THE VOCATION, MISSION AND SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN THE LIGHT OF THE CHURCH FAMILY OF GOD ECCLESIOLOGY
Keywords:
Miniature Church, Domestic ChurchAbstract
The human family, basic cell of the society, composed of father, mother
and children, is universally founded on marriage whose laws and
customs vary. Through sacramental bond such family becomes the
Domestic Church, the miniature church in the house. Though, this
paper focuses on the vocation and mission of the nuclear family, the
complex network of relationship and solidarity that exists among
families across generations cannot be excluded. The paper underlines
and draws attention to human deficiencies and aberrations within the
family in order to appreciate the Christian understanding of marriage
and family institutions according to the mind of the Creator. It treats
the nature and the vocation of Christian family; its foundation on the
Trinity and spells out some aspects of its mission and spirituality.
Briefly, it is a theological reflection on the revealed knowledge about
Marriage and family life in the light of the theology of the Church
Family of God.
References
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 6. (hereafter, GS).
Cf. Second Vatican Council, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 8. (Hereafter AA).
AA, 11: tamquam domesticum sanctuarium Ecclesiae – as a sanctuary of the Church at home.
Cf. Documentation Catholique, # 1704 (1976) 754-755.
John Paul II, Lettre aux familles, Paris Éditions de l’Emmanuel, 1994, nn. 2 et 3, 34-37
John Paul II, “La voie de l’homme vers l’humanité est uniquement à travers la famille,” in Synode des Évêques de 1980: La famille, Paris: Cerf, 1980, 190.
John Paul II, “La voie de l’homme vers l’humanité est uniquement à travers la famille,” 187.
Synod of Bishops, XIV Ordinary General Assembly, The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World, Instrumentum Laboris, Vatican City, 2015, 42.
Cf, Hos 2:20-25; Jer 2:2; 3:1-13; Is 54:4-8, etc. This new covenant is also illumined by nuptial comparison (cf. Mt 9:15; Jn 3:29-30; Mt 22:2-14; Rev 19:7-9; Eph 5:22-23).
Luis Alessio & Hector Munoz, O.P., Marriage and Family: The Domestic Church, New York: Society of St Paul, 1982, 31.
Sandra Mazzolini, “The Church Family of God: An Ecclesiological Perspective,” in Thomas Knieps-Port Le Roi et al., ed., The Household of God and the Local Households: Revisiting the Domestic Church, Leuven, Peeters, 2013, 59.
Luis Alessio & Hector Munoz, Marriage and Family, 48.
Sandra Mazzolini, “The Church Family of God,” 57.
Michael A. Fahey, “Fine-Tuning the Notion of ‘Domestic Church,’” in Thomas Knieps-Port Le Roi et al., ed., The Household of God and the Local Households: Revisiting the Domestic Church, Leuven, Peeters, 2013, 108.
Michael A. Fahey, “Fine-Tuning the Notion of the Domestic Church,” 108.
Sandra Mazzolini, “The Church Family of God,” 149.
M. Ouellet, Divine Likeness: Towards a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family, Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006, 106.
