by Michael Fuss

As families have been bearers of culture in the past, they need to become aware of their new role as heralds of peace and survival for the future of humanity.

Everyone remains impressed by the eye-catching stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which evoked the futuristic spirit of One World--One Dream through its innovative design as a gigantic birds' nest. Interweaving the global aspirations of the same humankind living in the same world and seeking the same dreams and ideals, the symbolic language of architecture sought to express the idea of human oneness in multicultural diversity by means of a subtle and airy grid in the shape of an open bowl. Surprisingly, a globalized society has chosen the image of a cradle to evince its desire for tenderness and intimate friendship, for protective care and shelter from adverse threats. Is it too far-fetched to detect the archetype of family behind this symbol of a global network of receiving and giving, of individual success and integrative support? As the Olympic athletes are supported by a complex infrastructure of favorable conditions, the development of a mature personality of global citizens is still backed by the positive influence of their families. The motto of the games, changed into the small coins of ordinary life, expresses the desire that humanity may prosper as one universal family.

From a sociological perspective, it seems almost impossible to identify a model family. Whereas a majority of people would probably still live in the traditional nuclear unit of parents and children, very often a family is reduced, for various reasons, to the very elementary relationship of one parent and child. Each family member would offer a different description because of her or his personal expectations. Does a family simply provide the space of uncontrolled privacy where one may do what one pleases? While the family, owing to an increasing commodification of ethical values in modern societies, is sometimes reduced to merely a service center that temporarily caters for the indispensable infrastructure of one's own progress, it provides, at a deeper level, the horizon whose vertical (generational) and horizontal (collateral) dimensions characterize the public image of each person. Furthermore, different cultural patterns provide different models, and therefore it may be advisable to envisage a family as a subtle balance between a stable and nostalgic archetype--deeply hidden in human imagination--and a highly transitory and changing community: young adults abandon the family structure of their parents and follow new patterns in order to raise their own offspring.

The family is a highly symbolic and vulnerable reality in the sense that it is both a mirror of cultural shifts of the present and a promising cradle of new citizens of the future. On the one hand, it is a very sensitive receptacle of all threats of a mass society, such as poverty, repression, exploitation, divisions, and conflicts. It is directly affected by problems related to women, health, work, education, and religion. On the other hand, its intimate atmosphere of mutual caring and trust encourages the engagement toward building a society with a human face. Small gestures that flow from a sincere heart, in all human imperfection, express the longing for a fulfillment that will last forever. Offering a red rose as a sign of love, or lighting candles on the birthday cake, are eloquent symbols that fill ordinary life with anticipation of an ever-greater and transcendent reality. However, a family does not offer an idyllic refuge into privacy and is more than a protected playground for the most noble aspirations. By their very existence, committed families exercise a political role amid an anonymous and consumerist society with their prophetic potential of authentic human relations and their spirit of sacrifice: they are living laboratories of humanization versus the sterile cloning of unhuman robots.

Attempting to interpret the variety of biological and cultural viewpoints, the family may be considered a "we" wherein the "I" finds his or her individual existence firmly grounded within the caring and supporting solidarity of peers without ever being absorbed by them. As a dynamic and lifelong process of formation rather than a fixed institution, the family becomes the training ground for a new personality type of individuals-in-relationship. The personal self-awareness thus passes from a circle exclusively centered around the ego to the model of an ellipse with the dynamic polarity of plural focal points. Whatever has made you what you are, and whatever you have produced, remains an achievement backed by the experience of a family. Indeed, the mutual responsibility within a "we" community sets the tenor of interacting with one another in society. As a healthy family creates an educational experience of fidelity through a daily living of that reality, it leads to deeper relationships and lasting loyalties beyond. Wherever family members meet together in the spirit of love, share what they hold dear in a genuine spirit of freedom, and are empowered and motivated knowing that they can count on each other at all times, new humanity may grow in the spirit of love and fidelity.

