Christian Role of the Family

By: Concepcion Liza V. Corotan, Ph.D

The sacramental character of Christian marriage finds its fullness when the
Christian family exercises its vocation and mission in the Church. In Familiaris
Consortio, Pope John Paul II identified the four tasks that they are called to fulfill:
(1) forming a community of persons (2) serving life (3) participating in the
development of society (4) participating in the Church’s mission of
Evangelization.1 Following the thought of Pope John Paul II, the Christian family
can do this by being the following:

a. Agent of Unity
As agent of unity, the primary task of the family is to be the seat of
communion established through the principle of mutual love between
spouses and their children. According to Pope John Paul II, as the family is
the first social community, the proper way of existing and living together is by
living in communion, the end of which is acceptance and love for each
person. The primary task then of the family is:
To live with fidelity the reality of communion in a
constant effort to develop an authentic community of
persons. The inner principle of that task, its permanent
power and its final goal is love: without love the family is
not a community of persons and in the same way, without
love the family cannot live, grow and perfect itself as a
community of persons.2

The family as a community of persons is primarily built upon the

conjugal communion of husband and wife. This unity, being covenant and a
sacrament by nature, is expected to be absolute, total, faithful and
indissoluble reflecting the love of Christ for his Spouse, the Church. 3 When
1
FC, 17

2
FC, 18.
3
FC, 21.
 spouses take and receive each other as husband and wife, the gift they are
taking and receiving is by nature lasting and irrevocable. The reciprocal-giving
of self reveals the spousal nature of love: “You do not give yourself and
afterwards take yourself back. Spousal love in its bodily and spiritual
dimension is absolute, total and faithful: I take you as my wife (as my
husband) and I promise to be true to you, for all the days of my life.” 4
As a unity of two, the husband and the wife are called to live in
communion of love and to mirror the love of the Trinity in the world.
Fatherhood and motherhood share a specific participation in the mystery of
the Trinity. Being such, the family is therefore given the task “to live, guard,
reveal and communicate love” as a living reflection of God who is love and
who is communion within the love that exists between persons. 5
Llovera explains that the manner by which the family reflects this love is
to view and treat each member of the family as a human person created
according to God’s image and destined to reach the fullness of Christ which is
the true and original image of God. Jesus Christ is the heart and center, the
beginning and end of God’s loving plan for his creation, and it is from this
perspective that the family has a significant responsibility in God’s plan. If
Christ lived, suffered, died and resurrected for the salvation of humanity, then
the family must also express this kind of love for its own members. 6
It is from this reference to God and to Christ that the family must build
its relationship as husband and wife, as parents and children, as brothers and
sisters without domination, superiority and inferiority. If everyone enjoys equal
dignity before God and has been redeemed by Christ, everyone therefore,
deserves to be loved and to be respected. Created according to the image of

4
Ibid., “Letter to Families,” 11.
5

FC, 17.
6
Antonio LLovera, “The Transmission of Faith,” Familia et Vita, (Anno XI No. 3/2006-
1/2007): 48-49.
 His creator, the human person is called to live before God as a personal
subject intended for communion with others and with God. 7
Family communion is also constructed when members of the family are
mutually open to learn from each other. By means of love, respect and
obedience towards their parents, children contributes towards the building of
communion within the family. On the other hand, by exercising their duty as
educators of their own children parents contribute to the overall well-being
and good of the family8

b. Agent of Life
As Agent of Life, the family is called to be at the service of life which
implies that the identity of marriage as communion personarum reaches its
fullness when both husband and wife dispose themselves for the transmission
of human life. The revealing sign of authentic married love is openness to life.
In marriage, the mutual self-giving of husband and wife reaches its totality
when they become “cooperators with God for giving life to a new human
person.”9

In a secularized mentality where the birth of a child is decided upon by

taking a pill, it is important to emphasize that the process of procreation is a
mutual collaboration between God and the married couple. Cafarra underlines
that “just as the origin of husband and wife community lies always in a
meeting between the enterprise of God and the marriage consent of man and
woman, in the same manner, the origin of the family lies in a meeting
between God and the married couple, between the divine act of creation and
10
the human act of procreation.”

7
Ibid., 48.
8

FC, 21.
9
Pontifical Council of the Family,The Truth about Human Sexuality, Guidelines for
Education of the Family, (Manila: Daughters of St. Paul, 1996), 15.
10

Rev. Mon. Carlo Caffara, “The Ecclesial Identity and Mission of the Family,” The Family,
Today and Tomorrow, The Church Addresses Her Future, (The Pope John Center, 1985), 7.
 In this process of procreation, the human person is not simply a fruit of
some inevitable necessity or chance, neither is he the result merely of the
impersonal, mechanical working of purely material natural laws. Male and
female sexuality is ultimately ordered for fatherhood and motherhood where
God himself is intimately present and is the source of that image and likeness
proper to the human being as it was received in creation. So when in the
universe a human being appears, someone appears who is destined for
immediate and direct communion with God. God wills this person into
existence.11

