Holy Trinity and the Family

Introduction

A Christian family, modeled at the image of the Holy Trinity, must be so much cohered that whoever sees it sees unity, sees love, sees peace, sees harmony, sees stability and security.... These are some of the aspects of a family that render it attractive to the younger generation. Needless to say, backbiting and backstabbing, outbursts of anger and the desire to revenge, separation and divorce, to name but a few, render the institution of marriage unattrative to the younger generation.

Holy Trinity and the Family

St. John Paul II believed the family would play a vital role in the new evangelization. What would be a family that lives these values in an heroic way? It would be a living testimony of the Gospel of Life put in daily life. This way, the Christian family would not be a mere bystander in the Church’s evangelizing mission. We are in the midst of an eroding cultural crisis. Attempts to redefine marriage and the family are more compelling now that in the past. Yet, only a truly christian family can incarnate the true meaning of a civilization of love and the renewal of Christian culture. Will the forces against the true meaning of marriage and family lose ground in a near future? It is difficult to answer that. But every family that stands witness to the true values of a family in the mind of Jesus Christ, remains as a seed of truth sowed and awaiting its proper season.

In the Familiaris Consortio and “Letter to Families”), St. John Paul II presents the family as continuation of God’s plan in creation and salvation. He does not present abstract theological treatises. He put theology in practical terms to be effectively used for the work in the Lord’s vineyard, by the very family itself. In other words, he makes the subject of discussion (family), the subject of actions too!  

Let’s see how he makes it down-to-earth:  “The Christian family is called upon like the large-scale Church, to be a sign of unity for the world and in this way exercise its prophetic role by bearing witness to the Kingdom and peace of Christ, towards which the whole world is journeying” (FC 48). This family is not a mere receipient of the Gospel. It is the errand of the Good News.

“The primordial model of the family is to be sought in God himself, in the Trinitarian mystery of life” (LF 6). The family as a communion of persons (communio personarum) is rooted in the communio of the Godhead. We have been made participants of that communion and so the family should also make the world sharers of the communion that it is.

Conclusion

There is a trend to descend rather than transcend, reductionistic onslaught on the vision of the family. Family cannot simply be a contract based on emotional affections that most certainly are transitory. We have a choice for life that matches up our desire to live for ever, that is, the stability of marriage and hence the stability and security of the family. “The Christian family is grafted into the mystery of the Church to such a degree as to become a sharer in its own way, in the saving mission proper to the Church” (FC, 49). Pope Francis underlines in his letter to the families, "if there is no love then there is no joy, and authentic love comes to us from Jesus. He offers us his word, which illuminates our path; he gives us the Bread of life which sustains us on our journey".