教宗指出：每个家庭永远都是黑暗世界中的光明、主教会议从纳匝勒重新起步

世界主教会议即将开幕前夜，教宗方济各为主教会议神长们聆听圣神的教导祈祷：“没有圣神，天主是遥远的、基督永远是过去、教会成了一个简单的组织、当局变成了统治、传教变成了宣传、宗教活动变成了呼求、基督徒的行为成为奴役制的伦理道德”

梵蒂冈城（亚洲新闻）—在包围着我们的黑暗之中点燃一支小小的蜡烛有什么用呢？难道不纯粹是为了驱散黑暗吗？那么，可以战胜黑暗吗？这是教宗方济各在世界主教会议即将开幕之际在梵蒂冈圣伯多禄广场上向数万参加为主教会议守夜祈祷的人们提出的问题。这次守夜祈祷，是意大利主教团专门为明天十月四日主日将开幕的世界主教会议举办的。本届世界主教特别会议的主题是“家庭在教会和现代世界中的圣召与使命”。

教宗方济各自己回答了上述问题，指出“让我们祈祷，使明天将开幕的主教会议能够重新带给人们一个人的婚姻与家庭生活的完整形象；重新认识、弘扬和告诉人们婚姻家庭生活中有美的、好的、圣的；全面囊括面临考验的最薄弱环节：贫困、战争、疾病、死亡、受伤的和破裂的关系、怨恨和破损；让这些家庭和所有家庭牢记，福音始终是‘喜讯’，要从这里重新起步的喜讯。使每一个家庭永远是光明，无论多么暗淡，始终是黑暗世界中的光明”。

教会要回应这光明：“在我们时代的‘外邦人的加里勒亚’，我们会重新找到一个慈母教会的胸怀，能够孕育生命、注重继续给予生命；充满献身精神、温柔和道义力量地伴随人们。因为，如果我们不懂得将怜悯与正义结合起来，我们最终会变得毫无用途的严厉和极其不公。一个是家庭的教会懂得用一位父亲的关怀和爱展示自己。承担保护的责任、保护但不取而代之、纠正但不会羞辱、用榜样和耐心教育。有时，仅仅用祈祷和开放的期待的沉默”。

而聚集在圣伯多禄广场上的家庭渴望见证他们领受的这一使命。教宗讲话前，他们做出了家庭生活的见证。这些见证并没有隐藏今天家庭面临的问题，但也试图在福音背景下生活。恰恰是这些家庭，在教宗讲话前手中都点着一盏灯。教宗降福他们后表示，“让它变成光明的使者、一个更加美好的世界的建设者”。然后，这盏灯被放在了圣家像前，这些家庭从这里点燃光明，再传递给整个广场。

教宗方济各的讲话全文如下:

Dear Families,

Good evening! What good is it to light a little candle in the darkness? Isn’t there a better way to dispel the darkness? Can the darkness even be overcome?

At some points in life – this life so full of amazing resources – such questions have to be asked. When life proves difficult and demanding, we can be tempted to step back, turn away and withdraw, perhaps even in the name of prudence and realism, and thus flee the responsibility of doing our part as best we can.

Do you remember what happened to Elijah? From a human point of view, the prophet was afraid and tried to run away. “Elijah was afraid; he got up and fled for his life… He walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (1 Kg 19:3,8-9). On Horeb, he would get his answer not in the great wind which shatters the rocks, nor in the earthquake nor even in the fire. God’s grace does not shout out; it is a whisper which reaches all those who are ready to hear its still, small voice. It urges them to go forth, to return to the world, to be witnesses to God’s love for mankind, so that the world may believe…

In this vein, just a year ago, in this same Square, we invoked the Holy Spirit and asked that - in discussing the theme of the family - the Synod Fathers might listen attentively to one another, with their gaze fixed on Jesus, the definitive Word of the Father and the criterion by which everything is to be measured.

This evening, our prayer cannot be otherwise. For as Patriarch Athenagoras reminded us, without the Holy Spirit God is far off, Christ remains in the past, the Church becomes a mere organization, authority becomes domination, mission becomes propaganda, worship becomes mystique, Christian life the morality of slaves.

So let us pray that the Synod which opens tomorrow will show how the experience of marriage and family is rich and humanly fulfilling. May the Synod acknowledge, esteem, and proclaim all that is beautiful, good and holy about that experience. May it embrace situations of vulnerability and hardship: war, illness, grief, wounded relationships and brokenness, which create distress, resentment and separation. May it remind these families, and every family, that the Gospel is always “good news” which enables us to start over. From the treasury of the Church’s living tradition may the Fathers draw words of comfort and hope for families called in our own day to build the future of the ecclesial community and the city of man.

Every family is always a light, however faint, amid the darkness of this world.

Jesus’ own human experience took shape in the heart of a family, where he lived for thirty years. His family was like any number of others, living in an obscure village on the outskirts of the Empire.

Charles de Foucauld, perhaps like few others, grasped the import of the spirituality which radiates from Nazareth. This great explorer hastily abandoned his military career, attracted by the mystery of the Holy Family, the mystery of Jesus’ daily relationship with his parents and neighbours, his quiet labour, his humble prayer. Contemplating the Family of Nazareth, Brother Charles realized how empty the desire for wealth and power really is. Through his apostolate of charity, he became everything to everyone. Attracted by the life of a hermit, he came to understand that we do not grow in the love of God by avoiding the entanglement of human relations. For in loving others, we learn to love God, in stooping down to help our neighbour, we are lifted up to God. Through his fraternal closeness and his solidarity with the poor and the abandoned, he came to understand that it is they who evangelize us, they who help us to grow in humanity.

To understand the family today, we too need to enter - like Charles de Foucauld – into the mystery of the family of Nazareth, into its quiet daily life, not unlike that of most families, with their problems and their simple joys, a life marked by serene patience amid adversity, respect for others, a humility which is freeing and which flowers in service, a life of fraternity rooted in the sense that we are all members of one body.

The family is a place where evangelical holiness is lived out in the most ordinary conditions. There we are formed by the memory of past generations and we put down roots which enable us to go far. The family is a place of discernment, where we learn to recognize God’s plan for our lives and to embrace it with trust. It is a place of gratuitousness. of discreet fraternal presence and solidarity, a place where we learn to step out of ourselves and accept others, to forgive and to be forgiven.

Let us set out once more from Nazareth for a Synod which, more than speaking about the family, can learn from the family, readily acknowledging its dignity, its strength and its value, despite all its problems and difficulties.

In the “Galilee of the nations” of our own time, we will rediscover the richness and strength of a Church which is a mother, ever capable of giving and nourishing life, accompanying it with devotion, tenderness, and moral strength. For unless we can unite compassion with justice, we will end up being needlessly severe and deeply unjust.

A Church which is family is also able to show the closeness and love of a father, a responsible guardian who protects without confining, who corrects without demeaning, who trains by example and patience, sometimes simply by a silence which bespeaks prayerful and trusting expectation.

Above all, a Church of children who see themselves as brothers and sisters, will never end up considering anyone simply as a burden, a problem, an expense, a concern or a risk. Other persons are essentially a gift, and always remain so, even when they walk different paths.

The Church is an open house, far from outward pomp, hospitable in the simplicity of her members. That is why she can appeal to the longing for peace present in every man and woman, including those who – amid life’s trials – have wounded and suffering hearts.

This Church can indeed light up the darkness felt by so many men and women. She can credibly point them towards the goal and walk at their side, precisely because she herself first experienced what it is to be endlessly reborn in the merciful heart of the Father.