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SUNDAY MISSIVE
By George Kimando
I don’t know about your parish or place of worship. Am not even sure if this is an entire Church thing, but in the Parish where i attend Mass and worship, today is the Family Day.
It’s an elaborate event that sees the normally four Masses of the day collapsed into one, celebrated in the open as all parishioners cannot fit in the main sanctuary.
You need to attend it to understand the depth and seriousness the celebration of the family is in this Parish.
If there is one unit of life and survival under severe attack today, it’s THE FAMILY. From broken marriages to exaggerated children ‘rights’, erosion of societal values, substance abuse, inverted parent/guardian roles and other ‘new’ life practices, the family set up today is at the highest risk ever of disintegrating.
The current family set up cries out for help, especially with changed and evolving socio-economic tectonics.
Perhaps it’s in recognition of these existential threats to the family that the Church (and other religious institutions and formations) have realised this most important role obligated of them in providing direction to this threatened institution of fundamental social function.
Each one of us comes from a family, whatever the definition, origination or orientation.
But what is FAMILY?
Fundamentally, it is the blood relations of a nuclear family, but escalates to the expanded family. Today, it could mean groups of interest in which we converge for certain and specific interactions, whether socio-economic, at the work place, etc.
Perhaps the biggest family we can talk about here, and which i want us to think about in a special way, is the National Family called Kenya. In this election year especially, there is the risk of forgetting the family we are.
When we have been faced by external threats, we have always rallied around our common good.
We remember the US Embassy terror attack, 2007/8 PEV, the Westgate and Dusit attacks. Especially in the Dusit attack, hospitals turned away volunteer blood donors, as cab drivers offered free transport to points of blood donation.
That’s family. Let’s not forget it for political expediency.
Like in the nuclear family, we are a mixed broth of many variants at the regional and national levels, with different fragrances, tastes, opinions, shades, likes and dislikes. Yet we remain one, largely rising above the challenge of finding unity and purpose in our diversity.
And this is the call of this column today: finding purpose and unity in our diversity, in THE FAMILY (and in all its definitions, originations and orientations).
I find this song below by Dolly Parton summing up in a simple, yet profound, way all about family.
When it’s family, you forgive them
For they know not what they do
When it’s family, you accept them
‘Cause you have no choice but to
When it’s family, they’re a mirror
Of the worst and best in you
And they always put you to the test
And you always try to do your best
And just pray for God to do the rest
When it’s family
Some are preachers, some are gay
Some are addicts, drunks and strays
But not a one is turned away
When it’s family
Some are lucky, others ain’t
Some are fighters, others faint
Winners, losers, sinners, saints
It’s all family
And when it’s family, you trust them
And your heart’s an open door
When it’s family, you tolerate
What you’d kill others for
When it’s family, you love and hate
And take then give some more
Somehow you justify mistakes
Try to find some better way
To solve the problems day to day
In the family
You take the trouble as it comes
And love ‘em more than anyone
Good or bad or indifferent
It’s still family
You choose your lovers
You pick your friends
Not the family that you are in now
They’ll be with you ‘til the end
‘Cause it’s family
And when it’s family, you forgive them
For they know not what they do
When it’s family, they’re a mirror
Of the worst and best in you
When it’s family, when it’s family
Let me be all that i should be
To the family
I couldn’t put it better.
Have a purposeful Family Sunday, and a great week ahead.
The post Celebrating The Family: Finding Purpose And Unity in Diversity appeared first on LitKenya.
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