39. Family Participation in the Life and Mission of the Church
Part V: The Christian Family in the Mystery of the Church
Family Participation in the Life and Mission of the Church
72. Ecclesiastical Identity of the Christian Family
Christian spouses, by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, are the sign of the mystery of unity and fruitful love between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:21–33). Thus, the ecclesial status of marriage (and of the family) is based on a sacrament. The Christian family is, in its proper way, the image and figure of the Church.
As in any other sacrament, the purpose of Christian marriage is to sanctify people, build up the body of Christ, and give worship to God. Christian spouses and parents are included in the universal call to sanctity. This call is carried out concretely in the realities that are proper to their conjugal and family life. This requires from them an authentic and profound conjugal and family spirituality. As worshippers leading holy lives in every place, they consecrate the world itself to God.
The family is not only a symbol of the Church but also a realization of her; it builds the Church here on earth by being part of her life and mission. Thus, the family can be seen as a miniature Church (Ecclesia domestica), because it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church.1 The spouses participate in this mystery by helping one another to attain holiness in their conjugal life and in the acceptance and education of the children.
73. The Family, Participant of the Mission of the Church
Among the fundamental tasks of the Christian family is its ecclesial task: The family is placed at the service of the building up of the Kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church.2
We should distinguish, however, between the mission of the hierarchy and the mission of the laity; these are two specific ways of participating in the total mission of the Church, the people of God.
The apostolic mission that is proper to the family—stemming from the universal call to holiness—is a true ecclesial activity, a real participation in the apostolate of the Church. It is not a participation of married people in the ecclesiastical activities of the hierarchy. To reduce the apostolate of the Christian family to such participation would be an impoverishment of the doctrine.3
74. The Ecclesial Mission that is Proper to the Family
The Christian family fulfills its proper mission by building up the Church through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. Family members share the same apostolic zeal, and are committed to works of service.
The family has a specific and original ecclesial role: The Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific by placing itself in what it is and what it does as an “intimate community of life and love” at the service of the Church and of society.
Since the Christian family is a community in which the relationships are renewed by Christ through faith and the sacraments, the family’s sharing in the Church’s mission should follow a community pattern: The spouses together as a couple, the parents and children as a family, must live their service to the Church and to the world. They must be “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32) in faith, through the shared apostolic zeal that animates them and through their shared commitment to works of service in the ecclesial and civil communities.
The Christian family also builds up the kingdom of God in history through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. It is thus in the love between husband and wife and between the members of the family—a love lived out in all its extraordinary richness of values and demands: totality, oneness, fidelity and fruitfulness—that the Christian family’s participation in the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of Jesus Christ and of his Church finds expression and realization. Therefore, love and life constitute the nucleus of the saving mission of the Christian family in the Church and for the Church.4
74a) The Supernatural Calling to Sanctity and Apostolate
Christian couples are to be consistent with their faith by the testimony of their lives. All are called to sanctity. This calling is not essentially different from the vocation of all persons to the faith of Christ, since sanctity is but the development and fruit of the seed of faith planted in our soul by Baptism.
What, then, are the specific demands of sanctity for married people? They should lend themselves to God’s service by giving themselves reciprocally, one to the other, for the purpose of mutual perfection and the procreation and education of children. The Church sees Christian marriage as a supernatural vocation to holiness, and for this reason, also as the principle of a specific apostolic mission.5 Everyone in the family should seek sanctity and help others get closer to Christ; in doing so, they share in the threefold ministry of Jesus Christ.
75. The Prophetic, Priestly, and Royal Ministry of Jesus Christ
The Christian family participates according to its specific mode in the prophetic, priestly, and pastoral (or royal) ministry—the three munera—of Jesus Christ and the Church.
Having laid the foundation of the participation of the Christian family in the Church’s mission, it is now time to illustrate its substance in reference to Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest and King—three aspects of a single reality—by presenting the Christian family as 1) a believing and evangelizing community, 2) a community in dialogue with God, and 3) a community at the service of man.6
76. The Family Home, Place and Means of Sanctification (Priestly Role)
The Christian family has a priestly role that can and ought to be exercised in intimate communion with the whole Church through the daily realities of married and family life. In this way, the Christian family is called to be sanctified and to sanctify the ecclesial community and the world.
The Church has a sanctuary in the home. The Christian family is a community in dialogue with God and has a priestly role:
· Marriage becomes a sacrament of mutual sanctification and an act of worship. The Church teaches that this sanctification is carried out concretely in the realities that are proper to their conjugal and family life.
· The Christian family’s sanctifying role is based in Baptism and has its highest expression in the Eucharist.
