A couple of days after Christmas we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family - Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - the fact that Jesus was born into a family. Today we usher in the new year celebrating Mary, the Mother of God, making it a good time to discuss exactly why God created the institution of the family and what is intended in family life. We can go first to the Catechism and dive right into what the Church teaches about the purpose of the family.

The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father’s work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task. (CCC #2205)

Now let’s break this paragraph down a bit. The first point our Mother Church is making is that the human family is a reflection of, and participation in, the Trinitarian family in Heaven. We know that the Trinity is a union of three distinct persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also know that these three distinct persons share a perfect love, which is perpetually generating among them. When we get to heaven, we will be full participants in this love and the Trinitarian family. God created the institution of the family here on earth so that we could experience a glimpse of the perfect family that waits for us in heaven. In other words, though certainly not perfect, our families reflect the love and bond of the persons of the Trinity.

The paragraph continues by explaining how our families participate in the Trinitarian family. God the Father is the sole Creator. He fashioned everything out of nothing and is thus, the very definition of creative. He made us pro-creative, meaning everything we produce is in cooperation with God, including our children, and hence, a reflection of the creative nature of the Father. Our families reflect Jesus through our acts of charity for one another, which should be sacrificial, just as Jesus loved us to the point of torture and death. We learn within the structure of the family how to be of service to one another and how to practice virtue when encountering others. It is often said that “charity begins at home.” If we are not practicing it within our own families, our charity toward anyone else loses some of its meaning.

Therefore, in our family, we are called to emulate Jesus and His treatment of others. Lastly, our families participate in the Trinitarian family by generating love that pours out like the Holy Spirit. Christian love is not worldly love. Every Christian family practicing and experiencing Christian love exudes joy. That radiant joy is what we will fully experience in Heaven with our heavenly family.

If we are doing our best within our families of reflecting the role of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it leads us to the final point of the paragraph that the Christian family has an “evangelizing and missionary task.” Each Christian family represents the Trinity to the world, which naturally leads to evangelization and missionary work. Christian families are called to be counter-cultural in our secular world. We are meant to stand out as examples of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the sacrificial love among them.

Throughout this month, each bulletin will have a new article on the family, also known as the Domestic Church. This series is to help families become the domestic churches and holy families we are called to be.

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