Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
The Missionary Decade. Day Five — “Knowing God as the Foundation of a Strong Marital and Family Life”
May 19, 2026
We encourage everyone to respond to His Beatitude Sviatoslav’s invitation to prepare properly for the feast of Pentecost. Over the next few days, we will reflect on passages from the Gospel of John in the context of married and family life. Together, we will seek answers to important questions: how to preserve love in times of trial, how to learn unity, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and mutual support, and how to build a family centered on God.
Tuesday, May 19
A reading of the Holy Gospel according to John 16:2–13
In today’s Word of God, the Lord speaks about one of the most dangerous paradoxes of human life. Its essence lies in the fact that a person may at times be convinced that through his actions he is serving God, while in reality objectively acting against Him: “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering service to God” (Jn 16:2). Christ explains the reason for such a tragic mistake very simply: “because they have known neither the Father nor Me” (Jn 16:3).
Knowledge of God is the starting point for a proper understanding of oneself, of other people, and of all life. When a person loses a living relationship with God, he gradually loses the ability to clearly distinguish between good and evil. Then he begins to build his life solely upon his own ideas, feelings, or personal advantage. And herein lies a great danger: the person himself becomes the measure of truth. In such a state, good and evil become relative, and truth begins to depend upon mood, emotions, or personal benefit. The greatest tragedy lies not even in the fact that a person does evil, but in the fact that he often does not realise it, because he lives without God.
How relevant this sounds in the context of married and family life. How many conflicts, hurts, and misunderstandings arise precisely because people are absolutely convinced of their own correctness while at the same time failing to see their own faults. Within the family it is very easy to replace God’s truth with one’s own ideas: to call selfishness a “right to self-fulfilment,” constant criticism a “struggle for truth,” or indifference “tiredness” or “lack of time.” And then the very paradox of which Christ speaks arises: people may think they are acting rightly and even caring for the good of the family, while in reality they are gradually destroying it. This happens when a person ceases truly to know God. For without Him we begin to look in a distorted way not only at the world, but also at our own marriage and family. It is important to remember that God Himself is the Creator of marriage, and that His design is the best foundation for family life.
But what does it mean “to know God”? In the biblical understanding, it is not merely to know certain information about Him, to call oneself a believer, or to practise certain religious customs. It means, above all, a living relationship with God that shapes our thinking, influences our decisions, and gradually determines our way of life. Within the family, this relationship is built through common prayer, reading Sacred Scripture, and full participation in the life of the Church.
Let us ask the Lord today to enlighten our hearts with the truth about Himself and about our family life, to free us from the captivity of self-deception, and to teach us to look upon our neighbours with His eyes. May God help us to build our families not upon our own pride or stubbornness, but upon the truth, love, and wisdom of the Gospel.
Mission Tasks:
1. Personal Level: Let us ask the Lord to enlighten our hearts and minds so that we may have the courage honestly to see our own faults, not to live in self-deception, and to distinguish God’s truth from what merely appears to be true.
2. Parish Level: Let us ask our priest in what concrete way we can assist in organising prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture in the parish, so that together we may come to know the Word of God more deeply and learn to live by it in our daily lives.
3. Missionary Level: Let us lovingly support a family living amid mutual hurts, addictions, or spiritual distance from God, helping them through prayer, a kind word, and our own witness to rediscover God’s truth and the path to Him.
