e) THE FAMILY

"The family is the second soul of humanity"

Here on earth, after religion, there is nothing so beautiful and enchanting as the family.  The family has been called the second soul of humanity.  How true!  For it is in the family that human beings form their ideas, their emotions, their hopes, and their morals.  The family is the first nest of the soul, the first school of the mind, the first abode of the faith, the first sanctuary of love, the first temple of God, the shrine of the most cherished traditions, the merry theater of our childhood, the first and last sigh of the heart.

What we love most in our country, what unites us to it with powerful and tender bonds and basically constitutes our fatherland is the sweetness and mysterious power of family love and family memories.  Despite the distance of time and space, the sweet memories of the distant fatherland that haunt our minds and hearts have to do not just with the ground we walked on, the sky we first beheld, or the sun that shone on our crib but also and, above all, with the home, with the pure and holy affections that gladdened our childhood, and with the graves where our loved ones are resting.  Mother, father, brothers, sisters, the most loving people, the tenderest care, the most generous sacrifices, the purest consolations, the most cheerful images, the most pleasant dreams: such are the memories the idea of family awakens in us.  Few people can escape the fascination of these memories.  How wretched they are, for it means that either nature has made them pessimists or that the hard experiences of life have dried up every spark of love and warmth in them.⁴⁶

"God himself created the family"

God himself created the family.  Having come to earth to undo the harm brought upon poor mankind by the dreadful fall in the Garden of Eden, Jesus begins his saving mission by restoring the family to its original condition.  Since he always follows God's strategy of putting example before word, the Man-God is born into a family, grows up in a family and lives his life in a family.  With the first miracle he performs at the wedding feast of Cana to prove his divinity, he clearly shows that the great work of human redemption begins

with the sanctification of the family and its restoration to a place of honor.  And so he communicates the supernatural life of his grace to the family.

But to make sure that such a gift of grace will never cease and to afford special defense and protection to the family, what does the divine Redeemer do?  Admire his wisdom and goodness.  Not content with making just the mutual consent or the simple human contract of marriage the foundation of domestic life, he also attaches to marriage the full dignity and power of a sacrament, the sacrament of Matrimony.  As a result, the union of the spouses is blessed, their love sanctified, their living together guaranteed, their burdens lightened, their duties made easier, their reciprocal relations well defined, all activities ennobled, and the way to heaven made smooth.

There is more.  After laying a solid foundation, the divine Artisan also assists in completing the edifice.  Now, since human parents cannot transmit the life of grace along with human life, this divine Artisan, in his infinite goodness, finds a way to infuse that heavenly sap into all the members of the family through the mysterious channel of the other sacraments.  In fact, through the sacraments, the crib is sanctified, childhood protected, adulthood strengthened, old age sustained, the last agony comforted, and the grave illuminated.  Through the sacraments, Jesus Christ himself, author of grace and holiness, forever lives, grows, and abides in the family.⁴⁷

"The Christian family is a little kingdom founded on love"

The Christian family!  It is a little kingdom founded on love, growing in love and ruled by love.  The only law governing the life of the Christian family is the perfect harmony of hearts, the interweaving of the deepest affections, the most intimate union of souls.  This love, sanctified by grace, purified by virtue, and ennobled by faith is no longer fragile.  It is transformed from earthly into heavenly love and fills home life with a peace that, one might say, is a foretaste, here below, of the joys of heaven.  How beautiful is a marriage fashioned after God's plan, blessed by the Church and adorned with the beauty of religion!  In it, the grace of Jesus Christ infused by the sacrament enters into two lives, two hearts, two souls and makes them one so as to form that sacred and permanent unity that no power on earth can break or loosen.

Who can separate two hearts that love each other in and with the love of Jesus Christ?  The world with its seductions perhaps?  In no way, because before this shrine, marked by the blood of the divine Lamb and closed with the seal of faith at the foot of the altar, the angel of the Lord stands guard to withstand all enemy attacks.  Passions perhaps?  In no way, because weeds do not grow in this garden nourished by faith.  In this garden only that love thrives which, according to the Apostle Paul, is the source of all the most beautiful virtues.  Tribulations perhaps?  In no way, because just as true love shares joys, in the same way it also shares sorrows.  In time of trials and misfortunes, you will see two hearts, deeply in love with each other, drawing ever closer together, pouring the balm of comfort over each other and finding their happiness in sacrificing for each other.  Blessed is the man who, during the hardships and tragedies of life, can take refuge in the heart of his Christian wife!  Time perhaps?  In no way, because this inexorable destroyer of everything beautiful and mortal cannot touch or harm a love that is aflame with God.  Springtime may pass, the rose of youth wither, and the tree of life lose its green branches, but Christian love will live forever because it is not nourished by this earth and is not an earthly thing.  This love comes from heaven, is born of God's love, and is made for immortality.  The chill of old age can never diminish a love fed by the fire of divine love.  So this love is always young.  When two Christian spouses come to the end of their earthly life and take leave of each other in time (what a moving sight), with a warm and affectionate kiss they seem to be saying to each other: we will continue to love one another for all eternity with a better and more perfect love in the bosom of God.⁴⁸

"Blessed the parenthood that is crowned by religion!"

