Marriage and Family Life is a Calling

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Recovering from the trip of Pope Francis we have a chance to reflect a bit more on some of the things he said about the family, especially since it relates so much to our readings this week which are about the Great Sacrament of Marriage.

The Pope said at the Family Festival on Saturday in Philadelphia that, ‘The most beautiful thing God did was create a family: man and woman and gave everything to them, he made all of creation for them….God always accompanied man and has such a great love for him that he sent his Only Son. How did he send him? In a family!! Jesus is called Emmanuel, because God always wants to be for us and with us.’

I was struck by this fact that Jesus Christ was raised in a family, with a mother and a father, and cousins and in a house, and doing his work as a contractor with his father. How beautiful is that? The Pope said at the moment Mary and Joseph said yes, despite the difficulties that each one of them had, a family was formed, a bond was made and Jesus, the Son of God, was conceived in a fourteen year old virgin.

There is no perfect family, and there will always be problems. However, there is also the resurrection, God can and does help us. Love can overcome all things. To parents and children the Pope said, ‘Don’t let the sun go down without making peace in the family.’

Marriage is a vocation, a calling to be holy. Love is forged in the family, in the difficulties with the children, or with sickness, with all the ordinary things of life. Marriage is a path to heaven and it has a name. For the husband the path is called Peggy and for the wife the path is called Carlos, and when the parents are in union the kids thrive.

This week we began a series of talks or meetings that have already in three years very much helped many families in our parish. I was thinking the other day that due to these talks, four couples married in the Church who were not married at all before, and who most likely would still not be married if they did not hear the good news of these talks. Also many children have been born who would not have been given life had their parents not come and listened. The catechesis, the meetings, will be on Mondays and Thursdays at 8 PM in the school auditorium.

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