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INTENTION : |
That today's families may be accompanined with love, respect and guidance.
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Families Are a Sign of God's Presence
The family exists at the heart of all societies. It is the first and most basic community to which every person belongs. There is nothing more fundamental to our vitality as a society and as a Church. For, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "The future of humanity passes by way of the family" (On the Family, no. 86).
Ways of Loving
When people talk about life in a family, they speak of love with its abiding peace, its searing pain, its moments of joy and disappointment, its heroic struggle and ordinary routines.
A family is our first community and the most basic way in which the Lord gathers us, forms us, and acts in the world. The early Church expressed this truth by calling the Christian family a domestic church or church of the home.
This marvellous teaching was underemphasised for centuries but reintroduced by the Second Vatican Council. Today we are still uncovering its rich treasure.
You carry out the mission of the church of the home in ordinary ways when:
- You believe in God and that God cares about you. It is God to whom you turn in times of trouble. It is God to whom you give thanks when all goes well.
- You love and never give up believing in the value of another person. Before young ones hear the Word of God preached from the pulpit, they form a picture of God drawn from their earliest experiences of being loved by parents, grandparents, godparents, and other family members.
- You foster intimacy, beginning with the physical and spiritual union of the spouses and extending in appropriate ways to the whole family. To be able to share yourself - good and bad qualities - within a family and to be accepted there is indispensable to forming a close relationship with the Lord.
- You evangelise by professing faith in God, acting in accord with gospel values, and setting an example of Christian living for your children and others. And your children, by their spontaneous and genuine spirituality, will often surprise you into recognising God's presence.
- You educate. As the primary teachers of your children, you impart knowledge of the faith and help them to acquire values necessary for Christian living. Your example is the most effective way to teach. Sometimes they listen and learn; sometimes, they teach you new ways of believing and understanding. Your wisdom and theirs come from the same Spirit.
- You pray together, thanking God for blessings, reaching for strength, asking for guidance in crisis and doubt You know as you gather - restless toddlers, searching teenagers, harried adults-that God answers all prayers, but sometimes in surprising ways.
- You serve one another, often sacrificing your own wants, for the other's good. You struggle to take up your cross and carry it with love. Your "deaths" and "risings" become compelling signs of Jesus' own life, death, and resurrection.
- You forgive and seek reconciliation. Over and over, you let go of old hurts and grudges to make peace with one another. And family members come to believe that, no matter what, they are still loved by you and by God.
- You celebrate life - birthdays and weddings, births and deaths, a first day of school and a graduation, rites of passage into adulthood, new jobs, old friends, family reunions, surprise visits, holy days and holidays. You come together when tragedy strikes and in joyful celebration of the sacraments. As you gather for a meal, you break bread and share stories, becoming more fully the community of love Jesus calls us to be.
- You welcome the stranger, the lonely one, the grieving person into your home. You give drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry. The Gospel assures us that when we do this, they are strangers no more, but Christ.
- You act justly in your community when you treat others with respect, stand against discrimination and racism, and work to overcome hunger, poverty, homelessness, illiteracy.
- You affirm life as a precious gift from God. You oppose whatever destroys life, such as abortion, euthanasia, unjust war, capital punishment, neighbourhood and domestic violence, poverty and racism. Within your family, when you shun violent words and actions and look for peaceful ways to resolve conflict, you become a voice for life, forming peacemakers for the next generation.
- You raise vocations to the priesthood and religious life as you encourage your children to listen for God's call and respond to God's grace. This is especially fostered through family prayer, involvement in parish life, and by the way you speak of priests, sisters, brothers, and permanent deacons.
Like the whole Church, every Christian family rests on a firm foundation, namely, Christ's promise to be faithful to those he has chosen. When a man and a woman pledge themselves to each other in the sacrament of matrimony, they join in Christ's promise and become a living sign of his union with the Church (cf. Eph 5:32).
Therefore, a committed, permanent, faithful relationship between husband and wife is the root of a family. It strengthens all the members, provides best for the needs of children, and causes the church of the home to be an effective sign of Christ in the world.
Wherever a family exists, and love still moves through its members, grace is present. Nothing-not even divorce or death - can place limits upon God's gracious love.
All families long for the peace, the acceptance, a sense of purpose, and the reconciliation that the term church of the home suggests. We believe that with prayer, hard work, understanding, commitment, the support of other families, parish priests, religious and lay pastoral ministers, and especially with God's grace, the church of the home is built in ordinary homes, in your family.
From: US Catholic Bishops to Families
(an extract)
1994
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