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Strenna 2017 - riflessions

“In the family all have the right to forgiveness and all have the ability to forgive in order to build and to rebuild the family”

“All Have The Right To Forgiveness”

One of the sentences that should be carved in block letters is the one written in the Strenna 2017: “All Have The Right To Forgiveness” because forgiveness is the way to happiness and true peace.

It is true that in our lives all of us suffered from some offence and we also certainly did offend someone; neither do we always give nor receive forgiveness. In such case, even many years can pass, but one still continues to live in an atmosphere of “rarefied” air, which is called resentment, hatred, anger. When the offence is inside the family and there is no forgiveness, the family becomes a hell.

There is no doubt that the problem of many families derives from “resentment and the difficulty to forgive”. What can we do in the face of such a painful situation? This is what Pope Francis said to the families: “We are asked to promptly heal the wounds that we cause, to immediately reweave the bonds that break within the family. If we wait too long, everything becomes more difficult. There is a simple secret to healing wounds and to avoiding recriminations. It is this: do not let the day end without apologizing… There is no need for a long speech, as a caress is enough: one caress and everything is over and one can start afresh”.

The Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, in the Strenna 2017 said that families “have to learn to be families by their mistakes. This requires humility and understanding, forgiveness and mercy”.

“Forgiveness is of vital importance both for our emotional health and our spiritual survival – C. Vargas wrote –. Without forgiveness the family becomes a theatre of conflicts and a stronghold of offences. Without forgiveness the family gets sick”. Because of this, the statement of the Rector Major is fundamental: “All have the right to forgiveness and all have the ability to forgive in order to build and to rebuild the family”.

But which are the steps one must take to forgive and thus to “rebuild the families”?: “preparing the families to be capable to forgive”; “proposing mutual forgiveness as a new start”; “knowing how to live together, understand, excuse and forgive”; but above all “we need to feel the embrace of the unconditional love of God … who loves without limits”, the Rector Majors underscored.

“In the family all have the right to forgiveness and all have the ability to forgive in order to build and to rebuild the family”.

Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime

Rector Major