Forget Churches, Think of Families!
Why Family is so very Important?
dr. james kottoor
What is more important: Church or Family? Family is the Domestic or domesticated church, anterior to the explosion of undomesticated animals in the wilds (or Homo homini lupus like churches) fighting for dominance and proclaiming to themselves: “I am better than you” like the Pharisee praying in the temple.
Jesus, the living good news, came into the world through the family in the margins of society, nay in a cow shed, not in any man-made mansions or magnificent cathedral. A contented life is a continued feast. An overflowing of love, care and concern to share even in the most humble, lowly surroundings is what constitutes core of family values. There can be no Church without these foundational family values.
Looking at a thatched hut on a God forsaken pavement, where parents in shabby clothes cook and children half naked run about playing and making merry, one may be tempted to say: “What a beautiful home, but pity, they don’t have a house to put it in!” And looking at well built and beautifully furnished posh bungalow where inmates quarrel constantly and never smile at each other, one may be tempted to say: “What a beautiful mansion, but they don’t have a home of love and care to put it in!”
In which all Cathedrals or towering churches, in which all Episcopal palaces or Rectories of Reverends, can we find the Joy, peace and serenity of the Nazareth family or better the “company of Jesus” made up of sheep and goat, cow and donkey? The sum and substance is, there can be no church where “Family Values” do not flourish. Cultivate and nourish to grow every human family with humane qualities protecting it from ravenous wolves of the day and you produce “Domestic Churches”. That is what Francis Pappa is doing by appealing to the whole world to focus their attention on the FAMILY, the bedrock of a peaceful and prosperous human society. May the whole world join hands with him!”
