January 20

Nothing is more demanding, and nothing takes more care and self-sacrifice, than love within a family. Loving "humanity" is easy. Loving family members, friends and neighbors as God wants them to be loved, day in and day out can be challenging at times.
We can turn to Pope John Paul II’ s Encyclical Familiaris Consortio for help. First, "it is from the family that citizens come to birth, and within the family that they find the first school of the social virtues that are the animating principle of the existence and de-velopment of society itself."(#42) What are those virtues? Justice, charity and a love for freedom and truth as God means freedom and truth to be understood. Second, "far from being closed in on itself, the family is by nature and vocation open to other families and to society, and undertakes its social role."(#42) This means that families can't be fortresses or enclaves. God created us to engage and sanctify the world, not withdraw from it.
Familiaris Consortio encourages families to become involved in forms of social service, especially those which favor the poor; to cultivate the practice of hospitality and to engage themselves politically. The Pope especially encourages families to "be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the state to sup-port and positively defend the rights and duties of the family."
John Paul II closes Familiaris Consortio by reminding us that "Insofar as it is a `small-scale church,' the Christian family is called upon, like the `large-scale church,' to be a sign of unity to the world, and in this way to exercise its prophetic role by bear-ing witness to the kingdom and peace of Christ, toward which the whole world is journeying." In other words, in the name of Jesus Christ, every Catholic must in some sense be an internationalist — and so must every Catholic family.
Now how do we apply these teachings?
As the Holy Father says in Novo Millennio Ineunte, we should nev-er be "seduced by the naï ve expectation that, faced with the great challenges of our time, we shall find some magic formula . . . It is not a matter of inventing a new program. The program already exists: It is the plan found in the Gospel . . . [and it] has its center in Christ Himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in Him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with Him transform history . . ." (29).
The most important way for families to live Familiaris Consortio is to pray often and together. We need to live what we say we believe. That means bringing Christ into all of our daily routines, and all of our daily interactions and reflections.
Fr. Dan