Our nazarene charism is to BE FAMILY. Nazareth is our Home, our School and our Motto. The 'Mystery of Nazareth' is a fine catalyst of what true Christian and Family living is all about. Nazareth eventually brings out both the best and the worst in each of us.
'TO BE FAMILY' is both gift and challenge of the one and same calling: to live 'true community life' as religious and to have enfleshed that same 'quality of life' in the home through our youth and family life ministries and services.
Today's SON OF THE HOLY FAMILY is a man of living faith. The 'Church' he is called to be is a family-renewing movement. His life commitment is a timeless adventure in youth and family life ministries. He knows that salvation and life eternal lie not in human structures but in children, the young and family living. FOR WE ARE ALL CALLED TO BE FAMILY!
He listens and responds in faith to the divine initiative summoning him out of the world into true nazarene followership for the upbuilding of community and family life in our world. He hears and patiently listens to God's Word as It reveals Itself in people, places and things both natural and cultural, thus discerning the Father's will and 'empowerment' to fashion the redeemed human Family in the 'not yet' of His Kingdom on earth.
His nazarene concept of living 'agape' is always 'outward reaching' and to exclude no one: neither the 'different' nor the 'stranger.' His open outstreched arms are a 'bringing into touch' with the saving embrace of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
His daily endeavor is to effect nazarene 'change': the restructuring and patient upbuilding of children, young people, the family and the home and through them society itself into a true gospel community.
Today's SON OF THE HOLY FAMILY dares to be different in order to provoke the change which issues into the visible presence of the Lord, radicalizing His Good News in time and space. The change toward greater actualization of the 'mystery of Nazareth' is the sole criterion for the success of his nazarene ministry and service. For his nazarene apostolate is very much a 'liberating' process from sin and lasting death, from manipulation and unjust oppression, and from all marginalization in the Church and in society. Like Christ's ministry in the gospel narrative, his nazarene ministry confronts any force of darkness and evil with the confidence of overcoming it.
As he comes to enter into the ultimate meaning of the Lord's own passion and death on the cross, he finds himself 'passionately' embraced by the Lord of time and history, and learns anew to speak with passion to and about Him, experiencing, at the same time, an 'empowerment' to embrace 'passionately' his sisters and brothers. He knows that only if there is 'passion' in his own spirituality and ministry, then perhaps he can stand with the crucified Lord.
Where there is the hell of darkness, loneliness, brokenness, absurdity, anger and frustration ... or the cross of injustice, pain, doubt, and death, today's SON OF THE HOLY FAMILY is there, becoming, in true nazarene followership, the Lord's abiding presence and comforting encourager. His ministry and service are not simply something nice to be doing. Accepted and realized in the Lord's name, they confront, challenge, and eventually bring about some change in the FAMILY of humankind.
The key to his effectiveness and success in both ministry and service is his abiding loyalty to the 'mystery of Nazareth' and his nazarene charism given for the continual upbuilding of the family as the 'church-in-the-home' thus fostering the mystery's flowering into the large Christian community - the Church as the Body of Christ, that is, God's larger FAMILY of humankind.
Christ the Nazarene is the purpose and measure of the life of a SON OF THE HOLY FAMILY. His calling has its origins in Him, and retains its roots in the knowledge of Nazareth. His own life is nourished and sustained by the love of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Nazarene calls him to be His brother, and to follow Him more closely. And he responds in sacrifice and willing generosity, in joy and in steadfast loyalty. His call, commitment, consecration and mission are all enfleshment of that Love who, in fulfillment of the Father's will, chose to share our humanity in order to bring together all humankind into God's larger human FAMILY.
Today's SON OF THE HOLY FAMILY remains ever committed and loyal to the spirit and mystery of Nazareth, to the radical setting of the Good News, and to the divine Model of holiness abiding there in the Holy Family. By the living witness of his individual life consecration and dedication to the Holy Family of Nazareth, he endures as a living reminder that the 'mystery of Nazareth' abides as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" for all human Families.
