“Priests for the Family”
“A time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family.” It was with these profound words that Sister Lucia dos Santos († 2005), visionary of Fatima, wrote in a 1984 letter to Father Carlo Cafarra (later Archbishop and Cardinal) the first President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. He had previously written to her asking for prayers for the newly founded Institute (1981), which responded to the desire and initiative of St. John Paul II to deepen our understanding of the mystery of the family in God’s plan and its place in the life of the Church.
To tell the truth, family, so close to whom God is (Trinity), has been always under attack by the Evil One. So was the Holy Family of Nazareth, whose feast we celebrate this Sunday. During the feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated on the 28th, we see Joseph receiving the message from the angel in a dream: “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” (Mt 2:13). However, in our modern times, the difficulties experienced by families are particularly strong. The same John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio on the “Role of the Christian family in the modern world” listed few, together with riches and opportunities of the present age. For example, families are facing a decline in fundamental values, such as a misunderstanding of the relationship between spouses and parents and children, and a lack of ability to pass on values. The number of divorces is increasing, and the bond between spouses is weakening. The use of contraception, sterilization, and abortion is on the rise. In developing countries, families often lack the resources to survive, such as food, housing, and medicine. Some families are hindered from living their family lives freely due to injustice. To these challenges, and others, we could add the current reinterpretation of the definition of marriage (no more exclusively between man and woman) or the gender identities in the world. And in the Church, we can also mention the declining understanding of the necessity for Catholics to get married sacramentally.
But as we said above, the opportunities for the family are also immense. Especially when we consider that God has made us part of his family. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. And so we are” (1 Jn 3:1), says Saint John in one of the optional second readings for this Feast. And St. Paul also specifies: “you are members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). For this reason, in this moment of the Church, we see the mission of our Religious Institute (Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary) especially as a service to the family. As Pope Francis said, “promoting a culture of the family opens a new mission field for the Church” (January 30th, 2014).
First of all, as a religious order, we live in community with one another as a family. And we see the complementarity of the vocation to marriage and the vocation to religious life. The vocation to marriage shows the religious the path of intimacy and exclusivity that he/she is called to have with Jesus Christ. The religious vocation shows couples and families that the center of the home is Jesus Christ and that our lives are directed towards Him, for they are not reduced to this world, but Heaven is their destiny. For us, our religious vocation is complemented by our priestly ministry. In the words of our Superior General: “The Disciples wish to become priests for the family, to open new horizons for family members in each stage of life – as spouses growing in love, as young people seeking a vocation, as children discovering a life of faith, virtue, and identity, as parents and grandparents sharing wisdom with the next generations – so that their lives can achieve fullness.” (Fr. José Granados, DCJM). And this includes everybody in a parish because, no matter our circumstances, we all become a big family, St. Leo Parish Family.
This is our dream and pastoral plan of action.
Merry Christmas!
Fr. Javier Nieva, DCJM
