Daily Meditation: Monday, March 13, 2017

Family - must not be understood as a goal, but as a point of departure

03/13/2017

Each of us must do what we can to preserve the bonds that unite us to the members of our family. But the family is not an end in itself; it is only a point of departure, a base designed to provide us with a form of stability within society. Those who concentrate on their family and who work for it alone, who forget others or even fight with them in order to better protect their parents or children, do not realize that they are creating the conditions for misunderstanding and hostility, which in the end becomes like a fight between clans, or tribes. But worst of all, in this state of mind they do not even contribute to the happiness of their own family. As proof, you see that today more and more families are falling apart. After a period of time, parents separate to form ties elsewhere, and the children find themselves with a father on one side, a mother on another, and half-brothers, half-sisters, and so on. So, where is the stability that the family is meant to provide? And is this truly the happiness of family life?