One of the characteristics of our modern society is the questioning of the vital importance of the family. The Catholic faith has never suffered from that quandary.
In his Encyclical Letter Pacem In Terris, issued in 1963, Pope St. John XXIII wrote, “The family, founded upon marriage freely contracted, one and indissoluble, must be regarded as the natural, primary cell of human society” (N. 15).
Pope St. John Paul II, in his 1981 Post Synodal Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, wrote, “The family is thus … a place of origin and the most effective means for humanizing and personalizing society: it makes an original contribution in depth to building up the world, by making possible a life that is properly speaking human, in particular by guarding and transmitting virtues and ‘values’.”
And Pope Francis has spoken of, “… the value of the family as the source and origin of the social order, as the vital cell of a fraternal society capable of caring for the common home” (Speech April 29, 2022).
As Pope St. John XXIII noted, the family is founded upon marriage that is entered into freely, and is “one and indissoluble.” This column has noted in the past the great importance of the words of the Book of Genesis, “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body” (Gn 2:24). It is God’s plan for our happiness that the family be linked to marriage between a man and a woman. That means that, even as we love all of our brothers and sisters, we must witness before them and the world that same-sex relations are not alternatives to God’s plan for the human race.
The act of the man leaving his father and mother for his wife also describes a commitment that is exclusive and cannot be broken. The permanence of the marriage commitment allows for the couple to give of themselves freely and fully to the other. And it offers assurance and protection so that the man and woman may share an intimacy of body and soul that tends toward the creation of new life.
The family also offers the ideal context for the transmission of faith as well as human values. Children naturally look to their parents for a model of how to grow and to get along in this world at the various stages of life. For this reason, it is no secret that, although not without exception, the faith values of parents have a strong influence on their children. That is why in our Catholic schools and religious education programs, faith instruction is most effective when parents reinforce at home the values taught in those programs.
In Christian marriage, the husband and wife are called to respect each other and to see in the whole their marital union as a sacred call to self-giving. Self-discipline and communication allow their love to deepen. They learn the need for constant and sincere mutual forgiveness, so that any sorrows or bitterness may not linger and so undermine the family.
By God’s plan, Jesus Himself had a human family. He shared in the love of Joseph and Mary. And in His humanity He learned from them. The Holy Family should be a guide for us.
We are soon to enter into the holiday season. Each year, Thanksgiving and Christmas are special times of family gatherings. Most especially, children are formed in the appreciation and love of family on these occasions. Young people need to be taught and shown by example the God-given value and wisdom of marriage and family. For all of us, that can be a great spiritual fruit of the coming holiday season.
