We generally tend to leave families and children out of ordinary youth ministry. We say that we are not very well equipped and do not know how to involve them, except in some parish or popular festivals. We leave the children to the first catechism classes or the teachers at their various school levels. Families then, as parents, have too much to do at home or with work, and then - as in all families - children and teenagers begin to distance themselves from this and start to grapple with their freedom and responsibility.
This bad situation has made us rediscover the family (and children with it) as the fundamental subject of our youth ministry. Because we rediscovered the adult presence, adult absence (refugee or at war), bonds and affective relationships, an exchange of roles (teenagers and young people becoming the supportive adults for family members, elderly mothers and grandparents, children), agreement on what precious things to save, mutual help for those in need, praying together, especially for loved ones, but also for others who are unfortunate.
The family as a sphere of life, survival, meaning, responsibility. The family has thus become (ronce more become) the nucleus for preserving values, the guarantor of education, care, of small, even trivial moments of happiness, especially for children (their own and others). For the elderly and children, being able to hold the hand of their teenager or young child has been the guarantee of security.
In short, the rediscovery of the family as an essential place of escape from isolation, for maintaining ties, for the warmth of affection.
But is this not the identity of the family in God’s eyes, and what every youth ministry should rediscover and experience? Could we then make a gift of this great little discovery?
