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I wish everyone were like that
Let's take care of the family; It is the most beautiful thing we have.

Reflection on the family.


Author: Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. | Source: Catholic.net



I wish everyone were like that
Let's take care of the family; It is the most beautiful thing we have.

By: Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. | Source: Catholic.net


SEE
On a recent flight, in the front seat to mine, was a couple with three children. One as of nine years, very calm and without giving major worries; a girl about six years old, restless and asking for everything; and a little girl like a year and a half, who did not leave her parents in peace: moving from here to there, whimsical, that everything seemed to her and she did not like anything, without caring about the other passengers. But what I want to highlight is the attitude of the parents: serene, calm, attending to each of the children; No screaming or banging. And above all the attitude of the father: helping in everything to the mother, carrying the little one, with affection and tenderness, with patience and understanding. And the average girl, accessing the tastes of the little girl. In short, a normal family, but very beautiful, very integrated, with the calm and mature figure of the father, who never relegated everything to the mother, but assuming his role as a father.

On another flight, the same, in front of me came the father with one of the daughters, about six years old, and the mother with another like about nine years old. What surprised me most was the love of the daughters with their parents, which reflected the trust they have generated in them. I looked at the father who treated them with great affection, always attentive to what they asked or wanted, expressing a lot of affection, which was well reciprocated. It seems that they went together on vacation, with hope and harmony. One of the daughters "ate kisses" to her mother. And I thought: I wish this were all marriages.

Unfortunately, in many homes, the opposite happens. An absent, violent or drunk dad; a mom saturated with chores, sulking about so many responsibilities that leave her, worried about the little response of her children. They do not feel comfortable at home and they form gangs where they find understanding and support; or have to work from small, sometimes cleaning windshields in the corners, even if it is drizzling. Your soul crumbles when you see these scenes, which we can not fully remedy. A coin is useful, but the family problem is very deep.



THINK
Pope Francis offered us his Exhortation Amoris laetitia, which I highly recommend, "first of all, as a proposal for Christian families, that encourages them to value the gifts of marriage and family and to sustain a strong love full of values like generosity, commitment, fidelity or patience. Secondly, because it seeks to encourage everyone to be signs of mercy and closeness where family life is not perfectly fulfilled or does not develop with peace and joy "(5).

"On the horizon of love, central to the Christian experience of marriage and family, another virtue stands out, something ignored in these times of frantic and superficial relationships: tenderness" (28).

"That person who lives with us deserves everything since he possesses an infinite dignity because he is the object of the immense love of the Father. Thus tenderness sprouts, capable of arousing in the other the joy of feeling loved. It is expressed, in particular, by addressing the limits of the other with exquisite attention, especially when they are presented in an evident manner "(323).

"The problem of our days does not seem to be so much the meddlesome presence of the father, but rather his absence, the fact of not being present. The father is sometimes so focused on himself and his work, and sometimes on his realizations, that he forgets even the family. And leave the young and the young alone. The paternal presence, and therefore its authority, is also affected by the increasing time devoted to the media and the technology of distraction "(176).

ACT

Let's take care of the family; it is the most beautiful thing we have, and what is most lamented when you do not enjoy a harmonious and peaceful home. Especially, that the father knows how to combine his authority, always necessary and educator, with tenderness, understanding, patience, and affection. That can sit down to talk with the children, be young, adolescents, young and even older, not in a plan of systematic litigation and scolding, but with openness, with affection, with serenity, offering human and Christian criteria, that will help them grow up healthy and confident, with the assurance that they are not alone and abandoned from life, but with illusions and with the confidence that they have someone who loves them. Only in this way is the family that God wants to be reflected.








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