The Educational Role of the Family

Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation on the family, Familiaris Consortio (1981), affirms: "The future of humanity passes by way of the family." Traditionally, the family has been regarded as an important institution for society. It is the first cell of society, the workshop wherein character is shaped, the nursery wherein seedlings are planted to bloom in later life. Tolerance and respect of human rights at an international level presuppose their practice in daily life. Dialogue begins at home, and finding resources within their own traditions for promoting respect and tolerance and transmitting these traditions to their followers is a crucial task for community leaders and educators. As schools of human relationships and interdependency, families still need full educational support. Such issues are a common concern of religions and have to be addressed with creativity and courage.

Growing up in a family determines personal identity. Not just the intimate mother-child relationship but the anthropological structure of family is revealed in the observations of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (Glaubhaft ist nur Liebe, 1963) about the first encounter of the individual with the world by discovering loving relationships within the nuclear family: "Not by one's own exertion of power, but only by a loving call from outside one's own self, an individual becomes part in the universal community of beings." He adds: "When throughout many days and weeks a mother has been smiling at the child, at a certain moment she will be rewarded by the child's smile. . . . By awakening to love, the child awakens to cognition. . . . Intelligence (with its entire apparatus of perception and conceptions) begins to play, because previously the play of love has initiated from the side of the mother." This means that the selfhood of the child will be able to grow because the loving atmosphere within the family constitutes the first sheltering and encompassing world that kindles the conviction of "being permitted to be" and lets the child playfully experience his or her stand in later life. From the biological lack of self-sufficiency for survival and the fact of passively "being thrown into existence" (J. P. Sartre), it follows that the place where being and love are coexistent is considered sacred.

It may be surprising to note an immediate backlash of family education on one's behavior in intercultural situations. The flexibility to interact with reciprocal respect and to face complexity as well as a practical ability toward conflict resolution, peacekeeping, and conviviality in spite of differences is first experienced at home, as is also the creation of a climate of reconciliation and engaged solidarity. Families and religious communities alike are places where values of interpersonal communication and caring for one another are experienced day after day. The "glocal" dimension of education--simultaneously connecting its global and local outreach--is based on a relational pedagogy that fosters strong ties of mutual trust and interaction; abstract universality and familiar fraternity go hand in hand. Explaining the greatest commandment that connects God, one's neighbor, and oneself within a triangular relationship of dynamic love, the Christian Scripture holds that love will not be sincere unless it equally reaches out to the farthest and to the closest persons.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) wrote about creating such a culture of mutual respect among peoples: "Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. . . . Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere." Such efforts at the local level may well prove decisive, for religious communities have great potential to heal wounds, to build bridges, and to band together against extremists who would manipulate religion to promote hatred and violence. As increasingly religious and cultural pluralism becomes a reality, more and more people are becoming familiar with members of other cultures and religions. Many, especially young people, are building lasting friendships--in schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Inspired by religious trust, families may share their everyday experiences, their human solidarity, and responsibility for one another, and thus begin to knit networks of tolerance and mutual trust with other families. Far from economical or political considerations, families reach out to connect with other families on human grounds. As they have been bearers of culture in the past, granting the transmission of ethical values through generations, they have to become aware of their new role as heralds of peace and survival for the future of humanity.

The very word family is derived from the Latin familia, with the meaning of an extended household based on the authority of a landlord (pater familias) who acts as head of an economic system. Not only are parents, children, and relatives part of such a family, but also subordinate workers, business partners, slaves, and possessions. The legal term covers the vast progeny of a famous ancestor who often is venerated with religious awe, since his distinctive virtues have molded ideals that grant prosperity through generations. Belonging to such a gens (a tribal corporation) or domus (house; Greek: oikos), an individual connects with a mythical past and by acting according to the inherited spirit enjoys protection against any risks of the present life. From this semantic field emerges the project of "human ecology" to be concerned with the organization of labor, economic structures, and public welfare in favor of families. Inasmuch as families are educated to live according to spiritual values, they will be able to actively create human environments that reflect a just order of life. On a political or social level, a "family of nations" could hardly subsist without the metaphysical foundation of a family of common values or a family of truth.

