Originally published at Southern Cross
By Christina Bagaglio Slentz
The holidays are marked by time with family — both the families we were born into and the families we have adopted and grown entangled with over the years.
If we are honest, we might admit to a little tension in these moments. Complicated family histories and differences of opinion challenge our openness to each other, tempting us to close ourselves off from one another in judgment. Enveloped in skepticism, we might not believe it possible to find common ground, though we share a common planetary home.
Helpfully, the gift of creation reveals a spirit of kinship embedded in God’s design, which calls us to set aside our earthly divides in favor of love and openness toward each and every person as a child of God — “siblings all” or, in the Italian, “Fratelli Tutti,” the title of Pope Francis’ third encyclical. But what does it mean to be the kind of sibling God wants us to be, and how might we, as families, foster “God with us” — Emmanuel — to help us embrace the perfectly imperfect joy of being family as we enter into Advent and prepare for Christmas?
Siblings in Scripture
In Scripture, family struggles
