The "Gaudium et Spes"
by Mother Anna Maria Cánopi, osb
After having considered from various aspects the very high dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, the Council Fathers dedicate themselves in the second part of the Gaudium et Spes constitution to considering some urgent contemporary problems: the family, culture, life social, economic and political, peace. Even though fifty years have passed since the close of the Council, these problems continue to remain "current", indeed, their urgency in some cases becomes more pressing today. These are problems of such scope and complexity that it is certainly not possible to deal with them in the short space of an article, nor, on the other hand, would I have the necessary expertise for this purpose.
However, they cannot help but question us and ask us, as Pope Francis writes in Evangelii Gaudium, to assume the "grave responsibility" of considering the "signs of the times", to find adequate responses to ancient and new realities that closely affect the man in his most intimate and profound reality as a creature born to love and eager for happiness, but who continually clashes with a reality of pain, personal and community suffering, divisions, failures, anguish. Our times need more than ever the incisive presence of Christians with hearts truly in conformity with that of Christ, capable of bending with tenderness over the wounds of a humanity so tried; it needs Christians who listen attentively to the Spirit to be authentic witnesses of Truth and Love, and therefore builders of communion.
If you consider carefully, you realize that this is precisely the true intent and essential topic of all the "urgent" problems on which the second part of Gaudium et Spes focuses. Everything depends on how life is set up: whether it is understood as communion or, on the contrary, as private property; whether it is experienced as a good received and to be given back or as an exclusive possession; whether you put God and your brothers or your own "self" at the centre.
Today, unfortunately, the balance shifts towards selfishness, individualism and self-love. We are living in a period of transition era and, therefore, also in a global crisis situation that affects all values. At the root - it must be recognized - there is above all the lack of knowledge of the value of man, of the person in his natural and supernatural dimension and dignity. What is particularly affected by this devastating "tsunami" is therefore the family, which is the cradle of human life, as well as the primordial cell of society and, as far as the Christian faith is concerned, a "small domestic Church".
As we already read in Gaudium et Spes, "the dignity of this institution does not shine everywhere with identical clarity since it is obscured by polygamy, the scourge of divorce, so-called free love and other deformations", which in recent times - just think to very delicate decisions regarding bioethics – are causing growing concern. "Furthermore, conjugal love – continues the Council document – is very often profaned by selfishness, hedonism and illicit practices against fertility." All this causes a lot of disorientation in the simplest and especially in the little ones who are the first innocent victims of aberrant choices dictated by egocentrism. The now imminent Synod on the family therefore seriously commits us first and foremost to pray so that it "can reawaken in everyone the awareness of the sacred and inviolable character of the family and its beauty in God's plan".
It is the privileged place "where one learns to live together in difference and to belong to others" (Evangelii gaudium, 66). The importance of the family is truly fundamental and this is why the evil one tries to destroy it by taking away the value of stability and desecrating it in terms of welcoming life. The logic of the provisional and of sensitive enjoyment has entered into it, precisely the opposite of what can constitute a stable reality, a forever faithful and fruitful relationship, generously at the service of life. However, even in this case we must not give in to pessimism to the point of not seeing anything positive on which we can leverage to recover authentic values and give the family back its true face, resembling the Divine Family - the Holy Trinity - which through Incarnation of the Son became visible and imitable in the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Conforting in this regard are the words that the Holy Father Francis - who among other things is dedicating a series of Wednesday Catechesis to the family - said at the opening of the Ecclesial Conference in Rome: being a family, being fathers and mothers «is a calling beautiful because it makes us be, in a very special way, in the image and likeness of God. Becoming a father or mother really means fully realizing oneself, because it means becoming similar to God. This is not said in the newspapers, it does not appear, but it is the truth of Love". And we know that "there is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (cf. John 15,13:XNUMX). Here, «in the family – the Pope continues – these words of Jesus are lived; by exercising fatherhood and motherhood you give your life and are proof that living the Gospel is possible and makes you happy." Happy with that true happiness for which the human heart is made.
Certainly, the family is currently in crisis; it is a global crisis; for this reason it is necessary for all Christians to live Christian values in an exemplary way, in the pagan social context, thus showing their perennial novelty. This commitment requires extreme vigilance so as not to be carried away by the worldly current. We need a clear awareness of our personal responsibility, whatever form of life we have chosen. I would even dare to say that those who have renounced marriage to consecrate their lives to God for the benefit of all must feel even more involved, so that we can form the only universal family of God to which the Kingdom of heaven is promised, life in perfect communion of love and fullness of joy in the abode of the eternal Father. I would like to conclude by reporting a small excerpt from the "Family Creed" by the theologian-poet Maurice Zundel:
I believe in the human trinity: father, mother and child.
I believe in the virginity of authentic fatherhood and motherhood.
I believe in the virginity of love.
I believe in the communion of light in which people generate each other.
I believe that love is a sacrament that must be received on your knees.
God is the God of bodies, to the same extent that our bodies are called to become the body of God to give tears to His pain and, even more, to make the smile of His Love perceivable.
It is no coincidence that the human trinity exists, and it is impossible not to see in it the most beautiful image of the divine Trinity.