Because the family is at the very heart of God’s plan of salvation, and it always has been, going all the way back to the Garden. In fact, Pope St. John Paul II even likened God to a family: “God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love." God more than anyone knows the importance of families, which is why He Himself created the family, and why He, in the fullness of time, chose to bring salvation to the world through the family. Just as all of us came through one family, our first parents, so to does the promise of salvation, with it the hope and promise to again be part of one family, the family of God.  God promised salvation, this promised seed of the woman, would come through the families of Abraham, Judah, Jesse, and King David, which was fulfilled when the Almighty God of the Universe became a helpless baby, born into a human family in Bethlehem. It was Joseph and Mary who cared for and provided for this feeble child, who taught Jesus about faith, and showed Him what self-sacrificial love looked like. And Jesus in turn taught us the role of the family in His plan of salvation: that we are invited to pass from the human family into the family of God. For by His sacrifice at Calvary, all who do the will of God are called to be a part of His family, with God as our Father (Matthew 6:9; Romans 8:15), Mary as our mother (John 19:27), and Jesus as our brother (Luke 8:21). And how do receive this divine adoption into the Holy Family of God-by not only hearing the word of God, but by doing it (Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21; Matthew 12:50).

       So in this divine pun, God promised the establishment of the Catholic Church by Christ, which Church, would be both a kingdom and a family, and would last forever. We become part of this household of God by our baptism, wherein we gain admittance into the Kingdom of God and become part of the divine and human family of Christ. But we also have to ensure our own household, our domestic churches, are obedient, faithful, merciful and loving, so that we can and will inherit this great gift of salvation. For we brought these souls into the world, and we are responsible for getting them back to God, by laying the foundations of their faith, by word, but also by being living examples of Christian mercy, charity and joy.

      How you may ask do we know that God was referring to the Catholic Church as this everlasting kingdom, this House of God? Well aside from the fact that only the Catholic Church passes this “everlasting” test, as it is by far the longest running institution in the world, nearly 2000 years and counting, the fact that Jesus, in establishing this household of God, also used word play in declaring: “Thou art Peter (the Rock), and upon this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18) And also, that the Catholic Church is the House of God by virtue of the fact that Christ Himself, is truly present and lives in every tabernacle of every catholic Church, as a prisoner of love waiting for us, His family to come and spend time with Him, fulfilling Psalm 23 and 27 which says “I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” 

I. Restoration Of The Family

What's So Important About The Family?

      So too do we as parents need to teach our own children this same obedience, instructing them by word and deed to hear and do the will of God in their lives, so that they too can be not only a part of our families, but also God’s family as well. And if they don’t, or if we can’t, Jesus tells us not even to let our own human families come between us and the family of God (Matthew 10;34; Luke 12:51), though we must never cease praying for them, as did St. Monica for St. Augustine. God created the family to be holy schools of care, obedience, love, and prayer, where the miracle of life is created and nurtured, so that the Son of God would Himself pass through the family, elevating its nature, and enabling us to become members of God’s family.  He entered the human family, and elevated our nature, so that we then could enter the family of God, the divine/human family which exists on earth in the Catholic Church.

God chose to reveal Himself to Abraham, making the family of Abraham the chosen people. These descendants of Abraham, these twelve tribes of Israel, were to have been the model and light to the nations, converting the world through the love and fidelity of the family of Abraham, in times as difficult and antagonistic to the faith as our own. God promised that this family would become a great kingdom, which it did under King David, whose greatest desire was to build a house for God. God, however, responded in an unexpected way to this offer of the king, even using wordplay, revealing not only the coming of Christ, but the charge and mission of His Church, domestic and universal. God essentially said (in 2 Samuel 7:13), Oh, you want to build me a house (church), well I’m gonna make your house (family) and everlasting kingdom, and your descendant (Jesus) will build a house for Me, which house (church) will last forever. 

“

The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission”

-Pope St. John Paul II

       God created the family and calls us today to again be the primary place where love, faith and knowledge of God is transmitted and treasured, so that we can become the countercultural witnesses of faith and shining examples of goodness, to transform the culture, rather than be transformed by it. This is why Jesus created the Church so that we could be part of His family and be the visible beacon to the world that has continuously shone forth in the darkness for nearly 2000 years. It is where His work of redemption is carried out in the world, through the Catholic Church, a family of families, who is to know, love, support and care for each other, strengthening this family of God on earth, so that one day we may be united with God in heaven. Saint John Paul II stated “The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission”. Let us pray that we will not fail in this our primary mission.