Anderson (Knights of Columbus), “Agents of evangelization” and “Instruments of peace”

Families “can become not only subjects of evangelization, but above all, agents of evangelization” and “instruments of peace.” Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of Knights of Columbus (USA), is convinced of this. This morning, during the Pastoral Congress at the Dublin World Meeting of Families, which will end on August 26^th, he introduced the panel on The Family as an Agent of Peace in a Turbulent World. “In Amoris Laetitia and Gaudete et Exsultate—he began—, Pope Francis suggests that peace is not simply the absence of violence or agitation, but rather something positive: it is a blessing to be obtained, or as Saint Augustine says in the City of God, a ‘tranquility of order’ obtained through the ‘proportionate disposition’ of society’s members. Now, the latter depends on obedience ‘to the eternal law,’ summarized in the ‘love of God and neighbor.’ Love,” continues Anderson, “is for the family the ‘starting point’ and the ‘constant reference’ in the ‘attainment of peace, tranquility, well-being, and authentic happiness.’ Family love,” he adds, “can turn our home into a domestic church, where the Lord knocks on the door” to dine and stay. Families “live in the world’s concrete reality,” called to “preserve, reveal, and communicate love in the real difficulties of that reality. Through this experience, they can become not only subjects of evangelization but, above all, agents of evangelization.” For Anderson, they “should be helped to realize their mission as the domestic church.” The family, he concludes, should not be seen “as an unapproachable ideal, but as a domestic pilgrim church walking on the pathways of the Lord, radiating the love of God and His fruits of peace.”