Part I The Civilisation of Love

God is the Father of the Civilisation of Love. Human fatherhood and motherhood enable human beings to share in this Civilisation. Indeed, the family is the measure of God’s plan – this plan can be called the Civilisation of Love. Yet today, society thinks of the family only in terms of what it gives and owes to the individual.

Of course, the individual receives much from the family - living in communion with others - this “communion” is the hinge of the Civilisation of Love. But “communion” is not just a gift, it is also a task. That is why, from the outset, a man and a woman must have their hearts and minds turned to God so that selfishness does not obscure love.

It is human fatherhood and motherhood which reveal the capacity which the person has to live the truth in love; fatherhood and motherhood express loves extension and depth. They are tasks which can only be freely undertaken, but when they are undertaken freely these tasks open the person up to God, to other people and to marriage and the family. The mystery of the family flows directly from the mystery of God: in marriage the unity of a man and a woman is so firm that they become “one flesh”. But this unity does not close them up in themselves, but opens them to a new life.

Parents bring to a new individual into being, but this new individual is a person, which means that God is present in this “bringing forth” – a person is, in him or herself, open to God and eternity. This is the dimension of procreation which has been definitively revealed by Christ. God “wills” a person in every birth, and parents should be aware that God “wills” every individual for his or her own sake – we have been created in the image of God.