Family of Truth

The framework of a corporative family that is constituted by a moral and spiritual kinship permits us to look at religious communities as families of one's own preference. Religious practitioners consider themselves as newly born by divine grace and the saving word. The Lotus Sutra (chapter 3) calls the disciples "sons born of the Buddha's mouth," and Jesus Christ (Matt 10:37) exhorts his true disciples to leave father and mother and follow only him. In line with his own example, the Buddha calls his followers to leave the natural family for a homeless state and consider the brahmaviharas (lit. "heavenly abodes," these are the four sublime attitudes that lead to enlightenment) as their spiritual refuge. According to the Christian tradition, the family has been named a "small Church," and the Church, a family: the community members are children of God, and hence brothers and sisters, and their family is centered around the willingness to serve one another in the spirit of Christ. As this communitarian spirit is foundational to religious traditions, today a "community of communities" has to be envisioned, not by artificially postulating one world religion, but by fostering dialogue among the various faith communities.

As religions are answering, from different cultural viewpoints, the basic questions of life, they have to approach in harmony the great challenges of humanity that are, first of all, of a spiritual order. The converging point among religions is their consideration of families as the "sanctuary of life" (John Paul II, encyclical Centesimus Annus, 1991). Against a destructive "culture of death," religious traditions emphasize the sacred and inviolable character of life, and their meeting place is not a temple made of stones but the living sanctuary of families who gladly receive, promote, and protect life and thus reveal the fundamental truth about our human nature. Indeed, it may appear paradoxical that the deepest, and distinguishing, reality of religions is not initially perceived by their notion of "God"--which in its divergent and often contradictory guise has given rise to harmful rivalry--but by the loving communion of families as the foremost realization of what is most holy to religious people. By knitting global networks of committed families, religions are called upon to cooperate in terms of a global "family of truth" that maintains the distinctive identity of each family member and religious tradition and yet is pervaded by a common responsibility of witnessing spiritual values. A profound cultural change will occur when religious families as "people of life" become "people for life."

In her study on the increasing interweaving of religious traditions, Beatrice Bruteau (What We Can Learn from the East [New York: Crossroad, 1995]) takes inspiration from a familiar experience: "We have reached the stage of entering one another's kitchens, swapping recipes, and sharing confidences over a cup of coffee. We are starting seriously to learn from one another." Dialogue means an encounter of committed individuals, not of institutions. Far from being confined to official statements and dogmatic debates, religions connect at the practical level, showing one another how to deal with everyday problems. Dialogues of life and social action offer a wide field of common concern to alleviate the gaping wounds in society. This does not mean a reduction of religions to merely humanistic agencies; it becomes a new and surprising way to live the common search for the Ultimate by creating relationships of openness. Pope John Paul II has envisaged a prophetic vision at the beginning millennium: "The name of the one God must become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 2001). Religions are called to discover the true "name" of God by their concerted engagement against sinful structures on earth. Spiritual mindfulness and active engagement go hand in hand. Religions have no other aim but serving the truth; their fulfillment means emptying themselves in ever-greater compassion. In Buddhist terms, this may be called the bodhisattva school of religions; Christian spirituality names it the way of Jesus Christ. Humanity is called to welcome religious diversity as an important chance in establishing a firm basis for peace and reconciliation among peoples, warding off the specter of religious wars that have so often bloodied human history. This urgent task of conflict resolution deserves an atmosphere of mutual trust and the creation of a familiar spirit.

The allusion to the grammatical structure of the World Wide Web in our title is meant to indicate that the family creates the needed link between dreams of an emerging world citizenship unimpeded in its virtual liberty by spatial and temporal restrictions, and the indispensable providers of the physical and cultural infrastructure at a local level. Although its psychological complexity appears behind an infinite array of overlapping windows, the family remains the overall portal that opens deeper values of life, and thus is rightly considered sacred. Individuality is not an absolute value; it remains anchored within each family as the indispensable "@" from which all people draw their identity. The tremendous cultural impact of the electronic network that covers the globe raises the awareness of a corresponding metaphysical reality of universal values that are mediated within the very concrete atmosphere of small families. The metaphor of the glocal outreach of the Internet illustrates the vision of an interactive network of cultural and religious families at the selfless service of life. Sports and games are over, yet the welcoming structures of the Olympic birds' nest will stand as a secular icon for the spiritual habitat wherein individuals can perform in excellence backed by the support of families that lovingly allow them to grow and generate new hope for the future.