«The future of humanity passes through the family!».
With these simple yet prophetic words, John Paul II, in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, expresses the Church’s awareness of the importance of the family for the future of the world and of generations. An awareness that the Church, throughout the course of its history, has never lost. 

Indeed, what is more fundamental and essential in a person’s life than the family?
The family is the first place of welcome that nourishes life and makes it possible. Before a man or woman is born, there is their family. Unfortunately, since the last century, there have been many economic, social, cultural, and institutional transformations that have radically influenced and changed both the structure and the ways of “forming a family”. 
In this regard, 40 years ago, John Paul II stated in Familiaris Consortio: «The situation in which the family finds itself presents positive and negative aspects: the former are a sign of Christ’s salvation at work in the world; the latter are a sign of the rejection that man opposes to God’s love. […] The historical situation in which the family lives thus presents itself as a mixture of light and shadow».
Indeed, today it is very difficult to sustain the life of a couple and a family, precisely because the complicated family mechanism no longer has its roots within a solid structure capable of supporting and containing the interpersonal dynamics of spouses and children. 

It could therefore be said that the heart of the family is being manipulated: on the one hand there is the power of science that wants no limits, and on the other the weakness of the family, which often leads to various forms of crisis.
The apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia had the courage to address «the time of crisis», devoting several sections of chapter VI to Some Pastoral Perspectives and challenging us to reflect more deeply on the problem.
The term crisis is normally associated with the idea of failure, rupture, ending, or dissolution; yet etymologically, the word crisis derives from the Greek verb krino, meaning “to judge”, “to discern”, “to evaluate” - that is, to question oneself, review, and rethink oneself.
 This opens up a broader perspective than the one that culturally inhabits our daily lives: «Every crisis conceals good news that one must learn to hear by refining the hearing of the heart» (AL 232).
Therefore, in its deepest meaning, the term crisis indicates an event that creates an opportunity for growth and for discovering new personal and family resources. A true “kairòs”, experienced as an “opportune time” to rediscover and find true love again. It may seem paradoxical, but there are spouses who, in moments of crisis, manage to bring out everything “good and beautiful” that they carry “within”, and then discover a renewed ability to communicate and show affection.
I can testify to this through my personal, professional, and ecclesial experience. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to “listen” to many testimonies of resurrection from spouses who have passed from death to life. These are couples who have embarked on a journey, following “a method” that is also proposed in the book Healing the Wounded Family.

In my view, one of the greatest difficulties experienced by a couple in crisis is allowing themselves to be helped on a path of “rebuilding” that first leads them to become aware of their own “ills” on a personal and marital level.
Marital love cannot be improvised! That is why education in love is necessary, through the help and support of trained people who can “facilitate” dialogue, communication, and mutual listening, as well as the couple’s emotional, sentimental, and sexual dimension. As John Paul II said: «Love is not something that can be taught, but it is the most important thing to learn».

Through my experience, I have repeatedly been able to verify that when a couple in crisis begins a journey that combines the human and spiritual dimensions, it has an advantage in “rebuilding” the marriage. 
It follows that a careful knowledge of oneself gives two spouses the possibility of reviewing all the particular moments in which any situation places them before a crisis. Such a process could neither begin nor continue without the individual returning to their inner life.
Therefore, it is necessary to realize that precisely when situations become complicated, we must unleash within ourselves a determined resistance. We fight not when we are certain of winning, but when we feel that a gesture of surrender would be enough to take away every glimmer of hope from us. 

Fighting in the darkness of feelings is not easy! Fighting means inevitably exposing oneself to wounds. After all, «if you love, you can be hurt; but if you do not love, you are already dead».

Leonardo Trione