In line with the point discussed above, parents and society have the
responsibility of enabling the person to be fully human- meaning, every effort
must be made to develop the person’s capacity to live a life of “truth and love.”
12
In relation to this, it is the responsibility, therefore of parents to educate and
lead their children towards growth and development. Since parents have
conferred life on their children, they have the most solemn obligation to
educate their offspring.13 This is a task rooted in the married couples’ vocation
to participate in God’s creative activity of engendering a new person towards
the process of becoming human. It is also a mission and a ministry that they
share with the Church, the source of which is the sacrament of marriage which
calls them to the ministry of educating their children in the Christian faith. 14 By
initiating them to prayer and the sacramental life, children learn to worship
God in spirit and truth and to conduct their life in holiness according to their
nature as children of God.15

11

Ibid., Letter to Families, 9.

12
Ibid.
13
Gravissimum Educationis, Declaration on Christian Education, Vatican Council II, The
Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery,OP, (Pasay City: Daughters of St.
Paul, 1984), 3.
14
FC, 38.
15
FC, 39.
 In the education of children, it is necessary to emphasize that while
developing their intellectual capacities, the family must cultivate in their
children moral virtues as well. Parents in this case must provide the
necessary human and spiritual environment where children can acquire the
foundation of culture such as language and values, justice and religion. 16 The
family is not only the physical womb through which children are born, it is also
called to be the spiritual womb through which children nourished by love and
discipline grow towards the fullness of their humanity.
Bourg affirms that the family environment is in the best position to train
children in moral and virtuous living. It is the more personalized and intimate
relations within the family that can facilitate moral and emotional persuasion
and make in-depth role modeling easier for children to learn. Given this
condition, according to her, the family then is the primary school of virtue. 17

c. Agent for Social Development

The family being the basic unit of society plays a significant role in social
development. Being the foundation, it is from the family that people are born
and within the family that they are first humanized and
socialized by learning the basic values such as love, respect and justice.
18
These values, when lived in concrete relationships whether in the family,
business or politics, can help transform the modern process of development
towards becoming more human-centered than wealth- and materially-
centered.
Following the thought of Pope John Paul II Anderson identifies the
Trinitarian structure of communion as a theological basis for the social and

16

Pontifical Council for the Family, “The Family and Human Procreation,” Retrieved on
September 07, 2013, from http://ww.wf-f-org/doc.html.
17
Florence Bourg, Where Two or Three are Gathered, Christian Families as Domestic
Church, (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004),128.
18

FC,42.
 solidarity dimension of the family. Just as the Trinitarian God is a communion
of persons, the human person based on his nature as created according to
19
God’s image, is also called to live in communion with others. When we act
therefore in solidarity and communion with our neighbors, we make visible the
solidarity and communion that exists within the Trinitarian mystery. Man also
makes possible the building of a civilization of love which is a most necessary
fulfillment of humanity.20
In Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II cites that the fundamental
contribution of the family in the development of society is the promotion of an
authentic communion between persons within the family. By living in
communion, members learn to exercise the virtue of justice and solidarity
where not only the dignity of the human person is given importance but the
good of the whole community is promoted as well. This very experience of
communion and sharing within the family can therefore serve as a stimulus for
broader community relationships. From this perspective, families can influence
the shaping of a community order characterized by justice and solidarity. 21
Bertone, moreover, affirms that the family is able to contribute to social
development through the integral promotion of the human person being the
natural community entrusted for the education of its own members. In the
context of the family, moral and spiritual values are best learned which can be
transmitted to the larger community. Since this educative task is continuously
exercised within the family, this could be one primary contribution of the family
to social development.22
Another social value of the family is its capacity to strengthen the link
between past generations and the present. In a society that is becoming more
individualistic, the family is the privileged place for safeguarding the roots of
19
Carl A. Anderson, “Family and Solidarity,” Familia et Vita, ( 2009): .406-407.
20

Ibid., 408.
21
FC,43.
22

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, “La Familia es Escuela de Justicia y Paz,” Familia et Vita,
(2009): 461.
 cultural traditions that have been for the longest time a heritage for the society.
It is from the family that people create a memory by sharing affection, living
and forging a dream together. In a sense family provides the both the
individual and community a source of identity and history. 23
Families can also contribute to development by being agents of
economic life. They can provide both the human and professional resources
through which production of goods and services can be facilitated for the
common good of the larger society. It is also from this perspective that
families can influence the shaping of a social and ethical order by exercising
the value of work in the spirit of service and integrity. 24
Finally, other than just being objects of political action, families can also
participate in political processes by being actively involved in supporting and
positively defending the rights and duties of the family. In this way, they
become protagonists in assuming the responsibility towards the transformation
of society.25

d. Agent of Evangelization
The family in its unique role as a community of life and love also partakes
in the Church’s mission of evangelization. Being grafted into the mystery of the
Church, by virtue of the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Matrimony,
husband and wife are called in a specific way to be witnesses of the Trinitarian
love as a reflection of their conjugal love.26
The mission of the family originates from the Trinitarian love, the faithful
expression of which has been revealed in history and entrusted for the
proclamation of the Church. Sepe writes that the family is a recipient of this love
as the Church receives it from the Trinity and hands it to them.

