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On Thursday, April 14, 2005, Dr. Daniel Ayuch, Professor of Bibl
ical Exegesis at the Institute of Theology, made a presentation on Family in the New Testament as part of a series of public lectures on Family and Pastoral Care organized by the Master of Theology Program for this academic year 2004-2005 (see full program here).
In the first part of the conference, Dr. Ayuch focused on the family fundaments as given by Jesus in his speech in Matthew 19:1-15. Marriage should be based on love and mutual tolerance. Children should be educated according to the teachings of the Lord. Dr. Ayuch has exposed how this text has been interpreted and sometimes misinterpreted throughout the Church History in East and West.
In the second part of the session, three narrative texts were analyzed to show how the action of the Lord was able to change and did change the course of life to different suffering families: The healing of a centurions servant (Lk 7:1-10), the raising of the widows son at Nain (Lk 7:11-17), and the cure of Simons mother-in-law (Mk 1:29-31). Finally the figure of the loving and merciful Father was epitomized as a mimesis prototype for the modern parents (Lk 15:11-32).
Dr. Ayuch concluded his conference proposing two practical ways of interpretation that could offer an answer to the family crisis in modernity.
