the spiritual and the
environmental. Let us think of each in turn.
I. The Sacramental Aspect of Family Life
IT IS but natural that priests and other Catholics should think first of
the spiritual side of marriage. It is not only tremendously important. It
is our unique treasure. All leaders of good will can work with us and we
with them to improve the family wage, the family housing, the family
health, the family recreational facilities. But our specific gift is the
fact that marriage is a sacrament, instituted by Christ to be a source of
grace. And how urgently that grace is needed! For it gives parents the
strength to endure much. After all, material standards are relative. The
necessities of life today were undreamed of only a century ago. The best
house in the nation in 1850 would be substandard today. The troubles and
inconveniences should be avoided; but merely avoiding them will not make
healthy family life. It is the spirit that counts.
From the fact that marriage is a sacrament, several points follow:
A. Marriage is a continuous sacrament. This truth was stressed
by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on marriage. We heads of
Catholic families need to be reminded of that fact repeatedly.
We cannot be told too often. Marriage is not a sacrament merely
on the wedding day. It is a continuous "sign instituted by
Christ to give grace." How consoling it is for parents to know
this! How it gives them strength! How it checks them when human
weakness inclines them to quarrel! How it increases the joy of
their two-in-one-ship! How it enables them to see their children
as blessings! How it helps them to offer up to God their daily
work: their care of children, their meals, their play, their
household tasks. Who would dare to bicker and quarrel and
deliberately sin in the presence of the other six sacraments?
Who dares to despair, then? Even so, Catholic parents can be led
to understand and then practice the same joyful spirit in their
special sacrament. We stand in great need of explanation. That
is a place where any servant of Christ can begin to improve
family life. Tell us of the beauty and depth and grace of
marriage.
B. From the first point it follows that marriage is a vocation.
Truly it is a religious vocation, in the broad sense of that
term. It is a way of salvation, chosen by the majority of the
people. And since it is a way of salvation, it must be looked
upon as such. Marriage should not be viewed simply as a proper
means of perpetuating the human race. Every marriage is that,
pagan (or natural) or Christian. It surely should not be viewed
merely as a legitimate means of quieting concupiscence. That is
a secondary aspect. The special thing about a Christian marriage
is that it is truly a means of serving God, a way of salvation.
And how marvelous and mysterious it is! For by choosing the way
of marriage, man and woman no longer work alone for salvation,
but together in a most intimate way. Their marriage is a means
to sanctity, and the advance of one should be a help to the
other; the defect of one will weigh down the other. In any
event, we need to realize more than we do that marriage is a
vocation, a chosen way of serving God. And in that realization
the family will take on new and deeper meaning. How blessed the
parents will see they are! They have all the joys of the natural
family. But over and above, they have, in their sacrament, a
religious way of life, too. How much more important the family
becomes as we begin to see that, although in a different way, we
are serving God as are the priest and the nun! It will not solve
all difficulties, of course, just as ordination or solemn vows
do not automatically make perfect men. But you know what an aid
to perfection is the knowledge of one's vocation. So it should
be with Catholic parents.
C. If marriage is a continuous sacrament and a true vocation,
then daily family living must give evidence that it is a
religious life. Both in the spirit of the members and in the
externals of the home itself religion must be evidenced. Here we
Catholic parents need help. We need instruction and we need
confidence.
Re-establishment of Traditions
We need instruction because we Americans came to this country in a violent
way. Most of the home ties were broken. We came to a strange land where
there were no traditions of Catholicity. We left home and village and
nation where traditions may have been strong, but in this new land all was
new. Some of the nationalities, of course, settled as units and thus some
of the traditions were transplanted. But often they died with the first or
second generation. Thus we find our country in many ways barren of the
solid religious spirit and practices that characterize the homes of our
ancestors in Europe. Those traditions have to be rebuilt. We are often
simply ignorant of how to make our home a place worthy of a religious
vocation. We know-how to was floors and operate vacuum cleaners and
electric stoves, but we do not know how to sanctify our baking, our meals,
our action.
We need confidence because the traditions have been lost. We Catholics
without embarrassment walk into church, attend Mass, and abstain from meat
on Friday. But in the intimacy of our own homes we are often
self-conscious about the countless practices, symbols, and words which are
needed to make our homes fitting places for a continuous sacrament. You
may know of many exceptions, but as a general rule, and increasingly as
the rest of the nation becomes more secular and as the radio competes,
religious life within the family itself becomes more foreign.
