Proclaim the beauty of God's plan for family, LA archbishop tells synod

Vatican City, Oct 10, 2015 / 16:55 pm

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles addressed his fellow synod fathers on Saturday, encouraging the Church in sharing the beauty of the Creator's plan for creation, the human person, and the family.

"I believe that the Church must present a new evangelical catechesis on creation, as an essential element of the new evangelization," he said Oct. 10 in a brief address, known as an intervention, during the Synod on the Family."

"We must proclaim the beauty of God's plan of love for creation, for the human person, and for the human family. Our new evangelization must proclaim an integral human ecology that reveals the nature, vocation and teleology of the human person as created by God."

Please find below the full text of Archbishop Gomez' intervention:



Holy Father, Synod Fathers, brothers and sisters,

The Word of God reveals our Creator's plan for his creation and for human history. This divine Word is the authentic starting point for understanding the family's vocation and mission.

As the Instrumentum Laboris (nos. 39, 44), recognizes, we can discern a "divine pedagogy" in the history of salvation that unfolds in the Sacred Scriptures.

To strengthen marriage and the family in our time, I believe the Church must recover the divine pedagogy found in the Scriptures. Just a few weeks ago, when he was in the United States Pope Francis reminded us again - that God entrusted his loving plan for creation to the family.

And as I see it, the crisis of the family in our time is, to some extent, a crisis of anthropology. Our culture has lost its sense of the meaning of the human person and creation. This loss is rooted in the loss of God.
   
My perspective is shaped by my experience as the Archbishop of Los Angeles. The family of God in Los Angeles is made up of people from every continent and nationality.

Los Angeles is also the home of Hollywood - the place where the "virtual world" of movies, television programs, fantasy sports and all kinds of media products are created. So Los Angeles has a great influence on the perception of the human person and the family in contemporary society.

I believe that the Church must present a new evangelical catechesis on creation, as an essential element of the new evangelization. We must proclaim the beauty of God's plan of love for creation, for the human person, and for the human family. Our new evangelization must proclaim an integral human ecology that reveals the nature, vocation and teleology of the human person as created by God.

The Church needs to recover and reflect on the "family" images found in the Scriptures and most ancient Tradition, and in the universal Church's liturgy and popular piety:
 •    the human person as the imago Dei; 
 •     the Church as "family of God";  
 •     the family as the "domestic Church";
 •     Divine filiation and the Christian life as spiritual childhood.
 
In the face of the widespread crisis of the family, I believe our society needs to hear once more the beautiful truth about the human person and God's loving plan for creation and history, a plan that is centered in the family.

Counting on the intercession of the Holy Family we need to illuminate, by our pastoral priorities and practice, how the family is the crucial "way" for the Church and for God's plan for human society
 
And in the words of our newest American saint, St. Junipero Serra, we will go, siempre adelante!
 
Thank you very much.