Some of the most beautiful paintings and other artistic creations have the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as their inspiration. There’s good reason for this: the Holy Family is truly the exemplar of what family life is about, and is a model for us in our families today.
It seems like family life is becoming less and less prominent in our culture today. Rampant divorce, children out-of-wedlock, contraception and abortion, changing definitions of marriage, and more seem almost diabolical in their attacks on family life and what it means to be a family. It would be good, then, to look at what the Church has traditionally taught about marriage and family life.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #2201, we are given two purposes for marriage and family: 1) “the good of the spouses”; 2) “procreation and education of children”. In addition, paragraph #2204 calls the family “a domestic church”.
This means that first and foremost, marriage and family life is pointed towards salvation. The love between a husband and wife must be oriented in a way that leads the spouses into deeper relationship with each other while mutually guiding towards heaven together. This love must be self-giving between the spouses, and not selfish. A married couple I knew long before seminary were fond of saying, “Marriage is not 50/50, but 100/100.” Each person who is married should desire that their spouse accompany them into the Kingdom of Heaven, and live their lives seeking the fulfillment of that desire.
The second purpose of marriage is more than a little controversial today. Children are not seen as an essential element arising from marriage and special gifts from God. Instead, they are seen as a perk to be demanded if wanted, or burden if not desired. As Christians, we recognize, as the Church does, that marriage exists especially for raising, educating, and protecting children. Culturally, marriage exists for the nurturing and development of the next generation.
This leads into the concept of the family as a “domestic church”. In the same way that the Catholic Church exists to guide and educate all of us members in the way of salvation, spouses are tasked with guiding and educating the members of their family – including themselves – how to live the Faith in their daily lives. This task is so important that the Church clearly calls parents the first and most important educators in their children’s Faith.
With all the concerns and challenges regarding marriage and family life in our culture today, we as Christians need to be more conscious of living family life to its fullest. Families are the most important structure within both our country and the Church, so we need families to live that faith with boldness!