So we need much instruction and much bolstering. The instruction cannot be
merely by sermon and handing out pamphlets. The priest must enter the very
homes themselves and instruct. The mothers, in their guilds or societies,
must be instructed and encouraged to start a few of the practices. The
children in school must come to accept it as ordinary practice of the
Catholic family. Blessings by the father before meals and thanksgiving
afterwards, the family rosary, the crucifix on the wall and a picture of
the Sacred Heart: these are starting points, but they are not enough.
There is a wealth of possibilities over and beyond. I should like to
recommend two fine pamphlets that show some of the possibilities. Both of
them written by Mrs. Franz Mueller. One is "Family Life in Christ,"
published by the Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota. The other is
"Our Children's Year of Grace," published by the Pio Decimo Press, Box 53,
Baden Station, St. Louis 15, Missouri. The latter is especially useful,
since it follows the liturgical year, and is filled with dozens of
suggestions of how the family, without too much altering its present daily
life, can give religious significance to it. Then there are the blessings
for the home: for the house, the barn, the parental bedroom, and others.
The priest, for example, might perform these blessings as he is taking the
census.
It is scarcely necessary to add what advantage the rural pastor has in
building family life. For the rural family still has the unity and the
privacy and the authority. The chief need is instruction. The urban pastor
has far greater obstacles. He is dealing with families where the whole
family is rarely together, once the children start to school, and where
the father is away from home much of the day. He is dealing with family
life that goes on under ceaseless environmental difficulties and
distractions, and where the competition of the secular attractions is
almost insurmountable. We can place his work in the power of the Holy
Spirit and practice the supernatural virtue of hope.
Parish Life
D. Family life in Christ is a noble aim and one to which we
cannot devote too much energy. Yet we know that the "true and
indispensable" source of Christian life is Holy Mass, because
obviously the family is not self-sufficient either economically
or socially or spiritually. We have not the time to explore all
the possibilities, all the opportunities for leadership in
helping families to work with other families in community life.
Economic and social cooperation of families is a topic in
itself. But a few words about the cooperation of families in
religious life will be useful. Holy Mother Church has built her
structure wisely. The normal relationship of families is a part
of that community called a parish. The parish is in many
respects a "little Church," a cell of the whole Church.
Composed of families, usually in a geographic area, it is
admirably suited to promote the spiritual growth of the members
of those families. The offering of the parish Mass is the
central act of this community; and the priest, the father of the
parish family, has the honor, right, and duty of offering that
Mass, dispensing the sacraments, and instructing. Thus family
life reaches its flowering in parish life. How important that
parish life is! How great the opportunity and how great the
responsibility of the priest!
And it is a good thing for priests to know that the laity thank God for
the great system of parishes that we have in the United States, where few
families are so far removed that they cannot be active members of
parishes; and that the laity appreciate their blessings in having priests,
who serve them faithfully in this first and necessary function of the
parish. For a number of reasons, it is true that we Catholics do not make
the best use of the means of worshipping and of growing spiritually. But
can anyone in this whole nation complain that the means are not there at
his disposal?
But no Catholic can ever be complacent. There is always the opportunity of
intensifying the religious life of the families of the parish, of making
them realize more fully the privilege of being a part of this cell of the
Church. We are all so human; and so the practices that have been
traditional in the history of the Church are needed today as in the past.
All of you undoubtedly have them. I need but mention a few. There are,
especially on Rogation days and Corpus Christi, processions in which the
members of the parish join as a body to worship and petition. There is the
meaningful custom of visiting the cemetery, where the deceased members of
the mystical body (but just as truly part of the living body) rest. There
is the restoration of the true meaning and prayers of Halloween. There is
the beautiful practice of making each baptism of a new member of the
Church and of the parish a real parish function. We lay people make a
great fuss aver baby showers and have all kinds of secular excitement over
the birth of a baby. Could we not be helped to achieve even more
enthusiasm for the birth (baptism) of a new member into the Church? To
make baptism a parish affair is to teach the unity of members of the
mystical body. Not only the parents, but also the parish should rejoice.
The parish also has secondary purposes: to serve as a social and cultural
center for the people who are united in this basic religious society.
