The Seventh World Meeting of Families that gathered in Milan from May 30 to June 2 had as its theme Family, Work And Celebration. The goal intended behind such a motto was the necessary balance between work and holidays, particularly Sundays, Easter, the day of the Lord and the day of the human person, the day of the family and community.
Since the human person is the direct result of God’s Trinitarian workmanship, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1, 26), the human being is essentially modelled on God’s familial identity. The human being exists only in a community of love and life, a community that sustains and generates itself through the communion of love every member generously gives and receives back in return. Did not God commission the first couple to perpetuate their existence by being “fruitful and multiply?” (Gen 1, 28).
In his address following the June 1 concert of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the worldly renowned La Scala, Pope Benedict said that “it is in the family that one experiences for the first time how the human person is not created to live enclosed in himself but in relationship with others; it is in the family that one understands how one’s fulfillment does not lie in putting oneself at the centre, led by egoism, but in self-giving; it is in the family that the light of peace begins to shine to illumine our world”. The family extends itself thanks to the self-giving love its members manifest towards each other and their neighbour. The family exists as leaven of communion which orders the relationships between people themselves and the entire creation.
Deeply embedded within the sacred bond of marital love one directly encounters God’s restorative love. Marital love is heavily charged with God’s sanctifying grace in order to heal the married couple, their children and society at large. In his homily at the meeting’s closing Eucharist, the Holy Father encouraged the married couples present with these words:
“In living out your marriage you are not giving each other any particular thing or activity but your whole lives. And your love is fruitful first and foremost for yourselves because you desire and accomplish one another’s good, you experience the joy of receiving and giving. It is also fruitful in your generous and responsible procreation of children, in your attentive care for them and in their vigilant and wise education.
And, lastly, it is fruitful for society, because family life is the first and irreplaceable school of social virtues, such as respect for per
sons, gratuitousness, trust, responsibility, solidarity, cooperation.”
The present international economic and financial crisis has brought enormous suffering on millions of families. The moving experience of the Paleologos family from Greece in the dialogue Benedict XVI had with several families amply shows the great responsibility political parties have to safeguard the financial well-being of this basic cell of society. In his immediate and heartfelt reaction, the Pope said that “in all of the political parties the sense of responsibility must develop, that they not promise what they cannot deliver, that they not only seek votes for themselves, but that they be responsible for everyone’s good and understand that politics is always also human and moral responsibility before God and men”.
His appeal was clear: “Let us make an effort that everyone do what is possible for him to do, that he think of himself, of the family, of others, with a great sense of responsibility, knowing that sacrifices are necessary to move forward”.
The Rerrie Family from the United States raised the problem of striking a harmonious balance between keeping a job and family commitments.
In his response, the Holy Father firstly encouraged employers to reconcile the priority of work and the family. Secondly, that every family is to sacrifice itself “to bring some element of joy and attention” within its milieu. Thirdly, Sunday and holidays, as God’s days, are to be defended because, in so doing, man’s freedom is justly promoted.
Is the family not the ideal place wherein Trintiarian love is experienced?