Temple of the Holy Family, a beacon of beauty that leads to God
On Sunday Pope Benedict consecrated the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, more
familiarly known as the Sagrada Família. Following are extracts from his homily:
“I consider that the dedication of this church of the Sagrada Familia is an event
of great importance, at a time in which man claims to be able to build his life without
God, as if God had nothing to say to him. In this masterpiece, Gaudi shows us that
God is the true measure of man; that the secret of authentic originality consists,
as he himself said, in returning to one’s origin which is God. Gaudí, by opening his
spirit to God, was capable of creating in this city a space of beauty, faith and hope
which leads man to an encounter with him who is truth and beauty itself. The architect
expressed his sentiments in the following words: “A church [is] the only thing worthy
of representing the soul of a people, for religion is the most elevated reality in
man”.
“This church began as an initiative of the Association of the Friends
of Saint Joseph, who wanted to dedicate it to the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home
formed by Jesus, Mary and Joseph has always been regarded as a school of love, prayer
and work. The promoters of this church wanted to set before the world love, work and
service lived in the presence of God, as the Holy Family lived them. Life has changed
greatly and with it enormous progress has been made in the technical, social and cultural
spheres. We cannot simply remain content with these advances. Alongside them, there
also need to be moral advances, such as in care, protection and assistance to families,
in as much as the generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective
context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end.
Only where love and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure.
For this reason the Church advocates adequate economic and social means so that women
may find in the home and at work their full development, that men and women who contract
marriage and form a family receive decisive support from the state, that life of
children may be defended as sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception,
that the reality of birth be given due respect and receive juridical, social and legislative
support. For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and
gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere
of the institution of the family”.