English
EspañolThere is no such thing as the perfect family. Always phenomenal, fantastic, spherical. Because none of its members are perfect. Every family story consists of joy and pain, and each one has its own loving response to the lights and shadows of life. We do not demand sheer perfection from our loved ones. What is asked of each of us, amidst the battle to love, is that we fight to be truthful, faithful, and honest…without ever giving up.
Text
“I thank God that many families, which are far from considering themselves perfect, live in love, fulfil their calling and keep moving forward, even if they fall many times along the way (…) there is no stereotype of the ideal family, but rather a challenging mosaic made up of many different realities, with all their joys, hopes and problems”. (The Joy of Love, n.57)
Commentary
There is no ideal family. We can leave that to novels or “rose-colored” movies. What we have in reality are families whose lives have moments of light and moments of fog, days of gentle breezes, and seasons filled with problems, suffering, and storms. When faced with different circumstances, it depends on each family to adopt an optimistic or hopeless mindset—reactions, support, and strength that come from proven love, or, on the contrary, to give up, blame each other and disunite.
Families that are realistic in their love, those that will not succumb, accept the road they travel, the alterations that life brings them. They do so amidst difficulties, they might even make mistakes, but they start again – as many times as necessary – on the foundation of affection, mercy, forgiveness, hope, and good humor. Real love is like this. Anything else is a pink mirage that collapses with the first stone it encounters down the road.
