Have you ever stopped to think that everyone in the Church – - whether clergy, religious or lay – - is a family member? All of us come from families and are connected to our extended families. As sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, etc., we celebrate together and grieve together, we share time, energy and love. Our effect on one another is for a lifetime.

The Church is made up of families – - people whose lives are intricately woven together for better and for worse. Everyone in the Church is a family person. In fact, families are the most basic expression of Church – - “the church of the home” or “domestic churches.” These points were made most beautifully by the U.S. Bishops in their 1993 pastoral message to families, “Follow The Way Of Love.”

A theme which runs throughout their letter is that families have a lot to give to the Church as well as to receive from it. While the Church, especially in this document, challenges families to “follow the way of love, as Christ has loved us,” families also challenge the Church by modeling this way of love.

Listen as the Bishops speak about marriage: “Couples who are living faithful lives of mutual love and support – - though not without difficulties – - have the gratitude of the whole Church. You know the value of a loving and life – giving marriage. Indeed, your marriage is a gift to all of us.”
Of single parents, the Bishops say “Somehow you fulfill your call to create a good home, care for your children, hold down a job, and undertake responsibilities in the neighborhood and Church. You reflect the power of faith, the strength of love and the certainty that God does not abandon us when circumstances leave you alone in parenting.”

It’s through the nitty – gritty, sometimes painful events of family life that God’s “way of love” is lived and made evident to others.

For example, all of us as the Church learn about fidelity by watching parents stick by a son or daughter who is an unmarried parent; come to understand the strength of love from those who care for an elderly or ill family member, perhaps putting a career on hold to do so. A family’s firm but continuous love for a member in prison or addicted to drugs or alcohol, is a clear embodiment of the God who never abandons us. Families such as these are an inspiration and a gift to the Church.

The “homilies” that families “preach” are not presented in words but by example. Those homilies are the daily acts of faithful love which happen in family life – - in your family and mine. They are mixed in with all the not so good things about our families, just as the weeds grow along with the wheat.

By mirroring God’s faithfulness in the ordinary events of our lives, families give the Church little tastes of God’s love. In quiet but powerful ways, families teach the Church about God.

By Susan Stith. This article appeared in the May 11, 2009, issue of the The Catholic Register in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

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