Day 285: The Nature of the Family (2201-2206)

• It’s Day 285!!

• THE FAMILY IN GOD’S PLAN

• You might think these are recent definitions of the terms “family” and “marriage”

• THEY ARE NOT!!

• IN FACT…

• The Church wrote this Catechism in the 1980s, long before we experienced some of the cultural issues that we experience in the West about family and about marriage

• What the Church is teaching is not a response or reaction to the world around it

• It is a CLEAR TEACHING to the world around us

• That is a huge distinction

• You may think this sounds very political

• It is only political because our culture has questioned what marriage is and what family is and brought it into the political realm

• The Church is directing the culture about the nature of family

• THE NATURE OF THE FAMILY

• THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we ask you to please be with us. Please hear our prayers, and be with us in our need, be with us in our confusion, be with us in our understanding. And Lord, if we have hesitant hearts, if we have a reluctance to say yes to you with freedom and with joy, we ask you to please meet us in that hesitation. Meet us in that reluctance. And if we are excited, if we are grateful and joyful over your teaching, we ask you to please help us be humble in our joy. Help us be humble in this conviction of the truth of knowing what is the nature of the family. You invented the family. God, you invented the concept of family. And you also have called us to live in a certain way as we are called to be part of a Christian family. So we ask you to please send us your Holy Spirit so that we can not only know this, but to live this. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• The Church teaches through the lens of Scripture in light of Tradition

• Paragraph 2201 says, “The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.”

• Even if the couple is unable to have biological children, the family is ordered to the good of the spouses and the education of children

• There is something so good about the care and love that parents have for each other and for their children

• Paragraph 2202 says, “A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.”

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike reminiscing about a study he read once about young adults…

• While our natural family in which we are raised is very important, when it comes to our further development in adolescence there is a great reliance upon those members outside the family

• The definition of family is not those we feel close to, even if we think of them as “family”

• We do not get the definition of marriage from the state or history or from anyone who is in charge or from society or from civilization

• It existed before any government and any community

• Marriage and the family are the fundamental building blocks of society

• It predates society and civilization

• The consequence of this is we may not redefine marriage 

• We have to simply observe it and accept it

• A man and woman united in marriage with their children is the most basic fundamental form and the normal reference point by which different forms of family are to be evaluated

• Paragraph 2203 says, “In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.”

• Every person we meet deserves our respect and honor because they are made in God’s image and likeness

• Parents, children, and extended family are equal in dignity

• Everyone is equal when it comes to dignity

• Paragraph 2204 says, “‘The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church.’ It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.’”

• The family is the Domestic Church

• What about families with only one parent?

• What about a husband and wife that can’t have children?

• Are they still a Domestic Church?

• YES!!

• St. John Paul II had a mom, dad, and brother

• When he was very young, his mom died

• His father raised him and his brother

• That was a Domestic Church too, even though they were now raised by a single dad

• Then his older brother died and it was just JPII and his dad

• That is STILL a Domestic Church even though it was father and son

• To miss a part because of circumstances in life does not mean it is not the Domestic Church

• You might find yourself in an irregular situation like your spouse is no longer here anymore or you and your spouse do not have children…

• YOU ARE STILL INVITED INTO THIS!!

• We are called to be part of the Christian family

• Paragraph 2205 says, “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.”

• If you are a husband and wife and you can’t have children, your life is a sacrifice

• Your life is marked by this pain of longing and loss

• If you are a single mom, a single dad and you long for that spouse that is not there

• Your life is marked by pain and sacrifice

• Or if you are a husband and wife united with your children, your life is likely marked by pain, loss, and sacrifice

• So what are we called to do?

• We are called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ

• There are certain parts of the world where the Church is growing in leaps and bounds

• There are some places around the world where the Catholic Church is shrinking

• Some people think we need more conferences, retreats, and big events

• Those are not bad things

• Those are great things

• BUT…

• The Church will not grow through a person on a stage with a microphone

• The Church will grow and the Gospel will be advanced in two ways

• FRIENDSHIP

• FAMILY

• God wants to grow His Church primarily through the things we long for the most and experience the greatest brokenness in

• FRIENDSHIP 

• FAMILY

• Think about our world right now

• Family is going to be where the Gospel continues to move throughout the world

• Think about how lonely people are when it comes to friendship

• True self-sacrificial friendship and families will be the means by which the Lord God will grow His Church and spread His Gospel throughout the world

• The Domestic Church is imperfect

• AND YET…

• They are the privileged community in the Church that has an evangelizing and missionary task and is positioned in such a way as to spread the Good News of Jesus like no other

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!