· The Sacrament of Conversion and Reconciliation is an essential part of the Christian family’s sanctifying role, which consists in accepting the call to conversion.
· In addition to the sacraments, family prayer achieves the transformation of the daily lives of family members into spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It is prayer offered in common, husband and wife together, parents and children together.
Apart from morning and evening prayers, certain forms of prayer are encouraged, such as reading and meditating on the word of God, preparation for the reception of the sacraments, devotion and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and various forms of veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among these should be mentioned the recitation of the rosary, grace before and after meals, and observance of some popular devotions.7
77. The Christian Family as a Believing and Evangelizing Community (Prophetic Role)
A Christian family is a believing and evangelizing community. The family appears as a prophetic community when it becomes a school of sanctity for each of its members and irradiates that same universal calling to sanctity onto the others.
Faith that is lived in love makes the Christian family a fire that sheds its light on many other families. Thus, a Christian family teaches with the words of its members, and with the testimony of their lives. This apostolic mission of the family flows from what the family itself is; it is exercised through fidelity to its own proper being as a community of life and love. This apostolic mission of the family is rooted in Baptism and receives from the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage new strength to transmit the faith, to sanctify and transform our present society according to God’s plan. The apostolate of the family has two dimensions:
i) It is exercised among its own members.
ii) It makes Christian married couples and parents witnesses of Christ “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).8
78. At the Service of Mankind (Pastoral Mission)
The family exercises its pastoral (or kingly) task by putting itself at the service of human beings, as Christ did, and as he asks his disciples to do. This service pertains to the laity in a specific way: Lay people serve mankind by sanctifying the temporal structures, so that these might be delivered out of their slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (cf. Rom. 8:21). Lay people serve the Church by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. Thus, the family makes the Church present and fruitful in a wide circle of places and circumstances.
Love goes beyond our brothers and sisters of the same faith. In each individual—especially in the poor, the weak, and those who suffer or are unjustly treated—loves knows how to discover the face of Christ, and discover a fellow human being to be loved and served.
While building up the Church in love, with a sense of justice and concern for others, the Christian family places itself at the service of the human person and the world, bringing about real human advancement.9
Footnotes:
1. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 49.
2. Cf. Ibid., 49.
3. Cf. Ibid., 34.
4. Ibid., 50; cf. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae, 9.
5. Cf. GS, 52.
6. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 50; cf. CCC, 897–913.
7. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 55–59; LG, 10, 41.
8. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 52–54.
Family Participation in the Life and Mission of the Church
72. Ecclesiastical Identity of the Christian Family
Christian spouses, by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, are the sign of the mystery of unity and fruitful love between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:21–33). Thus, the ecclesial status of marriage (and of the family) is based on a sacrament. The Christian family is, in its proper way, the image and figure of the Church.
As in any other sacrament, the purpose of Christian marriage is to sanctify people, build up the body of Christ, and give worship to God. Christian spouses and parents are included in the universal call to sanctity. This call is carried out concretely in the realities that are proper to their conjugal and family life. This requires from them an authentic and profound conjugal and family spirituality. As worshippers leading holy lives in every place, they consecrate the world itself to God.
The family is not only a symbol of the Church but also a realization of her; it builds the Church here on earth by being part of her life and mission. Thus, the family can be seen as a miniature Church (Ecclesia domestica), because it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church.1 The spouses participate in this mystery by helping one another to attain holiness in their conjugal life and in the acceptance and education of the children.
73. The Family, Participant of the Mission of the Church
Among the fundamental tasks of the Christian family is its ecclesial task: The family is placed at the service of the building up of the Kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church.2
We should distinguish, however, between the mission of the hierarchy and the mission of the laity; these are two specific ways of participating in the total mission of the Church, the people of God.
The apostolic mission that is proper to the family—stemming from the universal call to holiness—is a true ecclesial activity, a real participation in the apostolate of the Church. It is not a participation of married people in the ecclesiastical activities of the hierarchy. To reduce the apostolate of the Christian family to such participation would be an impoverishment of the doctrine.3
74. The Ecclesial Mission that is Proper to the Family
The Christian family fulfills its proper mission by building up the Church through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. Family members share the same apostolic zeal, and are committed to works of service.
The family has a specific and original ecclesial role: The Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific by placing itself in what it is and what it does as an “intimate community of life and love” at the service of the Church and of society.
Since the Christian family is a community in which the relationships are renewed by Christ through faith and the sacraments, the family’s sharing in the Church’s mission should follow a community pattern: The spouses together as a couple, the parents and children as a family, must live their service to the Church and to the world. They must be “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32) in faith, through the shared apostolic zeal that animates them and through their shared commitment to works of service in the ecclesial and civil communities.
