Paus Franciscus - 28 oktober 2016
The testimony of humanity and of the beauty of the Christian experience of the family must therefore be inspired again more in depth. The Church dispenses God’s love for the family in view of its mission of love for all the families of the world. The Church – which recognizes herself as family people – sees in the family the icon of the God’s covenant with the whole human family. And, in reference to Christ and to the Church, the Apostle affirms that this is a great mystery. Vgl. Ef. 5, 32 Therefore, the charity of the Church commits us to develop – on the doctrinal and pastoral plane – our capacity to read and interpret, for our time, the truth and the beauty of God’s creative plan. The radiation of this divine project, in the complexity of the human condition, calls for a special intelligence of love. And also a strong evangelical dedication, animated by great compassion and mercy for the vulnerability and fallibility of the love between human beings.
It is necessary to apply oneself with greater enthusiasm to the rescue – I would almost say to the rehabilitation – of this extraordinary “invention” of divine creation. This rescue must be taken seriously, be it in the doctrinal sense as well as the practical, pastoral and testimonial sense. The dynamics of the relationship between God, man and woman, and their children, are the golden key to understand the world and history, with all that they contain. And, finally, to understand something of the profound, which is found in the love of God Himself. Can we succeed in thinking thus “greatly”? Are we convinced of the power of life that this plan of God bears in the love of the world? Are we able to snatch the new generations from resignation and re-conquer them to the audacity of this plan?
We are certainly very aware of the fact that we also bear this treasure in “earthen vessels”. Vgl. 2 Kor. 4, 7 Grace exists, as does sin. Therefore, we must learn not to be resigned to human failure, but let us sustain the rescue of the creative plan at all costs. It is right, in fact, to recognize that at times “we have presented a theological ideal of marriage that is too abstract, almost artificially constructed, far from the concrete situation and of effective possibilities of families as they are. This excessive idealization, especially when we have not reawakened confidence in grace, has not made marriage more desirable and attractive, but all the contrary”. Paus Franciscus, Postsynodale Apostolische Exhortatie, Over vreugde van de liefde, Amoris Laetitia (19 mrt 2016), 36 God’s justice shines in fidelity to His promise. And this splendor, as we learned from Jesus’ revelation, is His mercy. Vgl. Rom. 9, 21-23
