STRENGTH FOR THE WEEK Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive

STRENGTH FOR THE WEEK Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive

In these days the Church in the US is preparing itself for the World Meeting of Families and the arrival of Pope Francis in the US.  Do you know what the World Meeting of Families is?  Held every three years and sponsored by the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for the Family, the World Meeting of Families is the world’s largest Catholic gathering of families. Each World Meeting of Families has a theme that energizes and enlivens the event while adding great depth of meaning to our understanding of families. The theme of the World Meeting of Families – Philadelphia 2015 is “Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive,” emphasizing the impact of the love and life of families on our society. So even if you aren't scheduled to go to Philadelphia, the World Meeting of Families is something important for all of us since all of us come from a family and the protection of the sacredness of the family is the responsibility of each one of us! This Tuesday and next Tuesday we are offering you--our Strength for the Week readers--a brief reflection on the family based on the foundational document written by St. John Paul II: The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World..  Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP

From the commentary offered by John and Claire Grabowski, authors of the commentary in the anniversary edition of The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World  by Saint John Paul II: Marriage and the family are perennial concerns of the Church. From its beginning Christians have seen the family as vital to the Church and its mission in the world. In the rapidly evolving culture of the modern world, the family has been subjected to jarring changes and new challenges. This observation of Saint John Paul II was apt in his day. The Industrial Revolution moved economic production out of the home. The sexual revolution battered the family and the Church. The growth of communication technology made the world seem smaller. The changes and challenges facing the family are even more pronounced in our own day. Now the very definitions of marriage and the family are under dispute. The family is threatened by a pervasive individualism and subjectivism. As Pope Francis has observed: “The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. . . . Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.”* For many people these realities mean whatever those entering into them want them to mean. They are simply private arrangements ordered to the happiness of individuals. In offering this teaching over thirty years ago Saint John Paul II emphasized that the Church is at the service of the family. The Church serves the family by underscoring its great value to the human community as well as its preciousness in the eyes of its Creator. The Church does this in its own unique way by allowing the light of its faith to illuminate the family’s nature and purpose. The full truth about the family emerges only in the light of God’s eternal plan: “Willed by God in the very act of creation, marriage and the family are interiorly ordered to fulfillment in Christ and have need of his graces in order to be healed from the wounds of sin and restored to their ‘beginning’” (FC no. 3). Continue Reading ›