MARFAM FAMILY MATTERS E-NEWSLETTER 10 DECEMBER 2025 

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At this point in the Jubilee year, which is soon to end with the closing of the Jubilee doors, it is opportune to do a little stock-taking of our faith journeys, our pilgrimage of hope.  Admittedly there are many facets of hope, but do we as families still hope for the future, for ourselves, our children and grandchildren or the world as a whole?  At this stage of the Year of Hope are we more or less being real signs of hope?.    

Pope Leo XIV has only blessed us with his presence for less than half a year, but is making his own mark, while continuing the vision and mission of his predecessor.  In his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te –  I have loved you. Pope Leo focuses on God’s love for the poor and our call to love the poor, as we see Jesus in them, when we look into their faces – as Pope Francis has said before.  In Pope Francis’ own last document, the encyclical  Dilexit Nos, He loved us,  the focus was on the heart, Jesus’ Heart and love, his divine and his human love.  He invites our response from each of our hearts. While both of these important documents focus on love, not only God’s love, they don’t speak specifically to the family and its role in the world and in God’s plan.  Amoris Laetitia – The Joy of Love, is where Pope Francis does speak directly to and about marriage and family love.  He writes “The joy of the family is the joy of the Church. The triune God is a communion of love and the family is its living reflection.” AL 11.   Laudato Si – on Care of our Common Home unpacks the love of the Trinity too and refers us to God’s love, which “embraces with tenderness all that exists, even the smallest of his creatures.”  The portion of the Jubilee document Spes Non Confundit – Hope does not disappoint, on isgns of hope that I have mentioned “religiously”  throughout the year in THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY, does include family life. Signs of hope do exist, and we are called to both recognize them as well as becoming those signs.  These quotations summarise this aspect.

Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross. Jesus’ life becomes manifest in our own life of faith, which begins with Baptism, develops in openness to God’s grace and is enlivened by a hope constantly renewed and confirmed by the working of the Holy Spirit. SNC 3   7. In addition to finding hope in God’s grace, we are also called to discover hope in the signs of the times that the Lord gives us. We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence. The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope. SNC7.   And more specifically: “Openness to life and responsible parenthood is the design that the Creator has implanted in the hearts and bodies of men and women, a mission that the Lord has entrusted to spouses and to their love. It is urgent that responsible legislation on the part of states be accompanied by the firm support of communities of believers and the entire civil community in all its components. For the desire of young people to give birth to new sons and daughters as a sign of the fruitfulness of their love ensures a future for every society. This is a matter of hope: it is born of hope and it generates hope. In his usual picturesque way he invites us: We should be working for a future filled with the laughter of babies and children, in order to fill the empty cradles in so many parts of our world. All of us, however, need to recover the joy of living, since men and women, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26), cannot rest content with getting along one day at a time, settling for the here and now and seeking fulfilment in material realities alone. SNC9.

All this may sound frightfully idealistic and surely Jesus himself was an idealist.  On the one hand he promoted the message of love and showed his love totally and unconditionally, On the other hand he was well aware too of the brokenness, the evil, the selfishness and greed of the people of his time, which is no different in our time with wars and violence which often begins in our homes. Those signs of the time have been on the Church’s radar throughout the centuries. All these statements are the foundation of MARFAM’s mission, which includes promoting love and family wellbeing in all the families of creation as it responds to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. LS 49. 

Q. How can we respond?  A. One approach is adopting the eco-friendly family focus which MARFAM includes in its vision. Q. Why?  A. Many reasons, that it cares for the environment while at the same time it is building and strengthening family relationships and developing enriching and rewarding family spirituality.  

Another reason is a family-centred approach to gender based violence which has been declared a national disaster. It must be our hope as well as the action that can combat this problem.  At the end of this 16 Days of Activism against women and child abuse – which so often is domestic violence in families,  the SACBC Justice and Peace department has issued a strongly worded statement, https://sacbc.org.za/sacbc-justice-and-peace-commission-calls-for-family-centred-approach-to-end-gender-based-violence/ It calls for a family-centred approach and begins with self-examination.  

