Family as Domestic Church

“The Family is so to speak, the domestic Church.” Vatican Council II

From the beginning, the Church was formed from believers ‘a their whole household.’ New believers wanted their family to be saved (Acts 18:8). In our modern times (often hostile to religion), religious families are extremely important centres of living faith. They are domestic churches in which the parents are the first heralds of faith (Vatican Council II). In the home, father, mother, and children exercise their baptismal priesthood in a privileged way. The home is the first school of the Christian life where all learn love, repeated forgiveness, and prayerful worship.

Understanding the Domestic Church

1.     The families are not only members of the Church but also as organs and communities of Christ’s Body. Hence, family becomes integral part of the Church. There is not church without families and vice versa.

2.     Domestic Church is not only to marriage but now extended it to the family which proceeds out of marriage and states: ‘It is possible to refer to the Christian family as a small church possessing in itself a sharing (communication) of the very mystery of the union of Christ with the Church.

3.     Parents are consecrated (Consecrati) to their roles. In other words, parents are consecrated or ordained to play their roles Christian parents in the family.

Family in God’s plan: A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons of equal dignity. A family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In 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.

Family and God: In the context of the family that we first learn who God is and prayerfully seek His will for us. Parents must regard their children as the children of God and respect them as human persons and educate their children to fulfil God’s law. God is the head of the family.

Parents as evangelisers: Through the grace of the Sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are first heralds for their children. The family, hence, truly becomes a holy place for the holy people to dwell. In families, members evangelize each other by way of care and love.

Family as missionary: The basic mission of a family is to bring affinity of feelings, affections and hence, nurture relationships. As a domestic church, the family is to take on the task to be transmitters of faith in their own familial situations. The baptismal and marital promise has to be fulfilled in their day to life. In baptism, the mission is to be priest, prophet and kings. In marriage, a man and a woman vows to conjugal relationship to the good of the spouses and to the procreation of children. This way, a family truly becomes missionary.

The Word of God in the Family: For most of us, the family is the place where the Word of God is first proclaimed, received, and studied. Ideally, a family must read the Bible together, for example, a short selection before the evening meal. Most often, telling the story of Jesus and Mary and the saints proclaims the word much less formally. The family is the true heralds of Good News and promoter of Gospel values.

The Sacraments in the Family: The sacrament of marriage is the foundation to the domestic church. The sacrament that joins a man and a woman in a life-long and indissoluble union that generates new life is the beginning and on-going sustaining force of the Church in the home. The domestic church brings its members to the Church for the celebration of the sacraments. Parents bring their children for baptism and religious education. The sacraments become reality when families live out these sacraments in the families. For example, when a family returns home from the celebration of the Eucharist, they are summoned to live out the self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ made present in the Mass and which they carry within themselves in virtue of Holy Communion with him.

Conclusion: Christ is the head of the mystical body, the Church. Each family constitute the organs of this mystical body, the Church. Every members of the family further constitute the organ of the Church. Families are necessary for the Church to continue to be active in the world. The Church’s foundation is built on families, and if families stay or stray from Church, both will collapse. In order for the Church to continue, families must be part of it and in order for the families to live in harmony, Church must help them to be united. Therefore, the Church and family are intertwined and cannot be separated. Without the help of the family, the task of the church becomes onerous.  Most often I tend to think, it is not only because of theologians and learned that the Church is erect but because of a few grey head persons praying rosary in the corner of the church.

The domestic church serves as the hermeneutic by which one comes to know the truth about marriage and family. One might acquire knowledge by reading or preaching about marriage and family but unless one lives this reality, one will be theoretically sound without any concrete experience.

Fr. Jerri Dias SJ