This, too, is a broad topic, and one from which we could all profit by
exchanging ideas. Complaints go to the two extremes: that the parish is
"dead" and without any activities of this secondary nature; and the
opposite, that there are so many societies and activities that the family
which joined all they were exhorted to join would never have any time at
home. I suggest merely that on this point we keep one thing in mind. The
parish should not simply be duplicating secular activities that are
already well organized. Of course, that is the easiest procedure. The
people like card parties, bowling, athletics, bingo, and what-not. I am
not condemning them. But in most places secular agencies provide enough
outlet for such recreational and social urges. There is so little time,
and the parish is so important that the busy pastor and his willing people
should use the opportunity to higher ends. I mean that social, fraternal,
and recreational devices should not be ends in themselves, nor should they
be merely money making devices. They should be used as a means to build a
rural culture, a Christian rural culture. Thus they should lead to higher
things. Endless playing of cards will not build any culture. Endless
bowling is not going to develop the human personality. Cards may be used
as a bait, but creative recreation (plays, recitations, music, folk
dances, the ancient crafts and arts) should be our aim. The secondary
parish activities should be building personality and building culture, not
merely providing parasitic and passive ways of spending time. Let
Hollywood have the reputation for that.
I might add in passing that this is important, for unless a genuine rural
culture is built in this country, rural America is doomed. Unless rural
people have spiritual and cultural values, they will use their improved
economic condition as a stepping stone to urban life. Unless rural
children are trained to know and appreciate the special cultural values of
the open country, they will not stay on the land. I grant that most rural
people think they must relax and be entertained. That is the job of
leadership, to show them how more re-creating and more entertaining
creative activity is. And incidentally it will build better parish unity
and keep the parish numerically strong.
II. The Environmental Aspect
THE second general topic we should consider in regard to the family is the
environmental aspect. The population statistics have been quoted so many
times that it is unnecessary to go over them again. It is a simple fact
that populations do not replace themselves in the city, and that rural
families provide the population increase. Nothing more need be added to
show us that the environment is important. For it is a law of nature that
a species will reproduce itself in a healthy environment and that it will
die in an unhealthy one. The human family is no exception.
Why, then, do we not apply ourselves with utmost vigor to righting that
environment? Why do we spend our money and energy, and even our prayers,
on applying politics to a sick and unhealthy environment, without going to
the root of the problem?
We cannot complain of lack of leadership. Pope Pius XI and now Pope Pius
XII have both drawn attention again and again to the evil of the "flight
from the land" where "families are uprooted" and "strong traditions
broken."
It is worth while re-reading that significant passage from Pope Pius XII's
commentary on the fiftieth anniversary of "Rerum Novarum," where he
stated:
"Of all the goods that can be the object of private property,
none is more conformable to nature . . . than the land, the
holding in which the family lives and from the products of which
it draws all or part of its subsistence." And it is in the
spirit of "Rerum Novarum" to state that, as a rule, only that
stability which is rooted in one's own holding makes of the
family the vital and most perfect and fruitful cell of society.
. . . If today the concept and the creation of living spaces is
as the center of social and political aims, should not one,
before all else, think of the living space of the family and
free it of the fetters or conditions which do not permit even to
formulate the idea of a homestead of one's own?
What are we to answer? Do we put "living space" of the family before all
else. The Holy Father elaborated on the same idea in his Christmas message
of 1942:
"He who would have the star of peace shine out and stand guard
over society . . . should give to the family, that unique cell
of the people, space, light, and air so that it may attend to
its missions of perpetuating new life and of educating children
in a spirit corresponding to its own true religious convictions,
and that it may preserve, fortify, and reconstitute, according
to its powers, its proper economic, spiritual, moral, and
juridic unity.... He should strive to secure for every family a
dwelling where a materially and morally healthy family life may
be seen in all its vigor and worth; he should take care that the
place of work be not so separated from the home as to make the
head of the family and educator of the children a virtual
stranger to his own household."
Let us reflect on the basic requirements which the Holy Father has set
down: space, light, and air . . .a homestead of one's own . . . the land .
. from which it draws all or part of its subsistence . . .only that
stability which is rooted in one's own holding . . . a dwelling where a
materially and morally healthy family life may be seen
before all else . . .
