Message of the Synod Assembly on the Pastoral
Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization
"We offer you the words of Christ: 'Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will enter his house and dine
Vatican City, October 18, 2014 (Zenit.org)
Here below
is the message of the Synod Assembly on the pastoral challenges to the family
in the context of evangelization, released Saturday afternoon by the Vatican:
“We, Synod
Fathers, gathered in Rome together with Pope Francis in the Extraordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of the different
continents and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which you offer us and the
world with your fidelity, faith, hope, and love.
Each of us,
pastors of the Church, grew up in a family, and we come from a great variety of
backgrounds and experiences. As priests and bishops we have lived alongside
families who have spoken to us and shown us the saga of their joys and their
difficulties.
The
preparation for this synod assembly, beginning with the questionnaire sent to
the Churches around the world, has given us the opportunity to listen to the
experience of many families. Our dialogue during the Synod has been mutually
enriching, helping us to look at the complex situations which face families
today.
We offer you
the words of Christ: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with
me”. On his journeys along the roads of the Holy Land, Jesus would enter
village houses. He continues to pass even today along the streets of our
cities. In your homes there are light and shadow. Challenges often present
themselves and at times even great trials. The darkness can grow deep to the
point of becoming a dense shadow when evil and sin work into the heart of the
family.
We recognise
the great challenge to remain faithful in conjugal love. Enfeebled faith and indifference
to true values, individualism, impoverishment of relationships, and stress that
excludes reflection leave their mark on family life. There are often crises in
marriage, often confronted in haste and without the courage to have patience
and reflect, to make sacrifices and to forgive one another. Failures give rise
to new relationships, new couples, new civil unions, and new marriages,
creating family situations which are complex and problematic, where the
Christian choice is not obvious.
We think also
of the burden imposed by life in the suffering that can arise with a child with
special needs, with grave illness, in deterioration of old age, or in the death
of a loved one. We admire the fidelity of so many families who endure these
trials with courage, faith, and love. They see them not as a burden inflicted
on them, but as something in which they themselves give, seeing the suffering
Christ in the weakness of the flesh.
We recall
the difficulties caused by economic systems, by the “the idolatry of money and
the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose” which
weakens the dignity of people. We remember unemployed parents who are powerless
to provide basic needs for their families, and youth who see before them days
of empty expectation, who are prey to drugs and crime.
We think of
so many poor families, of those who cling to boats in order to reach a shore of
survival, of refugees wandering without hope in the desert, of those persecuted
because of their faith and the human and spiritual values which they hold.
These are stricken by the brutality of war and oppression. We remember the
women who suffer violence and exploitation, victims of human trafficking,
children abused by those who ought to have protected them and fostered their
development, and the members of so many families who have been degraded and
burdened with difficulties. “The culture of prosperity deadens us…. all those
lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move
us”. We call on governments and international organizations to promote the
rights of the family for the common good.
Christ
wanted his Church to be a house with doors always open to welcome everyone. We
warmly thank our pastors, lay faithful, and communities who accompany couples
and families and care for their wounds.
***
There is
also the evening light behind the windowpanes in the houses of the cities, in
modest residences of suburbs and villages, and even in mere shacks, which
shines out brightly, warming bodies and souls. This light—the light of a
wedding story—shines from the encounter between spouses: it is a gift, a grace
expressed, as the Book of Genesis says, when the two are “face to face” as
equal and mutual helpers. The love of man and woman teaches us that each needs
the other in order to be truly self. Each remains different from the other that
opens self and is revealed in the reciprocal gift. It is this that the bride of
the Song of Songs sings in her canticle: “My beloved is mine and I am his… I am
my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”.
This
authentic encounter begins with courtship, a time of waiting and preparation.
It is realized in the sacrament where God sets his seal, his presence, and
grace. This path also includes sexual relationship, tenderness, intimacy, and
beauty capable of lasting longer than the vigour and freshness of youth. Such
love, of its nature, strives to be forever to the point of laying down one’s
life for the beloved. In this light conjugal love, which is unique and
indissoluble, endures despite many difficulties. It is one of the most
beautiful of all miracles and the most common.
This love
spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves not only the
procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in baptism, their
catechesis, and their education. It includes the capacity to offer life,
affection, and values—an experience possible even for those who have not been
able to bear children. Families who live this light-filled adventure become a
sign for all, especially for young people.
This journey
is sometimes a mountainous trek with hardships and falls. God is always there
to accompany us. The family experiences his presence in affection and dialogue
between husband and wife, parents and children, sisters and brothers. They
embrace him in family prayer and listening to the Word of God—a small, daily
oasis of the spirit. They discover him every day as they educate their children
in the faith and in the beauty of a life lived according to the Gospel, a life
of holiness. Grandparents also share in this task with great affection and
dedication. The family is thus an authentic domestic Church that expands to
become the family of families which is the ecclesial community. Christian
spouses are called to become teachers of faith and of love for young couples as
well.
Another
expression of fraternal communion is charity, giving, nearness to those who are
last, marginalized, poor, lonely, sick, strangers, and families in crisis,
aware of the Lord’s word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. It is a
gift of goods, of fellowship, of love and mercy, and also a witness to the
truth, to light, and to the meaning of life.
The high
point which sums up all the threads of communion with God and neighbor is
theSunday Eucharist when the family and the whole Church sits at table
with the Lord. He gives himself to all of us, pilgrims through history towards
the goal of the final encounter when “Christ is all and in all”. In the first
stage of our Synod itinerary, therefore, we have reflected on how to accompany
those who have been divorced and remarried and on their participation in the
sacraments.
We Synod
Fathers ask you walk with us towards the next Synod. The presence of the family
of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you. United to the
Family of Nazareth, we raise to the Father of all our petition for the families
of the world:
Father,
grant to all families the presence of strong and wise spouses who may be the
source of a free and united family.
Father,
grant that parents may have a home in which to live in peace with their
families.
Father,
grant that children may be a sign of trust and hope and that young people may
have the courage to forge life-long, faithful commitments.
Father,
grant to all that they may be able to earn bread with their hands, that they
may enjoy serenity of spirit and that they may keep aflame the torch of faith
even in periods of darkness.
Father,
grant that we may all see flourish a Church that is ever more faithful and
credible, a just and humane city, a world that loves truth, justice and mercy”.
[Original
Text: Italian]
[Translation
by the Vatican]
