Summary of Pope Benedict XVI’s Homily at the Sunday Holy Eucharist for the 5^th World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain

(09 July 2006) : Having imparted his greetings to the great number of bishops, priests and the joyful throng of over a million people of beloved families, gathered at Valencia’s main convention centre, in the City of Arts and Science, for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, Pope Benedict XVI referred in his homily to Esther and Paul from Sunday’s readings. Their biblical testimonies indicate that the family includes not only parents and children, but also grandparents and ancestors. The family thus appears to us as a community of generations and the guarantee of a patrimony of traditions, the Pontiff stressed. “None of us gave ourselves life or single-handedly learned how to live. All of us received from others both life itself and its basic truths, and we have been called to attain perfection in relationship and loving communion with others. The Pontiff emphasised that the family, founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, in the expression of relational, filial and communal aspect of life, is the setting where men and women are enabled to be born with dignity, and to grow and develop in an integral manner.

Parents therefore, have the right and the inalienable duty to transmit this heritage to their children: to help them find their own identity, to initiate them to the life of society, to foster the responsible exercise of their moral freedom and their ability to love on the basis of their having been loved and, above all, to enable them to encounter God, the Holy Father said. The Christian family passes on the faith when parents teach their children to pray and when they pray with them; when they lead them to the sacraments and gradually introduce them to the life of the Church; when all join in reading the Bible, letting the light of faith shine on their family life and praising God as our Father, the Pontiff said.

In contemporary culture, however, Pope Benedict said, we often see an excessive exaltation of the freedom of the individual as an autonomous subject, as if we were self-created and self-sufficient, apart from our relationship with others and our responsibilities in their regard. Attempts are being made to organize the life of society on the basis of subjective and ephemeral desires alone, with no reference to objective, prior truths such as the dignity of each human being and his inalienable rights and duties, which every social group is called to serve. The Church reminds us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God’s image and likeness. Christian education is consequently an education in freedom and for freedom.

Wishing to share the message with all the families of the world, Pope Benedict said in conclusion, that he wishes to call on all Christians to collaborate cordially and courageously with all people of good will who are serving the family in accordance with their responsibility, so that authentic good of the family will be promoted in contemporary society.