23
Ibid., The Family and Human Procreation, 24.
24
Ibid.,Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church, 248-249.
25
Ibid., 247.
26
FC, 49.
 This loving plan of God has been entrusted to the
Church which consists of accepting, announcing and
implementing the Father’s loving plan, making the salvific
work of the Son always and everywhere present and
letting herself to be animated by the Spirit. This dynamic
love is passed on to families by the Church in such a way
that the essential missionary dimension of the Church is
carried out in
a characteristic way in the missionary dimension of the
family, which is born, educated and nourished in and by
the Christian community.27

The family expresses this mission in a very specific way as a Domestic

Church which is a privileged place for fulfilling the mission of the wider Church.
As a Domestic Church, the vocation of the husband and the wife is to be in their
conjugal and family life, a credible and significant sign of the love of God for
humanity and of Christ for the Church.
The conjugal life of Christians must correspond to the
model of the Great Covenant that has its full and
unequivocal expression in the Cross. From this it means
that their mission is that of becoming the privileged
manifestation of that Covenant established in the blood of
Christ, witnessing the Good News to all, so that in the life of
the Christian spouses, Christ continues to give glory to the
Father, calls his Church together in communion and gives
himself for all humanity.28

Vives claims that when married couples realizes their true vocation as a
sacrament of love and live it in fullness, their union reflects the unity of the Divine
Trinity and they indeed become authentic witnesses of the Gospel. In such case,
the family in itself becomes an agent for true human development and can
participate authentically in the Church’s mission of evangelization. 29

27

Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe, “The Christian Family and the Church’s Mission of
Evangelization,” Acts of the International Theological-Pastoral Congress, (Manila: Archdiocese of
Manila, 2003), 141.
28
Ibid.,140.
29
Leopoldo Vives, “La Familia Sujeto de Evangelizacion, Vivir la Caridad Conjugal en la
Verdad,” Familia et Vita, No. 1 (2010):59-68.
 By being a sign of God’s love for humanity, De Mesa explains the
missionary task of the Christian families does not only remain within the confines
of its own home, but it must be able to extend its communion with other
communities as well. The Christian family is therefore called to reach out and
build welcoming and inclusive communities. This is the manner through which
the family is able to concretize solidarity and practice hospitality. 30
Cahill affirms this inclusive dimension of the Christian family. If the family
is a school of intimacy, empathy and love, then the family as Domestic Church
practices this virtue in consideration to the least of Christ’s brethren. To be one in
the family of Christ is to welcome compassionately those who are suffering within
our reach.31 The family manifests this compassion when members feel each
other’s pain, resonate with each other’s sorrow, and strive to lighten each other’s
burdens. Learning to be empathetic with one another enables the family to reach
out with compassion to the homeless, the oppressed and the afflicted in the
wider human family.32
Finally, as Domestic Church, the Christian family reflects the contemplative
and prophetic nature of the Church. Being contemplative, the Christian family is
called to engage in dialogue with God through prayer and the celebration of the
sacraments. By being prophetic, it is challenged to advance the kingdom of God
33
by serving the cause of truth, justice and peacemaking. For example, in a
context where there is a prevailing culture of death, Pope John Paul II,
challenged families to be promoters of the culture of life. Gomez specifically
affirmed this role. He supports what John Paul II declares in Evangelium Vitae,
that the role of the family in building a culture of life is decisive and irreplaceable.
They can indeed be prophetic when in the family life in all its stages and aspects
30

Jose De Mesa, “Re-rooting Mission in the Family,” Mission Studies., Vol. XIX (200): 143.
31
Liza Cahill, Family: A Christian Social Perspective, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress,
2000), 130- 136.
32
William P. Roberts, “The Family as Domestic Church: Contemporary Implications,”
Christian Marriage and the Family, Theological and Pastoral Perspective, (Minnesota: The
Liturgical Press, 1996), 84.
33

Ibid., 85-86.
is safeguarded and protected.34 Bourg affirms that it is in this aspect that the
family has a great missionary potential being the primary community where the
process of human life begins and develops. According to her, the family can be
the key towards concretizing a consistent life-ethics both in the Church and
society. 35

34

Fausto Gomez, “Bioethics, The Christian Family and Human Life,” Acts of the
International Theological Pastoral Congress, Fourth World Meeting of Families, The Christian
Family, Good News for the Third Millenium, (Archdiocese of Manila, 2003)177-187.
35

Ibid., Where Two or Three are Gathered, 155-156.