The sacrament of marriage is “not just a pretty ceremony” — through it a couple receive from God the grace they will need to fulfill their mission in the world, Pope Francis has told a Pilgrimage for Families.
The pilgrimage, organised for the Year of Faith, attracted more than 100,000 people to St Peter’s Square.
The Pope acknowledged that “life is often wearisome, and many times tragically so”.
However, he continued, “what is most burdensome in life is not this: what weighs more than all of these things is a lack of love”.
“Dear families, the Lord knows our struggles,” the Holy Father said, repeating with emphasis: “He knows them!”
He encouraged the pilgrimage families to persevere amid difficulties and to have faith in God and in each other, rather than paying attention to “this makeshift culture, which can shatter our lives”.
In his homily at Mass, the Pope mentioned three important characteristics of families:
First, “the family prays”. Saying the Our Father together “is not something extraordinary; it’s easy”, he said. Praying the Rosary as a family “is very beautiful and a source of great strength”.
Second, he said, “the family keeps the faith”. He stressed that “Christian families are missionary families”.
“How do we keep our faith as a family? Do we keep it for ourselves, in our families, as a personal treasure like a bank account, or are we able to share it by our witness, by our acceptance of others, by our openness?”
Third, “the family experiences joy”. A family that lives by the light of Christian faith will naturally communicate that joy, he said. “That family is the salt of the earth and the light of the world, it is the leaven of society as a whole.”
Pope Francis urged Catholic couples to go against the cultural trend of seeing everything, including relationships, as fleeting. Marriage is a life-long journey, he said, “a long journey, not little pieces”.
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Image: Catholic News Agency