The narratives of the Good News of the coming of the kingdom, are testaments of eternal love. They tell the beautiful story of the God who chose to live among us to express and to teach us about this love, which is the cornerstone of the kingdom of justice and peace.
It is important therefore, that we must always have recourse to the Spirit, if we must continue animating the love that will sustain the harmony of true social order. Human as we are, we may err in the way we love, confusing the selfless love radiating so brilliantly from the cross, with self-centered love.
This inner struggle between divine love and human love is at the heart of the dynamics behind the raising of a family. It is through the experience of our family that we must inculcate the discipline of ceaseless prayer, so that we are firmly taught the importance of being responsible for one another. Exemplary families, who pray and serve together, are thus the building blocks of the kingdom of God.
The family is the school of love. Future generations are nurtured within the smaller social contexts of families, and it is in this nurturing where love is first felt, where it is first experienced and understood. It is the undying love of a child’s parents or its caregivers that becomes the model of the love that it brings into maturity, and into the larger society.
Truly, it is in this same setting that we may have to relearn how to profess and proffer authentic love. Hence, it is an abomination to think of redefining what families should be. We should be cautious into believing that a family is a place where to nurture personal ambitions. An unrelenting drive to create our own personal empires, and to build our own castles within our families, as if they were our own personal fiefdoms, will stifle and extinguish the tender innocence of its union.
Perhaps this overpowering drive to achieve success at the expense of love in the family microcosm, may be the root of all evil in the larger societal macrocosm.
A true Christian family, trying its best to spread love, must always find its way back to the Gospel of the Christ. It must constantly recollect itself in prayer, and commune with the Spirit that holds it together. A family gains strength from the source of its special bonds, enabling it to endure the darkness of earthly life. It must continue to give itself light, so that like the Christ, it offers and becomes an oasis of love in the barren desert of these troubled times.
It is perhaps the only way we are assured of a generation of humanity that knows how to give and receive selflessly, thus preserving the peace for the ages.
May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph bless and protect our families, in its mission of fulfilling God’s reign!
Brother Jess Matias is a professed brother of the Secular Franciscan Order. He serves as minister of the St. Pio of Pietrelcina Fraternity at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Mandaluyong City, coordinator of the Padre Pio Prayer Groups of the Capuchins in the Philippines and prison counselor and catechist for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of LiCAS.news.
