Being eternal, men will be judged in life eternal; but since nations are not eternal, they will receive their reward or punishment on this earth. The same happens with families. As such they are neither saved nor lost; they are rewarded for their qualities or punished for their defects on this earth. The Scriptures many times speak about this mystery: families, called to a certain mission, who refuse and leave the stage of history; others, corresponding to grace, who begin to flourish and God makes intelligent and illustrious men to be born of them. This does not mean that every family that is impoverished is so out of punishment; but, as a general rule, one can say that the ascension or decadence of families is related to the use they make of divine grace.
Thus a man ensures the continuity and ascension of his lineage by practicing acts of virtue that add up, as on a scale, here on earth. The good done by a grandfather will fall upon his grandson, and often someone’s punishment falls upon his descendant. Such is the continuity of the family, whose scale in divine justice is only one.
Florens-Louis Heidsieck was the son of a Lutheran minister from Westphalia. He moved to Reims to work as a cloth merchant, and discovered winemaking there. He started making his own wine in 1780, and while he was neither a viticulturist nor a native of Reims, he displayed talent and worked hard at his new-found profession. He founded his own House on 16 July 1785. He had already become an expert in his art, and even dedicated one of his wines to Queen Marie Antoinette. Moreover, he was granted the honour of presenting it to Her Majesty in person.
One of the reasons for tedium in today’s family life is that families are frustrated, as are their members and conversation. One of the frustrations is that not all of the children were born—how much curse comes just from this! In a family of the Ancien Régime (French society before the French Revolution)—whether noble or plebeian, as they are all miniatures of one another, from the king’s to the poorest man’s—everyone feels and thinks the same way, everybody loves one another, the offspring is fecund, the family exists. If they go on an outing together, it is because it is natural for them to be together. With the present decadence of the family, all of that rarely takes place. If they were lineages, they would all feel that co-naturality. A comment made by one would resound in a pleasant way in all others as in a symphony. What we have today is a poor cacophony, with only a few, and, worse yet, dissonant instruments that you can barely hear any more.
The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Pgs. 23-25.
