Cardinal Farrell: A Concrete Proposal for Being a "Domestic Church"

Yesterday my friend Géza from Budapest called me. We talked mostly about how we are living through this time at home with our households. At one point, Géza told me that they feel fortunate because, in the isolation in which we have suddenly found ourselves, they have their own house, they can go out into the garden, take a walk, and so on.

Then he added: "We didn't even know how rich we were until now. There are five of us in the house. We have turned the house into a home, a church, an office, a workshop, a playground… The house suddenly took on dimensions we had never known before. We truly feel enriched, especially as regards our relationships with one another."

Géza put into words what Cardinal Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, had written three days earlier in his letter published in L'Osservatore Romano. The Cardinal underlines what a hidden treasure we have, and what a hidden treasure we ourselves are as a family. We bring you excerpts from the letter.

"In the Church we have a hidden treasure: the family. The Lord has always accompanied every crisis of his people with extraordinary messages, and it seems he is doing the same in the face of this pandemic, which is forcing all of us to withdraw into our homes. Celebrations have been suspended, many churches are closed, and it is risky to reach them. We feel alone, isolated, and it is precisely in this isolation that the Spirit suggests to us that we rediscover the sacrament of marriage, thanks to which our homes, because of Christ's constant presence in the consecrated relationship of the spouses, are a small domestic Church.

In fact, spouses in their homes guarantee Jesus' presence twenty-four hours a day. This is the truth that Pope Francis highlights in Amoris Laetitia, no. 67: "Christ the Lord makes himself present to the Christian spouses in the sacrament of marriage and remains with them." Jesus does not leave; rather, he remains with the spouses and is present in their home not only when they gather and pray, but at every moment. By the strength of this reality, we can make this special time fruitful, as a time when every Christian family can rediscover what it is: a true manifestation of the mystery that is the Church as the Body of Christ.

It is a time of training. A time in which we are called, living cramped together in our homes, to constantly perform works of love. How many times a day does the Lord give us the opportunity to look with tenderness on our children, with patient love on our spouse…, to raise our children to make good use of this extended time at home which, it seems, will never pass; to raise them for dialogue, for listening to the other, for respect.

It is a time of growth for each of us, in which we must learn to mark the rhythm of the day, to make room for the other within the narrow walls of our homes, so that husband and wife know how to look each other in the eye and talk with one another, to plan the day together, aware that within the walls of the house there is a wonderful presence arising from their relationship: Jesus. For this is not only a time of human training, but also of spiritual training.

It is a time of evangelisation, in homes and through homes, as in the time of the first Christian communities, during which the Lord calls us to gather as families, to pray together around a lit candle, to remind us that there is Someone who holds us together and who loves us in this confusion. A time that will then enable us to return to celebrating in our Churches, more aware and stronger in our sense of Jesus' presence in our everyday life. Let us gather more solemnly on Sundays as a family, celebrating the Domestic Liturgy more solemnly, so that married and family life itself may become, in some sense, liturgy (Amoris Laetitia, 215).

Every family can do this, and in different ways: by praying the psalms, by asking forgiveness, by reading Sacred Scripture and sharing what the Word inspires in them, by praying for the needs of the family and of all those we love, for those who suffer, by placing themselves under Mary's protection…

Every family can do this!

Let us also use modern means of communication to connect with other families.

Spouses are prophets, an embodied proclamation in the concrete reality of everyday life.

Let us make the most of this strange time, welcoming the Spirit into our homes, discovering the richness and the gift of our Domestic Churches together with Jesus, who dwells within us."

It is time to reconsider what is essential: marriage, family, children, home, friendship, life...