Letter to Families - Commentary, Part I

In my Scripture Study for this last Sunday, I mentioned that the family is a model of the Trinity. As an extension of this, I would like to take some time to comment on Pope John Paul II's Letter to Families, which is filled with wonderful theological reflections and practical insights on the nature of human families. This will be a topic of ongoing discussion. Without further delay:

"...man is the way of the Church.

With these words I wanted first of all to evoke the many paths along which man walks, and at the same time to emphasize how deeply the Church desires to stand at his side as he follows the paths of his earthly life. The Church shares in the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of people's daily pilgrimage, firmly convinced that it was Christ himself who set her on all these paths. Christ entrusted man to the Church; he entrusted man to her as the "way" of her mission and her ministry.

Among these many paths, the family is the first and the most important. It is a path common to all, yet one which is particular, unique and unrepeatable, just as every individual is unrepeatable; it is a path from which man cannot withdraw. Indeed, a person normally comes into the world within a family, and can be said to owe to the family the very fact of his existing as an individual. When he has no family, the person coming into the world develops an anguished sense of pain and loss, one which will subsequently burden his whole life. The Church draws near with loving concern to all who experience situations such as these, for she knows well the fundamental role which the family is called upon to play. Furthermore, she knows that a person goes forth from the family in order to realize in a new family unit his particular vocation in life."

-Letter to Families, 1-2

Here we read that the Church is in solidarity with man, and given that place by Christ. The Church must then be involved in the life of the family in a special way, since this is something fundamental to human existence.

Pope John Paul II makes the obvious yet often overlooked observation (his favorite type of observation) that every human person has a family at least on the biological order. He also points out that family is the root of vocation, not only by being a community in which we usually feel our first calling to God's will, but in that family is where we end up in realizing our vocations. So family is at the beginning and end of all things, just as the Trinity is the source of our life and also, if we live gracefully, the "place" of our eternity.

"The divine mystery of the Incarnation of the Word thus has an intimate connection with the human family."

-Letter to Families, 2

Indeed, Jesus Christ chose to become incarnate through a family (as JPII points out in an unquoted section of text). As such, a central part of His mission is the salvation of the family. Over the next few weeks, I hope to elaborate on His plan to bring the human family into the embrace of the divine family, the Holy Trinity, and so offer to every family the precious gift of salvation, which is not only being saved from evil and sin, but a healing gift that makes every family whole, fully able to cooperate in the fire of divine love of the Holy Trinity. Keep your eyes open for more.

His Servant and Yours,

Micah Murphy