The Christian family also builds up the kingdom of God in history through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. It is thus in the love between husband and wife and between the members of the family—a love lived out in all its extraordinary richness of values and demands: totality, oneness, fidelity and fruitfulness—that the Christian family’s participation in the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of Jesus Christ and of his Church finds expression and realization. Therefore, love and life constitute the nucleus of the saving mission of the Christian family in the Church and for the Church.4
74a) The Supernatural Calling to Sanctity and Apostolate
Christian couples are to be consistent with their faith by the testimony of their lives. All are called to sanctity. This calling is not essentially different from the vocation of all persons to the faith of Christ, since sanctity is but the development and fruit of the seed of faith planted in our soul by Baptism.
What, then, are the specific demands of sanctity for married people? They should lend themselves to God’s service by giving themselves reciprocally, one to the other, for the purpose of mutual perfection and the procreation and education of children. The Church sees Christian marriage as a supernatural vocation to holiness, and for this reason, also as the principle of a specific apostolic mission.5 Everyone in the family should seek sanctity and help others get closer to Christ; in doing so, they share in the threefold ministry of Jesus Christ.
75. The Prophetic, Priestly, and Royal Ministry of Jesus Christ
The Christian family participates according to its specific mode in the prophetic, priestly, and pastoral (or royal) ministry—the three munera—of Jesus Christ and the Church.
Having laid the foundation of the participation of the Christian family in the Church’s mission, it is now time to illustrate its substance in reference to Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest and King—three aspects of a single reality—by presenting the Christian family as 1) a believing and evangelizing community, 2) a community in dialogue with God, and 3) a community at the service of man.6
76. The Family Home, Place and Means of Sanctification (Priestly Role)
The Christian family has a priestly role that can and ought to be exercised in intimate communion with the whole Church through the daily realities of married and family life. In this way, the Christian family is called to be sanctified and to sanctify the ecclesial community and the world.
The Church has a sanctuary in the home. The Christian family is a community in dialogue with God and has a priestly role:
· Marriage becomes a sacrament of mutual sanctification and an act of worship. The Church teaches that this sanctification is carried out concretely in the realities that are proper to their conjugal and family life.
· The Christian family’s sanctifying role is based in Baptism and has its highest expression in the Eucharist.
· The Sacrament of Conversion and Reconciliation is an essential part of the Christian family’s sanctifying role, which consists in accepting the call to conversion.
· In addition to the sacraments, family prayer achieves the transformation of the daily lives of family members into spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It is prayer offered in common, husband and wife together, parents and children together.
Apart from morning and evening prayers, certain forms of prayer are encouraged, such as reading and meditating on the word of God, preparation for the reception of the sacraments, devotion and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and various forms of veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among these should be mentioned the recitation of the rosary, grace before and after meals, and observance of some popular devotions.7
77. The Christian Family as a Believing and Evangelizing Community (Prophetic Role)
A Christian family is a believing and evangelizing community. The family appears as a prophetic community when it becomes a school of sanctity for each of its members and irradiates that same universal calling to sanctity onto the others.
Faith that is lived in love makes the Christian family a fire that sheds its light on many other families. Thus, a Christian family teaches with the words of its members, and with the testimony of their lives. This apostolic mission of the family flows from what the family itself is; it is exercised through fidelity to its own proper being as a community of life and love. This apostolic mission of the family is rooted in Baptism and receives from the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage new strength to transmit the faith, to sanctify and transform our present society according to God’s plan. The apostolate of the family has two dimensions:
i) It is exercised among its own members.
ii) It makes Christian married couples and parents witnesses of Christ “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).8
78. At the Service of Mankind (Pastoral Mission)
The family exercises its pastoral (or kingly) task by putting itself at the service of human beings, as Christ did, and as he asks his disciples to do. This service pertains to the laity in a specific way: Lay people serve mankind by sanctifying the temporal structures, so that these might be delivered out of their slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (cf. Rom. 8:21). Lay people serve the Church by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. Thus, the family makes the Church present and fruitful in a wide circle of places and circumstances.
Love goes beyond our brothers and sisters of the same faith. In each individual—especially in the poor, the weak, and those who suffer or are unjustly treated—loves knows how to discover the face of Christ, and discover a fellow human being to be loved and served.
While building up the Church in love, with a sense of justice and concern for others, the Christian family places itself at the service of the human person and the world, bringing about real human advancement.9
Footnotes:
1. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 49.
2. Cf. Ibid., 49.
3. Cf. Ibid., 34.
4. Ibid., 50; cf. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae, 9.
5. Cf. GS, 52.
6. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 50; cf. CCC, 897–913.
7. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 55–59; LG, 10, 41.
8. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 52–54.