Blessed the parenthood that is crowned by religion!  Look at those two young Christian spouses on whom has descended the precious gift of fertility.  Look at them with their baby, reborn by the grace of Jesus Christ in baptism, as they watch him cry or smile in the crib.  That little angel, a gift from heaven, is earthly bliss, ecstasy, rapture.  A new happiness, a new supernal felicity fills those two hearts.  A mysterious force draws the two together and draws them to that crib where, I dare say, lies something sacred and heavenly they are called to safeguard and watch over.  Notice the attention and care,

the worries, the ecstasy of that man, who, blessed with the title of father, would never want to leave the house that has captured his whole heart.  Look at that gentle creature on whose head rests the crown of motherhood.  What ardent sighs, what joyful tears, what loving heartbeats, what expressions of gratitude and love she bestows on heaven and then on the crib, on God and then on the fruit of her womb!  As the child grows, love grows and happiness increases.  The smiles of that innocent child gladden the life of those two fortunate people.  For them the house is more than a royal palace.  They are enjoying a perpetual feast.⁴⁹

"Parents, train!"

To those of you who are parents I say: train!  The training of your children should be your chief concern, your constant obsession.  The Lord does not forbid you to increase your possessions, if you do so honestly, or to add new glories to your family name.  He does not prohibit you from using the goods of this world for yourselves, as long as they are legitimate.  Live in society and freely attend to your business.  But always remember that your beginning and last end is God because you were created by him and for him; that you are not in the world to accumulate goods or money or to enjoy the pleasures of life but to save your soul.  You cannot save your soul if you do not do your part to save that of your children.  The Fathers of the Church teach that parents do not save their souls alone or lose them alone.  In fact, dear mothers and fathers, the success or failure of your children depends on you.  You, you alone are responsible for them.

Train, therefore, train.  I insist on this point, dearly beloved, because it is supremely important.  A Christian training is the most precious gift you can give your children.  By itself, it is worth a large fortune.  Are you poor?  Give your children a good training and they will be able to acquire goods for themselves by an honest life and hard work.  Are you rich?  What are riches without formation?  They are simply tools for evil, nothing more.  Christian training is the best and securest guarantee.  Laws are of some help.  But you, dear parents, can do much more than laws.  Law punishes evil, good training prevents it.  Law forbids evil, good training uproots it.  Law cuts off, good training plants.  Law governs external actions, good training molds the heart and

forms the character.

When you hear of terrible happenings that deeply sadden society and you look around for a solution, clasp your children to yourselves, give them a kiss, and be more determined than ever to give them a good education.  This is the best answer, the surest solution.⁵⁰

"Your lives must always be an open book"

Your lives then must always be an open book in which your children can clearly read their duties and responsibilities.  Speak often to them of God, taking your cue from everything that might make an impression on them.  Make sure that their baby lips often pronounce the most holy name of Jesus with respect and confidence.  Point out to them the imprint of God's goodness, greatness, and omnipotence in all things.  From the harmony uniting the various parts of the universe, make them understand the obligation people have to live in harmony with the purpose for which they were created.  Teach them the first truths of our faith early.  On Sundays and holy days, always take them to Sunday school, to holy Mass, and to the religious functions.  At least on Sundays and holy days, read them a page or two from the catechism or the lives of the saints.  Get them used to kissing the crucifix and the image of Our Lady with devotion and to saying their morning and evening prayers.

Let them see you as good Christians and Catholics in everything, Christians and Catholics in your behavior; Christians and Catholics in making the sign of the cross before and after meals; Christians and Catholics in observing fast and abstinence; Christians and Catholics in giving first place to religion always and everywhere; Christians and Catholics in paying respect to the Vicar of Jesus Christ and to the sacred ministers; Christians and Catholics in contributing to the expenses of worship; Christians and Catholics in attending church, receiving the sacraments and hearing the word of God; Christians and Catholics in good times and in bad, in word and in deed, in public and in private.

Let your alms to the poor pass through their innocent hands.  Let your children experience and taste, early on, the chaste joys and sweet consolations of Christian charity.  No, religion must not be imposed on them like a heavy yoke.  Rather, they should learn, early on, how to appreciate and enjoy the beauty and glory of religion and to experience

within themselves their mysterious and endearing sweetness.  Help them see proof of all this in the mantle of light surrounding religion and in the mark of truth religion bears on its forehead.  If their religion is not based on reason, they will just be hypocrites.⁵¹