Pope Francis, Family, and Joy

The word “family” can evoke many emotions and connotations. For some, family is a great source of anguish and pain. For others, family represents the only safe place in a troubled world where they can find refuge. Yet, for most of us, family is a mixed bag of good and bad times, yet something we would never replace.

Then, there is the family in terms of a sacramental image of God. An image that suggests serving one another, dying to ourselves for the well-being of another, and giving and receiving love so that creation can take root, making the family the very “image” of the Trinitarian God who is Love. Seeing the family in this light gives every individual within the family a joined purpose and mission to glorify God by “being” the image of Love to those around us.

Being in Switzerland and watching Pope Francis this week in Washington, D.C., New York City, and soon my hometown of Philadelphia has brought to the surface feelings of great joy for a different type of “family”—the family of the Church, the family of those who have a joined mission outside of ourselves…which is the mission of the Church.

My prayers are with all those of goodwill who come to celebrate the life-giving joy of the family, which always needs mercy, forgiveness, and grace.

I wish I could be there.

I will be watching from across the globe with excitement, joy, and gratefulness.

“The life of a family is filled with beautiful moments: rest, meals together, walks in the park or the countryside, visits to grandparents or to a sick person… But if love is missing, joy is missing, nothing is fun. Jesus gives always gives us that love: he is its endless source. In the sacrament he gives us his word and he gives us the bread of life, so that our joy may be complete.”

-Pope Francis