Must we take this seriously? We must. And the advantage is that we can
begin to do so without waiting for world conferences and vast government
projects to initiate it. Each of us can do his part in restoring a proper
environment to the family.
Proper Family Environment
This does not mean that every family must go to the farm. Far from it.
The normal city--up to 50,000 population or so- -represents the flowering
of culture. We need them as much as they need the farm for preserving
life. But these cities must be thought of as collections of families; they
must preserve the requirements for family life, not break and twist and
force families to suit the railroad and factory. These requirements may
be briefly stated under three headings.
A. Privacy of dwelling. This is the best guarantee of "space,
light, and air." Moreover, the family must be able to work,
play, sing, pray, and even quarrel, in privacy. Every person
and every family needs privacy and solitude if it is to mature
properly, even as grains of corn must each have their little
space. Corn will sprout if a peck is dumped on one place of the
ground--a few stalks may grow and mature--but corn will not
reproduce itself that way. So with persons and families. If
there are many today who do not seem to desire a home, is it
perhaps because they "do not dare even formulate" the idea?
B. Ownership of dwelling. The holding of one's own is a
guarantee of many things; of security; of responsibility; of
freedom; of a proper incentive to work; of stability (which is
so important for children and parishes). It is a guarantee of
political conservatism; of tradition and the re-establishment of
the pride of family and homestead; of stewardship and respect of
the gifts of God--the obligation to pass on as better that which
one has received.
C. Productive homestead. The home should be the source of at
least part of the family's subsistence. This is necessary, first
of all, to give the family security and "freedom from fear and
want." But even where the family income is sufficient to provide
a steady supply of food, a productive homestead is essential,
because it is the normal means for rearing children. If the
homestead is productive--it may only be a 100x100 lot, but it
will provide place for garden, for rabbits, for bees, for a shop
in the basement, or whatever other way one can make and
build--then parents have the best guarantee against delinquency.
For God made us to work and pray, and allows us to play only
that we may work and pray the better. But in our highly
urbanized society there is no place for children to work at home
under the watchful eve of parents. Too often there is no place
for them to work at all; consequently they arrive at maturity
without the experience, without the joy of creative work. Is it
any wonder that their youthful energy, plentifully supplied so
that they may enter with enthusiasm into training (work) which
will serve them for life, is frustrated and turns to destructive
paths?
If the Holy Father is right in the criteria he has set up for family
environment--and he is--then there is sufficient work for all of us for
our generation, whether we are in rural or urban areas. The great cities
and commercial farming have been a century in building. We must be
realistic enough to recognize that they will be that long in "humanizing"
in terms of the family.
Cooperation of Pastors
BUT the following ideas suggest themselves starting points:
1. For the rural pastor. Buoy up farm families. They have always
been and will always be at a disadvantage with city people as
far as luxury items and conveniences are concerned. But rural
people have the basic requirements, and they do not appreciate
them. They must be told. It must be explained to them. Do all
that can be done to improve the material standards of housing;
but make the people aware of the greater advantage of space,
light, and air.
Then, rural families themselves need to think in terms of family
living and not simply in terms of making money. One- crop
farming is destructive of the productive home. Highly commercial
farming, which aims at the fewest possible families on the land
and the largest possible profit, is contrary to a Christian
concept of the land, which aims at the largest possible number
of families that can maintain a good living on the land.
2. For the urban pastor. Let us achieve wider vision and see the
narrow immediate problems of broken families and delinquency
(both parental and juvenile) in terms of an unhealthy home
environment. Then, whatever is done will be measured in terms of
its effect on the family. The location of new industries,
municipal legislation, the building of churches and schools all
will be evaluated, among other things, in terms of living space
for the family. I know from personal interviews, and many of you
must likewise know, there are numerous families that would be
receptive to the idea of Catholic communities, "one foot on the
land and one in industry," families willing and eager to move
out of the center of cities to the edge, where each family can
have living space; yet not so far but that work, church, and
school can be reached. What is needed is leadership. How
glorious if that leadership comes from spiritual leaders,
working democratically and cooperatively, instead of relying on
government projects alone which may fail for want of spiritual
leadership! Cities will be the flowering of culture only when
family life is normal and healthy. If all our leaders, religious
and civic, were convinced of this, the cities of tomorrow would
be objects of genuine beauty and pride instead of the
"graveyards" of civilization, which they are today.
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