Sunday, August 28, 2016

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 28




28.   Against this backdrop of  love so central to the Christian experience of marriage and the family, another virtue stands out, one often over- looked in our world of  frenetic and superficial relationships.  It is tenderness.  Let us consider the moving words of  Psalm 131.  As in other biblical texts (e.g., Ex 4:22; Is 49:15; Ps 27:10), the union between the Lord and his faithful ones is expressed in terms of parental love. Here we see a delicate and tender intimacy between mother and child: the image is that of a babe sleeping in his mother’s arms after being nursed.  As the Hebrew word gamûl suggests, the infant is now fed and clings to his mother, who takes him to her bosom.  There is a closeness that is conscious and not simply biological.   Drawing on this image, the Psalmist sings: “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast” (Ps 131:2).  We can also think of the touching words that the prophet Hosea puts on God’s lips: “When Israel was a child, I loved him… I took them up in my arms… I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them” (Hos 11:1, 3-4).




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