Family a Place of Forgiveness

by Pope Francis ©2019  |  08/20/2023  |  From the Clergy

There is no perfect family. We do not have perfect parents, we are not perfect, we do not marry a perfect person or have perfect children. We have complaints from each other. We disappoint each other. So, there is no healthy marriage or healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness.Forgiveness is vital to our emotional health and spiritual survival. Without forgiveness the family becomes an arena of conflict and a stronghold of hurt. Without forgiveness, the family becomes ill.

Forgiveness is the asepsis of the soul, the cleansing of the mind and the liberation of the heart. Whoever does not forgive does not have peace in the soul nor communion with God. Hurt is poison that intoxicates and kills. Keeping heartache in the heart is a self-destructive gesture. It’s autophagy. Those who do not forgive are physically, emotionally, and spiritually ill.

That is why the family must be a place of life, not of death; Territory of cure and not of illness; Stage of forgiveness and not guilt.

Forgiveness brings joy where sorrow has produced sadness; Healing, where sorrow has caused disease.

A family is a place of support and not of gossip and slander of one another. Shame those who plant evil about others. We are family and not enemies. When anyone is going through a challenge all they need is support.