English
EspañolLying is a gas chamber for love, lethal. To love and to be truthful go hand in hand.
Text
“Living in a family makes it hard for us to feign or lie; we cannot hide behind a mask. If that authenticity is inspired by love, then the Lord reigns there, with his joy and his peace.” (The Joy of Love, n.315)
Commentary
In the family, we love as we are in our most authentic intimacy, free of masks of characters that we are not, disguised with likes and pretenses. This sincerity and nakedness are great and fragile simultaneously; however, a family depends on it to become a space and time of trust and intimate companionship for its members.
Harmony within the family demands unity. This unity is the culminating level of true love. Remaining united, making the union grow, and restoring it from disagreements, weariness, and wounds is, more than in obligation, the actual manifestation of the concrete and practical love lived here and now between the family members. In this commitment to keeping the union alive, attitudes, behaviors, and experiences that develop a mature love among spouses, parents, children, and siblings are produced. For this reason, it is said that the family is a “domestic Church” because where love reigns, we create space and time for God to infuse his Spirit of strength, joy, and peace.
