Bundled Together

One day, a father handed sticks to his five children. He asked them to see whose stick was the strongest. If their stick didn’t break, then they would be deemed the winner.

No surprise, every stick broke.

Then the father took the sticks, bound them together, and handed it to each kid. Again, he asked them to try breaking the weakened sticks again.

The sticks could not break in a bundle.

I heard this story as a part of a homily at least a decade ago. My parents still mention it from time to time. In fact, my mother just sent it to the family group chat two weeks ago! The story speaks to a key point that many of us tend to forget:

We cannot do this life alone.

No one can.

The sad truth is that many of us try to live out this life on our own. We tell ourselves that it would be better if we did everything without any help, without any support, without any other source of strength. 

This is no secret to my Dear Readers. We have all tried to do too much or be too much or try too much, and we have all failed. We have all broken. We have all felt alone far too often, and most of us are unwilling to admit our loneliness to one another. We would rather fake a smile, hide our failures, and just move forward.

And I think it’s because many of us have forgotten what it is like to be part of a bundle.

We take the love of a true community for granted.

When we do so, we act like we are not bound to anything. We live life like we’re just a pile of sticks. A pile of sticks can still break, and it probably won’t stay together for very long. However, a bundle, something that is bound together by something other than the sticks themselves, that will not break.

A bundle is bound by something more.

Once bound and held firm, even a broken stick is stronger than a lone stick.

Over Christmas break, I was reminded of just how powerful a bundle is, especially when someone is in need.

It was our second day in Disneyland, and the majority of Team Newton was out at the park having a good time. My mother stayed behind because she wasn’t feeling well. However, it got to the point that my dad decided that she needed to see a doctor. That meant that the kids were going to have to take care of one another and keep the younger children calm until they got back.

Without batting an eye, my siblings and I wished our father well and made a game plan to take care of the littles.

I would be lying if I said that the afternoon went by as just a simple day spent in Fantasy Land. Each of the kids had their own struggles, from sensory processing, to nausea, to anxiety for our mother, to just being tired. However, that afternoon was an absolute pleasure with my siblings.

Because we were in a bundle.

A bundle is not just a group of sticks. A bundle is bound by something external.

Team Newton is not just a family by biology. Team Newton is a family bound by God’s love in our hearts.

When my mother got checked in, I texted the older siblings to take a moment to pray a Hail Mary. I watched as each one of them took a moment in silence to pray individually and I would smile back at them. My brothers walked the girls through the park and were a silent source of support, just like Saint Joseph. My soon-to-be-sister took the youngest on rides and comforted her when no one could console her. All she had to do was smile, stoop to her level, and let her in, just like the Blessed Mother.

Not only did we manage to get the littles through the tough part of the day, we also managed to find a way to bring joy to each member of the group.

We saw what would make people smile, and we made that happen. From getting a kid a turkey leg to making sure I made my phone date with my boyfriend, the kids found a way to bring joy and peace to one another.

By prayer in word and service, we made that afternoon one of the best I’ve had in a long time.

And when my mom got home from the doctor…the first thing she did was make a sandwich for the youngest child. (Seriously, I pray to be half the woman she is some day.)

Now I know that not everyone has a family like my own. I wish there were more bundles out there. There are no bonds quite those like a family. However, we all are able to recognize God’s love…even if we have rejected Him long ago or have forgotten His love for us. It is present in each and every human heart.

God’s love is what binds us together in a bundle. 

God’s love is what makes a family a holy family.

The world needs a lot of love right now. Therefore, it is imperative that family values and God’s love is recognized in the world again. The only way that love will truly win is with the family.

This takes on two levels.

The obvious one is our families at home. We have to start to recognize that each member of a family matters, and we have to recognize that every human life has inherent value. A bundle may be made of many broken sticks, but that does not mean that God’s love is not present. And unlike a bundle of sticks, a family can be transformed and made whole, just by recognizing and following the voice of God.

But there is another level.

We all belong to the Heavenly Family. We are God’s adopted sons and daughters, princes and princesses of the Kingdom.

We do not act like it.

We walk in to church and sit at the end of the pew so that we do not have to sit by strangers. We say things like, “TLM mass is the only true mass” or “Latin is worthless.” We make up excuses for how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because of their past mistakes. Now, there are some offenses like the sexual abuse in the Church that cannot be ignored or forgotten, but for the general public…we need to be more forgiving and more loving.

The Church is in need of unity. We need to learn from one another and love one another.

Because we’re a family in Christ.

And that’s a bundle that can never be broken. Not even death could win that battle.