A religious instructor who was preparing kids for First Holy Communion asked the kids to tell her who suffered most in the story of the Prodigal Son. One little child said, “it was the fatted calf that suffered most because they killed him for the feast.”
Beyond this joke lies a truth that we all know, everyone suffers when a family is fighting over money, ego, gossips, inheritance, and rights or any other issue for that matter. Everyone suffers when there is a breakdown of family relation; when a family member is stonewalling and refusing to communicate or decides to walk away; all are in pain where there is a family breakdown no matter how people may pretend that they have moved on. Indeed, whenever there is a breakdown of relationship all suffer.
So I ask you today to unconditionally reach out to your family member to make up. There is nothing that God’s grace cannot do for us. God always gives us the grace to carry out what God demands of us. When we forgive a family member without having to remind them again and again how awful they are, we bring a piece of heaven into our homes. Heavenly blessings flood every family where people are willing to forgive and make the needed sacrifice to go beyond the past.
Don’t wait for a family member who hurt you to come crawling before you before allowing your heart to forgive them. Forgive freely so that you may live freely in love and joy.
We need to speak a language of love, forgiveness, and compassion which can heal many broken hearts and many wounded minds and souls in our families and in our world.
Family life is a celebration, not a drudgery or an endurance test. Family life is a blessing, not a curse. Family life is God’s special blessing to each of us. God’s blessing always passes through the family line and here we are shown that no matter how bad a situation is in a family, having a gentle spirit, a spirit of forgiveness and mercy, a humble spirit that does not claim rights but is willing to say ‘I am sorry’ can bring so much joy, blessing, and goodness to our family.
God is the head of our human family and in modeling for us the way of mercy and unconditional love in Jesus Christ invites us to embrace the way of God in our respective families and to turn to God and to one another with a spirit of humility and conversion. When we welcome each other back to love, we can be like Christ to all the members of our family, especially when they are not at their best. May we take the same spirit and disposition of heart and soul to our brothers and sisters in the human family beyond our natural family where many people feel alienated and distant from others and from life, beauty and love.
