The Enlightened Family: Why, It All Makes Sense!

In paragraphs 52 and 53 of Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis talks about the light that faith shines upon the family; and it’s a light of considerable brightness.

In normal human terms, a family arises when a man and woman marry and have children. It’s the natural social unit larger than an individual by which people support each other, and in which children are raised and educated. But the light of faith reveals so much more:

The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family. I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage. This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan. Grounded in this love, a man and a woman can promise each other mutual love in a gesture which engages their entire lives and mirrors many features of faith. Promising love for ever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the one we love. Faith also helps us to grasp in all its depth and richness the begetting of children, as a sign of the love of the Creator who entrusts us with the mystery of a new person.

God loves us, and in His love brings us into existence and sustains us in existence. The love of one spouse for another is a mirror of this love: the two support each other in love. And then God gives us the privilege of participating in creation itself, for each child born to the couple is a new creation. A skeptic might say, “Everything procreates. What’s the big deal?” But each new human being has an immortal soul, and will continue to exist through all eternity. In human reproduction God shares His creative power with us in way He has done with no other beings.

And then, the family itself is the school of faith; in trusting their parents, children are prepared to learn to trust in God the almighty Father:

In the family, faith accompanies every age of life, beginning with childhood: children learn to trust in the love of their parents. This is why it is so important that within their families parents encourage shared expressions of faith which can help children gradually to mature in their own faith.

First they trust in their parents (and woe to parents who are not trustworthy!); and then, because of this trust, they trust in their parent’s expressions of faith; and then they learn to trust in God for themselves.

And so the light of faith spreads on and on, down the generations.

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