UNISINOS – RESIDÊNCIA CONCEIÇÃO
Residência Conceição 6 November, 2019 XLIX:3
UNISINOS
Cx. P. 101
93.022-630 São Leopoldo, RS e-mail: [email protected]
BRAZIL http://www.egfbenya.com
Dear Family, Benefactors, Friends Colleagues, and Collaborators:
The occurrence is rare and recognition of their presence even more rare. At 73 years of age I have encountered it for the first time in my life. For want of a more accurate and magnificent term I call it the “Family Millennial Generation”. This is a generation within one family, all descendants of one dad and one mother whose members (ALL still in this LIFE) present COMBINED ages of 1000 years or more. One or more members may have been born into Eternity. They are remembered but their ages are NOT included within this millennial total. However, the adopted are an integral part of these families.
The generation must usually number at least 12 extant members, the oldest usually around 80 years or more and the youngest about 50 years. Intervals between birth usually range between 2 to 3 years. The mother must be a woman of extraordinary strength and the dad of “Josephine” virtue, BOTH living a Biblical charity. Centuries past this was almost impossible as few people lived much beyond 50 years of age. Today it is also rare as few men and women have the strength, call or desire to bring a dozen or more children into this world.
Older members of the generation function as brothers and sisters plus quasi-parents to the younger members. The family itself must have a saintly dynamic of unity, love, morality and identity. The inevitable physical dispersion is mitigated by the strength of family communion.
Still more rare is a sequence of such generations within one family. This reflects not only and autonomous hope but a communal hope for the future. OPTIMISM is a singular characteristic of such families notwithstanding the unicity of each member. Strong family structure in essential.
The blessings of such families to a people, a culture, a nation are subtle and profound. Printed reference, such as this, cannot come close to conveying the beauty and sacramentality of these families. Yet it can present something of their magnificence.
I address it here as we prepare for the annual celebration of the Holy Family; the Annunciation, Conception, Adoption and Birth, the dynamic steps leading to the arrival of our Savior. ONE Savior arrives, yet many accompany and are born with Him and in Him. That plurality is not and cannot be replicated in any other family, but we can receive a reminder and reinforcement of that plurality in and through these Family Millennial Generations. They help us remember an essential vocation of married men and women respectively as “dads” and as “mothers”, vocations that cannot be eliminated, replaced or surpassed by culture, science or any technology.
Celebrate “Family” this season in your own families, gathered or dispersed. Have a happy:
Hanukkah-Yuletide-Christmas season and a Blessed New Year of 2020!
Most gratefully in Jesus Christ
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.