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May 8, 2017(Audio version click here)
In John’s gospel, we hear Jesus calmly and patiently responding to the disciples’ fears. Just before this story begins, He told them that he is leaving, and they won’t see him for a while. Jesus tells his friends, “Do not let your hearts be troubled...I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
We respond in the same way to our child or our spouse when they share their worries with us: we offer a touch or a word that reassures. “It’s okay; I’m here; I’ll be back soon.” And like the disciples, our family members sometimes need us to say it again another way: “Trust me. You know me – I’m here for you.” To quote Teresa of Avila, we are Christ to them when “Christ has no body now on earth” but ours, and like Jesus did for his friends, we will repeat the words as many times as the person in distress needs to hear them, and listen as long as they need to talk.
When we bring our anxiety and fears to God in prayer, we know that God is always with us, and the message will be repeated as many times as we need to hear it. Spiritual writer Father Ronald Rolheiser speaks of a “Prodigal God” who invites us over and over again to a deeper relationship, whose love for us is abundant, poured out, overflowing. This is the loving parent who repeats endless reassurances to her anxious child, the friend who stays on the phone listening to us work out the complexities of a family issue. This is our loving, generous God to whom we can bring all our deepest concerns: God who is always there for us.
Pope Francis speaks to the importance of family prayer in helping our children develop their own relationship with God and a faith that supports them in difficult times. In Amoris Laetitia, On the Joy of Love in the Family, he reminds us that “It is essential that children actually see that, for their parents, prayer is something truly important. Hence moments of family prayer and acts of devotion can be more powerful for evangelization than any catechism class or sermon.”(288) We know the truth that our children learn from what we do: we show them what is important by spending family time in prayer, joining our community for weekend Mass, and serving others.
In Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis also reminds us that there are no perfect families, only “a challenging mosaic made up of many different realities, with all their joys, hopes and problems.” (57) Our families are not perfect, but they are holy and sacred. Let our homes be the place we go to be comforted, to hear again the words that tell us we are loved and cared for. May we be the hearts and hands of Christ, showering others with God’s abundant, patient, and generous love.
Prayer to the Holy Family
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendour of true love;
to you we turn with trust.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again experience
violence, rejection and division;
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Graciously hear our prayer.
Amen.
from Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia
