Unit I: Fundamental Christian Dimension of the Family

* Lesson A: Family as a Social Institution * Lesson B: Family as a Domestic Church

Salvation of Christ operating in the world and the Refusal that man gives to the love of God

The situation in which the family finds itself presents positive and negative aspects

Family

The first and vital cell of society

The Creator

Who established the conjugal partnership as the beginning and basis of human society

The Family Binds People Together

• The Family is a group of people who support and love each other unconditionally. 

• Through marriage, a man and a woman who are completely independent from each other, bind themselves together and create new lives and establish their own family.

The Family is Responsible for the Upbringing of Children

• Parents are given the responsibility to take care of their children, because the future of the Church and the society depends on them. 

• Parents must be concerned as to “how they can best ensure that their children will grow up as genuine Christians and successful adults”.

The Good of the Family Redounds to the Good of the Society

• Values like kindness, generosity, honesty, etc., when practiced in every family, engender a tolerant, self-giving, fair, and just society. 

• A dysfunctional and    unhealthy family leads to a society that is also  dysfunctional and unhealthy.

It is in the Family where Children Learn to Socialize

• It is the major unit in which socialization happens and children learn the fundamental relational skills. 

• The family provides its members with social identity.

Regulation of Sexuality

1. The conjugal act, in its theological sense, is realized in a truly human way only if it is treated as an essential part of the love by which man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.

2. Extramarital sexual intercourse is unacceptable, sinful. 

3. No other forms of sexual pleasure should be allowed or accepted, but only that which is within the genuine joy of love between man and woman who are married.

Conjugal Act

 Express the mutual love and respect of husband and wife, and to deepen their intimacy.  Its end is to unite and procreate

John Paul II

Sexual Complementarity

This complementarity enables them to ‘give” themselves to one another, to “receive” one another, and to carry out responsibilities as spouses and parents. 

Pope Paul VI

In his encyclical Humanae Vitae, expounds the unitive and procreative dimension of marriage when he said, “because of its intrinsic nature, the conjugal act, while uniting husband and wife in the most intimate of bonds, also makes them fit to bring forth new life according to the laws written in their very nature as male and female.”

Responsible Procreation

1. In begetting life, husband and wife fulfill one of the highest dimensions of the Christian calling, which is to become God’s co-worker and co-creator. 

2. Responsible cooperation with God in the order of human sexuality cannot be reduced to the concept of fertility. Procreation of children cannot be ignored.

Procreation

It  is perceived as cooperation with the God of love and so must be exercised with responsibility, prudence, and unselfishness.

Parents as Co-creators with God

Parents have the responsibility to decide on the number of children they can care for as they cooperate with God in this noble task.

Socialization

The family has a crucial role in the society by being the model of love for children. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God. And make good use of freedom.

Family

the original cell of social life

Economic Cooperation

1. If a brother or a sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them ‘Go in peace, keep warm. And eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? James 2:15-16 

2. No one is so poor that he has nothing to give, and no one is so rich that he has nothing to receive. JP II, PCP II

Responsible Citizenship

It is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

Parents

They are responsible for educating their children on social concerns and encouraging them to participate in charity works and political activities.

Family

Bedrock of society

man

should be a living model of patience and kindness

husband-wife relationship

should reflect the love of Jesus for His Church

woman

 must be the refuge, comfort, and teacher that children are entitled to have

Pope Benedict XVI

He said that the love between a married couple can be fully understood in the light of the love of the crucified Christ. Deus Caritas Est, 2

Marriage

Becomes the image of the relationship of God and his people. God’s way of loving becomes the measure of human love. DCE, 11

Mutual Respect

It is a sign of true conjugal love. To put down one’s spouse is to degrade him/her as a person.

Fidelity

The greatest gift that a father could give to his children is to love and to be faithful to his wife. This may also be his way of showing respect to his wife’s dignity as a person and to the family as a whole.

Protection of the State and Society

1. The laws and institutions of the state must support and safeguard the rights and duties of the family. 

2. The state and society must defend the family and respect its identity and its autonomy as a way of fulfilling the requirements of the principle of subsidiarity.

Respect for the Sanctity of Marriage

The family must promote marriage as sacred, which is exclusive for a man and a woman as ordained by God in the story of creation.

Love for Children

Parents must show love to their children by spending quality time with them, educating them and see them mature to be good Christian so that they can carry out the mission of Christ when their turn comes to pass on the gospel to their own families.

Mutual Love

Spouses must love each other according to Christ’s pattern of love which is kind, patient, cherishing and nourishing each other.

Conjugal Love

The greatest blessing that they could have for each other. Spouses must love each other according to Christ’s pattern of love which is kind, patient, cherishing and nourishing each other.

Duck Model

1. Parents leading the way with children following their examples

2. Hierarchical

3. Parent-Control/Driven

Elephant Model

1. Kids leading the way with guidance from parents

2. Web

3. Children-Control/Driven

Roles, Authority, Decision-Making

What are the implications of this emerging parenting-style phenomenon to:

Domestic Church

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, called this as the Christian Family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial community, and for this reason.

Family

Important gift that God has endowed man and the whole of humanity.

Grace

Family is a community of

Second Vatican Council

The family is the “Ecclesia Domestica”. It is in the bosom of the family that parents are by word and example, the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children.

Marriage

It is brought into being by the lawfully manifested consent of persons who are legally capable

Consent

It is the act of the will by which a man and a woman by irrevocable covenant mutually give and accept one another for the purpose of establishing a marriage

Domestic Church

Every home is called to become a

Lordship of Christ

Family life is completely centered on

His Bride

The love of husband and wife mirrors the mystery of Christ‘s love for the church

Prophetic

1. The family must be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. 

2. They must be evangelized so they can become evangelizers of many other families in their community.

Priestly

1. Its members must actively participate in the liturgical and sacramental celebration of the church. 

2. The strength of their mission can be nourished and sustained by constant prayers to God, frequently receiving the Eucharist and observance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Kingly

1. The members of the family must become witnesses of Christ‘s love in their day-to-day life. They should be involved in the mission of the Church.

2. The love within the family should be shared with others, reaching out to those who are in need. The parents and their children must be the salt of the world and leaven in the midst of humanity.

Seat of Communion

1. The Family is the place where parents become their children’s first teachers in the faith. 

2. Children, for their part, are called to accept the commandments.

Sanctuary of Life

1. Every child deserves to be born of love. 

2. God made us instruments of his love, entrusting to us the responsibility for the future of mankind, through the transmission of human life.

Agents of Social Development

1. The overall education of children is the “Most Serious Duty” and at the same time a “Primary Right” of parents. 

2. By their reception of the Sacrament of Marriage the parents become ministers of their children’s education.

Leaven of Evangelization

1. Individuals enter upon an ecclesial experience of communion among persons. T

2. hey Learn to Care for one another and Mutual Forgiveness.

Parents

Their duties are the fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children but must extend to their moral educa­tion and their spiritual formation.

Parents

Their duties have the first responsibility for the education of their children.

primordial and inalienable

The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are

Parents

Should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones."

first heralds

They are called as ? for their children

Filial Piety

Springs from the gratitude of children towards their parents

Filial Respect

It is  shown by true docility and obedience

Children

As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents in all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family.

Obedience

It is this act that a child should to towards their parents, as it ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.