Father Stan Fortuna is a Franciscan priest. Over the years, he has ministered effectively to thousands of teenagers through his preaching and music. Some years ago he used his musical talents to create a Catholic rap album. In his rap music, Father Stan teaches and inspires young people to grow in their love for the Lord and their Catholic Faith.
One of his rap songs is an acronym entitled “F-A-M-I-L-Y: Forget About Me, I Love You.” In that song, Father Stan teaches that self-giving and sacrificial love are at the heart of family life. He teaches young people that the essence of family is about putting others before oneself.
This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Each member of the Holy Family is a model of self-giving and sacrificial love. Jesus, Mary and Joseph always thought about the good of the other. In fact, it was the love and sacrifice of Mary and Joseph that taught Christ, as man, how to offer himself as a gift of love for us on the Cross.
The Christian family’s vocation is to strengthen and sanctify the Church and society. If the family is strong, then the Church and society will be strong. But how can the family be strong? By modeling itself after the Holy Family and by living the words, “forget about me, I love you.”
God calls the family to be a school of self-giving and sacrificial love, a communion of persons that reflects the love of the Holy Trinity. This is only possible when each member of the family learns to make a sincere gift of self in love to the other family members. This begins with the parents who are to model sacrificial love to their children. Children learn to love from their parents, and if parents show their love to each other in a sincere way then children will reflect that love. Each spouse is called to give his or her own self as a gift to the other. This gift of self manifests itself in openness to life and in nurturing the children that God entrusts to them. The Church invites married couples to live the most excellent and most heroic love.
The family is also to be a place where children are prepared for their vocations. Every vocation involves a giving of one’s self in love. In marriage, husband and wife give themselves to each other in love. Priests and consecrated religious brothers and sisters give themselves in love to God and the Church. Only in the family can people learn how to love.
Today’s feast of the Holy Family teaches us to be more self-giving. If each member of the family lives this message of sacrificial love, like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, then the Church and society will be stronger.
Father Michael Najim is Spiritual Director of Our Lady of Providence Seminary, Providence, as well as Catholic Chaplain at LaSalle Academy, Providence.
