SIMBAHAYAN: POPE JOHN PAUL II's INTENTIONS FOR APRIL 2002

Pope John Paul II's Monthly Intentions for
APRIL of the Year 2002
.

That in the many rapid changes taking place in today’s world, the importance of the family may be recognized, in its fundamental vocation as the cradle of life and the school of faith and right values.

His mission intention --
That, sustained by the heroic testimony of martyrs of our time, the ecclesial Communities may announce Jesus Christ the redeemer of the humankind with renewed courage.

Sources: Vatican Information Service / Apostleship of Prayer

ACCORDING TO OUR PRESENT POPE, the families in which we are reared are the Church in miniature or a true domestic church. They are the cradles of life and the schools of faith and right values. For it is within that environment that we begin to grow to the fullness of our inheritance or we begin to grow otherwise. The positive values of family life helps to develop similar values in the child; it is here that we are schooled in the lively awareness of personal freedom, a better quality of interpersonal relations between husband and wife, the advancement of the dignity of women, responsible procreation and the education of the children.

What do we find that our societies are willing to accept: de facto relationships, pressure to accept homosexual ones, legalization of abortion, the destruction of embryos, euthanasia, the lessening of the dignity of women in some countries, laws that betray the dignity of the family. Ultimately, sadly enough to accept, these values are creeping into our Christian way of life: this is being seen in the acceptance of divorce, abortion, sterilization, contraception, (including abortive contraception).

We need a revival in the development of Christian family in a rediscovery of its prime vocation as the first and vital cell of society, being the first school of social virtues, being where we all learn about love and respect for others and for ourselves, and being the first school in which the child will learn about justice. In this way the family sphere becomes the propitious setting for the discovery of the sense of giving and of giving oneself for others. It becomes the place where faith can increase by the example of the parents. This faith must be nourished though an attitude of appreciation of the treasure which parents are called to transmit to their children through personal words and way of life. This deep sense of faith helps parents and their children fulfill the vocation received from God. Thus the family will become the guardian and transmitter of the values and virtues that our Christian religion puts before us.

Let us pray: May our families continue to grow as true “domestic churches”, offering praise to God every day and spreading a beneficial and regenerating flow of love throughout our society.

HEROIC TESTIMONY, whether we like it or not, is the call for all Christians. “Whoever loves his life loses and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life it for eternal life” (John 12:25). This call of Jesus contains a truth that today’s world often scorns and rejects, making love of self the supreme criterion of life. But the witnesses to the faith did not consider their own advantage, their own well-being, their own survival, as greater than fidelity to the Gospel call. Despite all their weakness, they vigorously resisted evil and in their fragility there shone forth the power of faith and of the love they have for Jesus.

This is the heritage which these courageous witnesses have passed down to us as a patrimony shared by all the Churches and Ecclesial communities. It is an example that speaks more powerfully than all the causes of division: it is the heritage of the Cross lived in their lives.

Countless numbers refused to yield to cult of false gods of the twentieth century and were sacrificed by Communism, Nazism, by the idolatry of State or race. Many others fell in the course of ethnic or tribal wars, because they had rejected a way of thinking foreign to the Gospel of Jesus. Some went to their death because they decided to remain faithful despite intimidation. Men and women believers died offering their lives for love of their brothers and sisters, especially the poorest and the weakest.

In the century and millennium just begun may the memory of these witnesses remain always vivid in the heart of our new Ecclesial Communities. For they are today’s witnesses of Jesus and his way of life. Let the lives of the members be a living witness to the Jesus whom they adore. Let the members announce Jesus as the redeemer of mankind with renewed courage.

Comments by Fr Vince Hurley, SJ
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