Ascension Sunday

Today is Ascension Sunday, and the 49th Communication Day. This year however, we see the message of the Pope directed not to preaching the Gospel to the whole world but for the first time the need for communicating in the family. The  Peace Weekly editorial comments on this change of emphasis. "The family, in conclusion, is not a subject of debate or a terrain for ideological skirmishes. Rather, it is an environment in which we learn to communicate in an experience of closeness, a setting where communication takes place, a “communicating community”.

The Church has shown the importance of the family in the two synods with family as the subject. Last year the extraordinary synod and this year in October the Ordinary synod  both on the family. All the problems come from the family, and can be solved in the family.

"Communication, consequently, is an important part of family life, and we need to facilitate this kind of environment in the family."In the family, we learn to embrace and support one another, to discern the meaning of facial expressions and moments of silence, to laugh and cry together with people who did not choose one other yet are so important to each other. This greatly helps us to understand the meaning of communication as recognizing and creating closeness."

Communication in the family is a problem because of the structure and environment in which families live. In an article on the subject  we are told that  communication in the family is disappearing. From the office of statistics we are told the time children spend talking to parents continues to decrease, and noticed especially with the increase of smart phones. It is not unheard of a family, sitting down each with their smart phones, waiting for the food. Even a bigger problem is not to have anything to say when attempts at dialogue are made.

Father in his way, mother in her way and the children in their own way, make up the family. Only at some big event are they all together. There are days when they  do not meet. Even the couple, in one out of three families, doesn't  talk to each other for more than 30  minutes a day. The older the children get the less talk between the spouses.

 "It is in the context of the family we learn how to communicate. Focusing on this meaning can help make our communication more authentic and humane, while helping us to view the family in a new perspective." These  words of the pope help us to understand how precious family ties are. The article on the subject ends with the words of a priest,  head of a diocesan research center on the family:  "members of a family have to realize how important members are to each other, and how precious to the growth of a person life in the family is."