When Pope Benedict XVI visited our shores for the first time last year, it was said that Malta is 98 per cent Catholic. One of the greatest advocates of Catholic family life has surely been Blessed Pope John Paul II. In these brief reflections I would like to re-propose his lasting legacy on family life, which stems from his invaluable magisterial teaching on the subject.
Man and woman cannot live in perfect health if they do not experience interpersonal love. Since we, as people, are created in God’s image, we have been endowed with that singular capacity to love and be loved in return. In his well-known book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II emphasises the relevance of interpersonal love in human life. “It is this vocation to love that naturally allows us to draw close to the young. As a priest I realised this very early. I felt almost an inner call in this direction. It is necessary to prepare young people for marriage; it is necessary to teach them to love... As a young priest I learned to love human love. This has been one of the fundamental themes of my priesthood − my ministry in the pulpit, in the confessional, and also in my writings.”
From the earliest time in their children’s life, parents mirror God for their offspring. When tackling the issue of human life, Blessed John Paul writes in Evangelium Vitae: “Within the ‘people of life and the people for life,’ the family has a decisive responsibility... Here it is a matter of God’s own love, of which parents are co-workers and as it were interpreters when they transmit life and raise it according to his fatherly plan” (§ 92). Hence, parents incarnate God to the child.
In this their role is “irreplaceable” since they are “the first evangelisers” of their children, namely by making visible to them the gospel of love through their daily words and actions.
In his other document on the Christian family in the modern world, Familiaris Consortio, the Polish Pontiff highlights the special significance of family love. “Looking at [the family] in such a way as to reach its very roots, we must say that the essence and the role of the family are in the final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has as its mission to guard, reveal and communicate love...”
(§17). The family is an exceptional milieu for Christian life. The two main relationships that guarantee basic equality and dignity between people are the conjugal relationship, that is, the total self-giving love between the husband and wife, and the relationship between parent and child. Parents should communicate this tender love of God to their children so that this kind of love will accompany them throughout their lives. In his ‘Letter to the Families’, the Holy Father said: “The family is indeed more than any other social reality, the place where an individual can exist ‘for himself’ through the sincere gift of self. This is why it remains a social institution that neither can nor should be replaced: it is the ‘sanctuary of life’” (§11). Full development of personhood in each member of the family is assured if permeated by family love.
Additionally, the family is “the domestic Church”. In Familiaris Consortio, Blessed John Paul refers to the family “as a ‘Church in miniature’ (ecclesia domestica) in such a way that in its own way “it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church” (§ 49). With such a bold affirmation, the Bishop of Rome states that the family is already a Church on its own merit. That is why it is essential to know exactly its role within the framework of the Church. In Familiaris Consortio, Pope Wojtyla said: “Christian marriage and family build up the Church because in the family the human person is not only brought into being and progressively introduced by means of education into the human community, but by means of rebirth in baptism and education in the faith is also introduced to God’s family, which is the Church” (§ 15).
The Polish Pontiff extols the role of Christian parents in the Church’s life. As a matter of fact, in Familiaris Consortio he puts before them the subsequent challenge: “By virtue of their ministry of educating, parents are through the witness of their lives the first heralds of the gospel for their children. Furthermore, by praying with their children, by reading the word of God with them and by introducing them... into the Body of Christ −both the eucharistic and the ecclesial body −they become fully parents, in that they are begetters not only of bodily life, but also of the life that through the Spirit’s renewal flows from the cross and resurrection of Christ” (§ 39). Thus, the home is where Christian ministry takes place, where God’s Word is first and regularly proclaimed, where each family member perceives and makes his/her own God’s unbeatable love.
For John Paul II, the family is the nursery of both Church and society. Familiaris Consortio asserts “... the future of the world and the Church passes through the family” (§ 79). In his other eloquent social encyclical Centisimus Annus, the sacrality of family life is highly stressed. “It is necessary to go back to seeing the family as the sanctuary of life. The family is indeed sacred: It is the place in which life − the gift of God − can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth. In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life” (§ 39). The family environment is decisive in forming the citizens of tomorrow. Within the familial set up, basic skills of relating to others are learnt. Lasting values like hospitality, respect for self and others within and outside the family and conflict resolution are imparted and interiorised. It is precisely within the family that a sense of vocation and discipleship is inculcated. Hence, in every manner, the future truly begins in the family.
In Blessed John Paul’s II view, the family is the hub where prayer life cements familiar ties. Prayer incorporates “joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, birth and birthday celebrations, wedding anniversaries of the parents, departures, separations and homecomings, important and far-reaching decisions, the death of those that are near, and so on − all of these mark God’s loving intervention in the family’s history” (Familiaris Consortio § 59). Family life is basically relational. The love of God is completely intertwined with that of the neighbour. Although family prayer is frequently rushed and moments of interpersonal encounters greatly exceed moments of solitude, yet God’s Spirit stirs the air and sanctifies the spaces between family members.
The greatest contribution families can offer to our society is precisely by becoming what they are! “The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission, what it can and should do. The role that God calls the family to perform in history derives from what the family is... Each family finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored and that specifies both its dignity and responsibility: family, become what you are” (Familiaris Consortio § 17). For Blessed John Paul II, the Christian family is a community of life and love. It is a living cell where each member is totally committed to the other through love.
Such a virtue gushes out new life day after day. Familial love is unique because it is a privileged reflection of Trinitarian love that begets love and love in abundance!
On Saturday 28 May we will be called to bear witness to our Christian faith by choosing life and avoiding death, by saying yes to life and no to evil. By our No to divorce we claim family life, and claim it abundantly. Let us then give heed and be led by the priceless advice given to our families by Blessed John Paul II!
Mario Attard OFM Cap