Natural Family Is 'The Most Beautiful Idea in the History of Civilization': UK Chief Rabbi to Vatican Event

Hilary White : Nov 20, 2014
LifeSiteNews.com

"[The traditional family] made sense of the world and gave it a human face, the face of love."

The idea of the traditional family as the love that brings new life into the world, Lord Jonathan Sacks told an audience in Rome on Monday, is "the most beautiful idea in the history of civilization." (Photo via LifeSiteNews)

Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, gave an address to the Vatican's colloquium on the meaning of marriage in which he called the first chapter of Genesis "revolutionary with its statement that every human being, regardless of class, color, culture or creed, is in the image and likeness of God himself."

"The family, man, woman, and child, is not one lifestyle choice among many. It is the best means we have yet discovered for nurturing future generations and enabling children to grow in a matrix of stability and love," he said.

It is in the family that human beings "learn the delicate choreography of relationship and how to handle the inevitable conflicts within any human group. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next, ensuring the continuity of a civilization."

What makes the traditional family remarkable as a historical development, he said, "is what it brought together: sexual drive, physical desire, friendship, companionship, emotional kinship and love, the begetting of children and their protection and care, their early education and induction into an identity and a history."

"Seldom has any institution woven together so many different drives and desires, roles and responsibilities. It made sense of the world and gave it a human face, the face of love."

Read this article in its entirety at LifeSiteNews, click here.