Homily for the Mass for Family Life

In a few days, the “10th World Meeting of Families” will take place in Rome. Such a gathering, called by the Vatican, has taken place every three years since 1994.  This meeting, originally scheduled for last year, was postponed until this year due to the pandemic.  Its theme, announced by Pope Francis, is “Family Love: A Vocation and a Path to Holiness.”  Although every diocese throughout the world cannot attend the events in Rome, every diocese has been asked to participate by hosting its own meeting.  And, so, we gather here to celebrate family life in the Diocese of Trenton.

The family is the central unit of human society and of the Church, a symbol of and witness to the love with which our Lord Jesus Christ loves his Church.  Consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony, husbands and wives share their vocation and path to holiness in the families they are graced and blessed by God to create and raise.  Catholic husbands and wives who become parents offer to their children the opportunity to live their Christian faith, beginning with the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation and nourished and strengthened by the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, the very Body and Blood of Christ.  Catholic schools and parish religious education programs affirm the Catholic faith by giving their children the chance to grown and deepen in their knowledge of the faith and in prayer.  It is Catholic family life that is the irreplaceable home to faith and prayer, a” domestic Church” within parishes and dioceses.  Catholic parents are the “first teachers” of the faith through their witness to the Lord Jesus’ presence in their homes.

“How precious is the family,” observed Pope Francis, “the privileged place for transmitting the faith.”  He continued, “the most beautiful thing that God has made --- so the Bible tells us ---was the family.  He created man and woman and he gave them everything.  He entrusted the world to them.  Grow, multiply and cultivate the earth, make it bear fruit and let it grow. All the love he put into that marvelous creation, he entrusted to the family.”

“Whatever you do for your family,” the sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta once explained, “for your children, for your husband, for your wife, you do for God. All we do, our prayers, our work, our suffering is for Jesus.”

Our family is a circle of strength, founded on faith, joined in love, and kept by God, together forever.  Parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, brother and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins, are one fabric of human life, joy, and love.  “If you want to bring happiness and peace to the whole world,” again Mother Teresa spoke, “go home and love your family.”  “It is easy, “she said, “to love people who are far away.  It is not always easy to love those who close to us.  Bring love into your home for this is where our love for one another must start.” 

My sisters and brothers, family life is the beginning, the constant support and the goal of human love in our world.  On this day, the eve of the great feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus and the beginning our national Eucharistic Revival, let us all in the Diocese of Trenton renew our commitment to the Eucharistic presence of the Lord at Mass and in our prayer so that his life and love may be the center and heart of family life.


OFFICIAL PRAYER FOR THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
Heavenly Father,
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to your Presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience your infinite Mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
for the experience of fraternity that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples, in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests,
religious, and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Amen.

Official prayer for the X World Meeting of Families
22-26 June 2022