EDITORIAL

2019 is drawing to a close. What a year it was for the world! As we look back, what do we have to show for it? Where are we now in our life’s journey? Have we progressed positively as a nation, as a society, as a family, as a person?

Perhaps this is the reason why God made 12 months in a year. We need TIME. Everybody needs time. It is a scarce resource that is often squandered away, just like a leaking pipe where water seeps out and cannot be put back. But with every day’s sunset, there is also that glimmer of hope in what tomorrow’s sunrise may bring.

Peeling away at the complex layers of life today, let us pause and reflect on the true essentials of life. Chiara Lubich said it best when, on her deathbed, her last words were:

“Be a family.”

Imagine what she unwittingly started on December 7, 1943… with that missal, veil, and the flowers she brought with her on that windy morning to “marry God.” She never imagined that her simple act of love would spawn a movement of 2 million followers in over 180 countries. The structure grew from a simple bunch of teenage girls to the huge international organization it is today. And yet, at the end of her life, all she said in her final moments was simply “to be a family.”

Chiara always wanted her heart to beat as one with God’s heart, having renounced her ego. The essentials are simple and basic. Family is a relationship. Family means that no one is left behind because one cannot survive on one’s own.

The institution of marriage, which is the basis of a family, has undergone radical changes too. Relativism has threatened the very existence of the family, the way God designed it, and it continues to do so with more urgency.

Many people have forgotten that love is born in the family. When man and woman come before God and the congregation to solemnize their love in a pact, they swear to love one another unconditionally till death. The operative word is “unconditionally.”

Relativism has diluted the potency of love by imposing conditions. When one is unhappy, he or she seeks to break that pact and move on to another. The selfish couple justifies their decision to break up, claiming that otherwise the children would be scarred, witnessing fights and living in a loveless home.

People today are more and more preoccupied with themselves: their image, their happiness, their health, their personal space, their goals. Me, mine, myself. Statistics and data have shown that today’s generation, many of whom are products of broken homes, believe that one’s happiness takes priority over that of others. We see that in society as well when the selfish interests of supposed public servants result in increased poverty of their constituents.

When the family is broken, the nation breaks down.

Chiara has taught us with her life what true happiness is and it is not based on a romantic and fleeting kind of love. It is a love that knows pain and suffering, believing that this too can contribute to a more humane and compassionate society.

The fruit of loving selflessly, thinking only of the good of the other, is that kind of love that is eventually reciprocated. A love that is pure cannot but be returned. A father who waits up for his daughter to come home, night after night from endless parties, preparing a hot meal for her, will eventually open her eyes.

One must never give up on the family, despite what the world believes today. From the moment that union is sealed in the Sacrament of Matrimony, God is present in that Trinitarian relationship. Human frailties notwithstanding, special grace is given. It is like a shield that protects the couple if they remain faithful to their vows.

Love unites. Love brings about children as they are fruits. Children are brought up in an atmosphere of love, not always perfect, but one which strives to reconstitute itself every time a mistake is made.

The family faces many challenges and distractions today. Being with other families that love, as is present in communities, fortifies and encourages family members to pick each other up when they stumble. We must all remember to nurture relationships in real-time.

We must make TIME to seek one another out over a cup of coffee, daily dinners together, in the Holy Mass, etc. We must seek to communicate face to face and not always behind screens, so we can see the other person’s facial expressions and body language, to feel the other person’s pulse. We must strive to go against the current of dealing with reality virtually.

As we celebrate Christmas and Chiara’s birth centenary in 2020, let us take to heart once more that which she told us before leaving for heaven: Let us “be a family.”