Rediscover Marriage as a Christian Vocation: Bishop Paolo at AVOSA World Meeting of Families

August 21, 2022

Ras Al Khaimah.

The AVOSA Edition of the World Meeting of Families 2022 took place on 20 August 2022 at St. Mary's School, Ras Al Khaimah. His Excellency Bishop Paolo Martinelli OFM Cap., His Excellency Bishop Paul Hinder OFM Cap., and Msgr. Kryspin Dubiel, the Charge D'Affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in the UAE, were present for the event along with other clergy and religious from the Vicariate.

Several registered families from all over the UAE participated in various sessions, activities, other cultural activities and the Holy Mass. The sessions were based on the catechesis provided by Pope Francis for the event.

Below is the full text of the keynote address delivered by Bishop Paolo Martinelli during the occasion.

Dear spouses, parents, children, brothers and sisters, dear families,

We thank the Lord for the gift of being able to celebrate together today “the world meeting of Families”- AVOSA Edition 2022.

This Meeting of Families in our apostolic vicariate is in response to the world meeting of Families in Rome that took place in June in the presence of the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
For this reason, today, we feel our profound communion with our pope and all the Christian families of the world.

This world meeting marks the end of the year of families, where the Church once again invites us to deepen the teachings in the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. This important document expresses all the attention the Church has given to the families in recent years.

In the last few decades, the Church has become more aware of the importance of families and their role in the mission of the Church. Without families, there is no Church. The fundamental cell of the Church and society is the family. For this reason, the Church is committed to the journey of families in all possible ways: in the preparation of future spouses, in the education of children, and in support of families in crisis who need spiritual help to heal wounds in relationships, etc. The joy of love is greater than all our difficulties; it is an immense good we cannot lose.

In this brief introduction, I would like to recall two important points that have emerged in the pastoral reflection on marriage and the family in recent years. First, I would like to recall the awareness that marriage as a sacrament is a real vocation in the Church; therefore, it is the fundamental way we carry out the vocation to love and holiness, proper to every baptized person.

There was a time when the word “vocation” was understood only about some particular forms of Christian life, such as the priesthood and religious life. Indeed, these two are essential vocations for the life of the Church, which we must always promote. But without marriage, we would not even have vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

In the past, marriage was not considered a specific vocation but simply a natural reality to which the grace of the sacrament was added. Recent pastoral and theological reflection has led us to consider marriage in the light of the mystery of the Holy Trinity; and Christ as Spouse, offers his life for the Church, his Bride. The Trinitarian life makes us think that God himself is an infinite mystery of love where the three divine persons are different and united at the same time. Thus, in the family, we have different persons with different opinions and ideas yet live the fundamental unity of the family. The mystery of the Trinity teaches us that we are different and united in love.

Pope Francis, then, in the document Amoris Laetitia, wrote that “The sacrament of marriage is not a social convention, an empty ritual or merely the outward sign of a commitment ... Marriage is a vocation since it is a response to a specific call to experience conjugal love as an imperfect sign to the love between Christ and the Church”.

If we think deeply about it, this expression is wonderful: spouses are called to be a sign of love between Christ and the Church within their own limits and imperfections. God's love is expressed also through our imperfections. For this, we must not fear our limitations but always be open to the love of God, who can renew our lives and relationships daily with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The second emphasis I would like to make is the rediscovery of the family as a “domestic Church”. What does this strange expression mean? It was used in the ancient Church. The Fathers of the Church used it to describe the Christian family. This expression was then rediscovered during the Second Vatican Council. The family as a domestic Church indicates that the family is where we have the first and fundamental Christian experience, the experience of being the Church.

This means that the Church is not just an institution but a matter of daily life. The family offers us the possibility of seeing the fundamental human issues in action, that is, affections and bonds, work and rest, birth and death, health and illness.

Jesus came to give us a new way of understanding life. The family as a domestic church is the first place where we are called to experience the joy of the gospel, that is, the capacity of divine love to illuminate and renew daily life. For this, as we find written in Amoris Laetitia: Christian families: “by the grace of the sacrament of matrimony, are the principal agents of the family apostolate, above all through their joy-filled witness as a domestic church”. Therefore, Christian families are not only the recipients of evangelisation from the Church; but as domestic Church, they are the principal agents of evangelization through the witness of their daily life.

We thank the Lord for all the beautiful testimonies our families give to the world, showing how God's love makes everyday life more beautiful and fills it with joy.

So dear families, I firmly hope that our meeting today will be a beautiful occasion to rediscover your marriage as a Christian vocation to the beauty of divine love, your families as domestic churches, and therefore as witnesses of the joy of the Gospel before all world.

God bless you and give you his joy.