Love and Respect in Families - Weekday Homily Video

One of my co-workers often greets me with the question, “What’s going on?” This question came to mind as I read and prayed over the readings from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: what was going on in their community that led Saint Paul to focus on family relationships and how they tied to God’s relationship with us and His Church?

Clearly, Saint Paul was reminding husbands and wives of the unity of marriage that is built upon their relationship as a couple with God and the importance of love and respect for one another. His message also deals with family life that includes children honoring their mother and father and parents loving their children.

This message of love and respect for our family members is one that takes both the grace of God and hard work. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard grown men and women say that they’d like to go back in time and change their actions toward their parents or their children.

My advice both for them, and at times in my own life, has been taught to me through my folks, priests, and friends along the way.

Reconciliation

The first is to act now on what you would like to reconcile; and if your family member has gone home to God, pray for reconciliation and tell them how you feel. And of course, turn to God for His forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession, for it is in receiving God’s forgiveness that we have the strength to forgive others and to ask for forgiveness.

We can honor both our living and deceased parents through sharing with others their virtues and the lessons we have learned from their actions and words, not only in the big but in the ordinary parts of life, as Father Pinto mentioned yesterday.

Praying Together

If you’re blessed to have family that you live with or near, then you deepen the bonds of family through praying with and for one another. We can also learn to better hold our tongues when we feel our tempers rising at home.

My Mom would often talk of how she never heard her father raise his voice to her mother; even when my Grandmother would be worked up, he would simply tell her, “I’m going for a walk around the park and then we’ll be able to figure it out”—and they always did.

Examining Our Hearts

To paraphrase my co-worker, God and Saint Paul are calling us to look at what’s going on in our families and in our hearts.

• Are we loving and respecting one another as we should?
• Are we seeking to find common ground and solutions to family problems?
• Are we affirming the good of married and family life, united in God?
• Are we paying attention to the needs of our family members, even those we don’t always get along with?

Finally, Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of Luke that to get to Heaven we need to pass through a narrow gate—meaning that there is a clear and direct path without ambiguity; one that requires the grace of God, and I would add, the support of family, whether here on earth or through their prayers from Heaven.

May God bless you and your families this holy day as we seek God’s grace to love and respect everyone in our families.

• Today’s Readings

• Father David's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page. 

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