Call to the Catholic Church: Self-Examination and Internal Reform. “The Justice and Peace Commission turns the spotlight inward, urging the Church to evaluate its own pastoral practices. It invites dioceses and parishes to honestly evaluate whether family life is truly at the heart of their pastoral mission, whether sodalities are creating safe spaces for survivors and challenging abusive behaviour among their own members, whether parish leadership reflects the Gospel by refusing to tolerate misconduct in the home, and whether youth ministries are adequately supporting young people who face the pressures of violence, addiction, and destructive peer influence.“

The Commission notes that this internal reflection is essential for genuine renewal. So, can families still be hope for the future? Our bishops call for a return to prayer and repentance.  We, laity and family people, are the Church. We need to look inward and ask how well we love our neighbour, the one inside our house, next door and the waste picker pushing his trolley up the hill. There are materially poor, spiritually, culturally and mentally poor, as Pope Leo spells out.

It is just two weeks before once again celebrating the birth of the Son of God, who chose to be poor, for our sakes.  We can choose too, to make a sacrifice. Instead of buying a take-out to eat at home, give the take-out to the beggars on the street corner, or the homeless or donate to a soup kitchen and go home and make it a family fast day, a simple meal of bread and water. Reach out and be creative with your love and generosity for the poor, abandoned and suffering in any way.  Have a Family Prayer Meal or a Family Reconciliation Service, asking forgiveness of each other for the harm done to others and the earth through neglect and abuse. (Check out our website for activity leaflets )

Introduce regular family dialogue or faith sharing in the synodal way of listening and sharing, adding this to family prayer times. At the request of the bishops, as we join other families in the Church in praying, reflecting and sharing on the Peace Prayer of St Francis remember that, whatever the reality, PEACE ON EARTH BEGINS IN THE HOME in each one’s and in our collective heart filled with love, Surely this is the way for my, your and all families to be FAMILIES HOPE FOR CREATION AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. TR 10 December 2025

Peace Prayer of St Francis 

Lord make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness joy.

O Divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved. as to love
For it’s in giving that we receive
And it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 10 DECEMBER 2025

10 December. Ethics.  JESSE TREE :Moses.  “Grandad do you really have a hundred sheep here on the farm?” George asked “and would you go searching for one that is missing?” “My child, I have much more than a hundred sheep and we do count them.  But things are different these days.  We know that stock theft is a very big problem. Some farmers have even given up because thieves steal all the time. I don’t know why people have become so dishonest and greedy and don’t respect other peoples’ property. It makes it hard to value anything. Will it ever change again?   Will we go back to obeying the commandments that God gave to Moses.”  Over dinner they had a serious discussion about COP 30, the recent climate conference and ethical decay in general. Will there ever be genuine concern for the common good or only for self-interest, in every country and family too?   Does poverty have a part in wanting to hold on to things on the one hand, or rejecting the right to ownership of others?   

Reflect, share, Scripture:  If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety nine on the hills and go in search of the one that went astray?  Mat 18:12-13. The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction.”   Ex 24:12.  Pope Francis: Ethically speaking, in conscience, and with an eye to the children who will pay for the harm done by the actions of those who don’t care, the question of meaning inevitably arises, “What is the meaning of my life and my time on earth? What is the meaning of all my work and effort?  Jubilee: More than a question of generosity, the issue of debt is a matter of justice. It is made all the more serious today by a new form of injustice which we increasingly recognize, namely, that “a true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time”. As sacred Scripture teaches, the earth is the Lord’s and all of us dwell in it as “aliens and tenants” ( Lev 25:23). If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry. Act and pray.   Crime and corruption of all kinds are rife everywhere today.  How strong are our ethical standards for ourselves and our children?