The Family: Called to Spread the Gospel

Everything in heaven and on earth has the imprint of the One and Triune God and is destined to glorify the holy and undivided Trinity. The unbreakable communion of love of the Three Divine Persons in the Most Blessed Trinity is in an unfathomable mystery which will be unveiled to us in heaven as the sole end and purpose of human life.

God in His own Trinitarian nature is a community, a family “from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name.” (Eph 3:15) God in Himself is not alone. The substantial relations of the Blessed Trinity are formed by the Father always begetting His only Son, and the Father and the Son together out of their infinite superabundance only possible in God, spirating the Holy Spirit as a third Divine Person. This most precious mystery of the Blessed Trinity, in all its immensity and grandeur, the center of our Christian belief, is the source of every good and beautiful reality and consequently of man’s happiness too.

Out of this infinite Trinitarian communion of love comes the deep love that man, created in the image and likeness of God, has in his heart and the profound desire to live in harmony and union with other human beings. Even the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, has its origin and strength in the Trinitarian unity: “As You and I, Father, are one…that they may be one.” (Jn 17:21-22)

This is why man can practically do without everything but love. We as human beings can
give up many things that look necessary and even some that are necessary, but there is no human being who can ever give up love: the desire to love and to be loved. Even if one becomes a monster of selfishness he will still love himself.

We receive our identity from our family. And it is through family life, lived according to the designs of the creator, that the most sacred values of civilization are transmitted from one generation to the next. Thus the family is the primary channel in which culture is transmitted to society. It is clear that God intended us to assimilate learning and culture within a family. This is an indispensable means to reach the ultimate truth of the reality of man, to progress as human beings, as a human race, in knowledge of the universe and knowledge of human life.

The elements in our society that show signs of regression rather than progression, like abortion and euthanasia, destroy human values and as a consequence, destroy the most important ingredient of a healthy society.

The family has a specific way of evangelizing, which is not made out of great speeches or theoretical lessons, but through everyday love, simplicity, concrete and daily testimony. The most important values of the Gospel are thus transmitted. The Christian family becomes a missionary community as it accepts the Gospel and it matures in faith. Such a family evangelizes other families and its surrounding environment.

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