ANGELUS MESSAGE OF 27 DECEMBERMay the family be a sanctuary of life and
love
On Sunday, 27 December 1982, the Holy Father
delivered the following address to the tens of thousands of persons gathered in
St Peter's Square for the usual meeting to recite the Angelus.
1. Today our thoughts and our hearts go to the Holy Family of Nazareth. By
means of the mystery of The Birth of the Lord, the Son of God became a son of
man, coming to be a member of the human family. God, who is Love, entered a
Family, wishing thereby to make it a special place of love and a real "domestic
Church".
We know only some events of the history of the Family of Nazareth; each of
them, however, is deeply eloquent. The passage in the Gospel of St Luke, which
we read today, recalls the Presentation of the Child in the Temple of Jerusalem
on the fortieth day after his birth in Bethlehem: "They brought him up to
Jerusalem to present him to the Lord" (Lk 2:22). In this way they carried out
the duty laid down by the law of the Old Covenant, which established: "Every
first-born male will be consecrated to the Lord" (cf. Ex 13:2).
However, none of the sons of men, who came into the world at any time, into
any human family, was consecrated to God as Jesus already was in his conception
and in his birth. Therefore he reveals more fully to mankind the truth that the
family is the community in which man is born to live for God and for men. He is
born to live according to this destiny, which stems from eternal Love.
2. In the course of the Synod of Bishops in 1980, which was dedicated to the
tasks of the Christian family, the Church recited the following prayer, which I
myself wished to compose, and which I now invite you to follow, as I repeat it
before you:
God from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth comes, Father, you
who are Love and Life, make every human family on earth become, by means of your
Son, Jesus Christ, "born of Woman", and by means of the Holy Spirit, a
well-spring of divine charity, a real shrine of life and love for the
generations that always renew themselves.
Make your grace guide the thoughts and works of married couples towards the
good of their families, and of all the families in the world.
Make the young generations find in the family a strong support for their
humanity and their growth in truth and love.
Make love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of marriage, prove
stronger than any weakness and any crisis, through which our families,
sometimes, pass.
Finally, we ask you through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth,
to make the Church, in the midst of all the nations on earth capable of carrying
out her mission fruitfully in the family and by means of the family.
Through Christ our Lord, who is the way, the truth and the life for ever and
ever. Amen.
3. In conformity with the desire of the Bishops who took part in it,
the work of the Synod, which was held in October 1980, found expression in the
Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Cosortio. Together with this
Exhortation, all the "Propositiones" of the Synod have been transmitted to the
Council for the Family, set up recently, so that they may constitute as a whole
a foundation for the work by which the Church wishes to show her love for the
family.
"Loving the family means being able to appreciate its values spill
capabilities, fostering them always. Loving the family means identifying the
dangers and the evils that menace it, in order to overcome them. Loving
the family means endeavouring to create for it an environment favourable to its
development. The modern Christian family is often tempted to be discouraged and
is distressed at the growth of its difficulties; it is an outstanding form of
love to give it back its reasons for confidence in itself, in the riches that it
possesses by nature and grace, and in the mission that God has entrusted to it.
"Yet indeed, the families of today must be called back to their original
position. They must follow Christ". (Apost. Exhortation Familiaris Consortio
n. 86).
Let us pray in this spirit today, embracing in mind and heart all families
throughout the world.
Teachings of the
Magisterium on Abortion
