JONG
REFLECTION ON FAMILY
Marjeo (Jong) L. Delfin, OMI
The family has an important role in a society because of its basic characteristic as the smallest unit that composes a community. It has undergone a lot of changes throughout history and it has evolved from one character to another. In looking at the character of a family, it is interesting to know that its nature is closely related to the soil/land. One might wonder how family life is closely related to that of its native soil. Let me explain.
Historically, family has a patriarchal trait portrayed by ancient literatures. This however appears a bit influential even today’s generation. It has evolved into another trait though it still manifests such influence in one way of another. The dynamism of the family made it survive for years immemorial. Patriarchal family is so related to the soil because in this kind of family, every action in the family surrounds only in the land as a source of monetary needs. Fathers have been the strict implementer of the law at home. Going to school has been discouraged since the knowledge learned in school which is to be used in finding a living is simply not applicable. The farm then has become their school where they learned the basic form of earning and living.
From being patriarchal, it has evolved into something personalistic where the children started to go away from home to work and study in schools where they learn the way of finding a living. This is one of the effects of the ongoing industrialization in every society today. Lands have been abandoned and buildings have been erected so that people little by little reduce the contact with the soil. Machines took place the job of humans and the nexus between the members of the family has become fainter and fainter. This is an unfortunate situation because a lot of factors in human growth have been affected by this.
As a result of industrialization and extreme materialism, parenting has become difficult. Moreover, religion also plays an important role in perpetuating this situation instead of severing it because of some influences of dualistic perspective. Realization in the Vatican II as it did an aggiornamento and as it went back to the sources (ad fontes) that attempt to revision this problem. Even to the present, the struggle continues and the fight goes on as regards this matter. The challenge for those who work in the church lies along this line of service. The call of Jesus Christ is to break barriers in any form, promote justice and live love among one another.
The unifying factor in every Christian family should be Christ by keeping alive the love for one another. John 13:35 expresses this, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This not only unifies our families but also evangelizes others whose faith has been ravaged. The manifestation of love could be God’s instrument of letting others to know Christ better. When we evangelize we are then not limited to preaching the word of God but also but way of example. What we need to day are families who are not only teachers but more so witnesses of his Basileia. This is therefore our challenge; to make love the center of our families.
CALL TO BUILD THE NATURE OF FAMILY TODAY
By: Renato (Don) Caballero Jr.
Don
We, Filipinos are family centered. We deeply value and cherish our family, including our extended families. We sacrifice a lot for our loved ones. Some of us even sacrifice marriage for the sake of our younger brother and sister and for our ageing or sick parents. We gain support from, find refuge in, and go back to our families. However, this deep family value is slowly vanishing today.
But what is more tragic is that our families are being broken by poverty and unjust economic and political structure of our country. As commercialism and materialism take center stage, we find ourselves being carried away from our families to the pressure of living the high consumerist quantities of life, fashion and what is in. We find ourselves competing, becoming more individualistic, and even materialistic and hedonistic. When gathered, we are glued to the television viewing movies, soap opera from Asian or Latin countries, which have no relevance to our families and sometimes violent in nature. The evolution of global technology also impacts on the family as children are exposed to violent computer games. 
All these realities prevent the family to have quality time together. As material security is given to children, put aside is the quality of emotional security and values formation for the growing child. Nowadays, parents have less and less time to play with their kids, to listen to their stories and share stories. Stories on families unveil the tragic reality of violence in family life as well as family separation. Moreover, in Mindanao and other parts of the country, families are torn apart by war, animosities and deep prejudices against various faith communities. The culture of violence and death prevail.
As we talk about families and revelation of God’s love, as the value of being instead of having came across more clearly, and the blessing theology prevailed over the salvation theory – I ask myself these questions.
– How can we enrich the spirituality of our families broken by poverty?
– How can we commission our families to be agents of socio, political and economic change in our countries?
– How can families all over the world unite so we can fight the ill effects of globalization?
– How can we families become social agents of a culture of peace and dialogue?
I may not have the answers to these questions but for the sake of our families. I pose these because I believe these are the right questions today!
