Case-hardening the family

WITH the American financial crisis likely to affect us, we need to brace ourselves for the worst. Everyone has to be prepared. The government and other institutions have to do their part to at least mitigate the expected impact.

We are told that the worst has still to come. That’s scary. So far, we know that a good number of financial institutions have already gone bankrupt and are now being bailed out or rehabilitated.

The US auto industry is in ICU and in dire need of a bailout. Many banks have laid off thousands of their employees. And then, they have just arrested a respectable big shot who for decades have done good business, only to be found out that it was all a scam, a Ponzi scheme, involving $50 billion.

Whew, imagine the ramifications! It has been a long, rough episode for all of us, and it’s still rolling. My economist-friends talk about both collateral damage and benefit we in our country can derive from this situation. But we really do not know what the net balance will be. Black or red?

I just hope that we have leaders who are quick enough to understand the whole mess, grab the bull by the horns, and take control of its wild dynamics. We all need to be pacified and shown a clear way out of this screw-up.

There’s just one institution that has to be given special attention--the family. Since it plays a pivotal role in supporting the individual persons on the one hand, and society itself on the other, everything has to be done to strengthen it.

Whatever may be the gravity and scope of this crisis, we need to know the practical details of how the family can wrestle with this gathering storm, and make it the basic engine for our recovery.

Everything passes through the person and the family, before it reaches the economy and society at large. The effectiveness of the monetary and fiscal moves, the stimulus packages now planned or already put in play, will depend on the family.

Essential in strengthening the family is first and last its spiritual and moral strength. It may lack material resources, but if spiritually it is healthy, it can handle the problem and truly help the individual members and society itself.

When the family goes beat and weak, individual persons and society suffer. They’d be exposed to the elements, to all sorts of danger in their most vulnerable condition.

When the sense of family is anemic, everyone is left badly prepared to cope with any problem. We need to enrich our family with practices that truly strengthen family life. This is where spent energies are recovered.

For this, the conjugal love is crucial, since it’s the motor that keeps the family going strong and healthy. The spouses should keenly feel the need to deepen their love for one another.

Everyday they have to have a clear idea of how to make their love grow. This is a serious duty with serious consequences. They have to realize that their love has to become more spiritual and theological each day. It should never be allowed to remain in the purely human and material level.

Thus, we need to be wary of certain factors that can undermine family life—attachments to work, to social life, or pure pride, self-centeredness, laziness and other destructive vices and tendencies.

Parents should take the initiative to educate their children, understanding education as the process that goes beyond simply giving data, issuing rules and the like for the children. It has to be fully engaged in the task of leading their children to human and Christian maturity.

Family traditions should be fostered, like having meals together, spending time together, talking with each other, growing in mutual understanding, etc. There has to be a kind of plan to initiate and sustain the development of virtues in everyone.

Defects and deficiencies in each one should be noted and properly addressed. That’s the reason why parents, especially the mothers, need to spend a lot of time at home, since this is needed for an effective management of the family.

It might be good to avail of family-oriented groups that can help the family members to carry out their respective duties properly. These groups can also give families their appropriate continuing formation.

These can be some relevant considerations to make the family shock-proof for the rough times ahead.