Original scientific paper

The Ecclesial Face of the Family

Anton Tamarut ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

In the work of evangelisation and in building up of the Kingdom of God in history, the Church and the family depend on each other. The Church needs the family as much as the family needs the Church. In author’s opinion, in order to strengthen the mutual help and support for which the Church and the family need each other and to make these more evident and efficient, their inner, sacramental, and spiritual relatedness and mutual belongingness need to be pointed out more clearly. This inner spiritual and sacramental connection is not only the basis of the possibility, but also of the obligation of mutual help and responsibility. In other words, these two realities (the Church and the family) reside in one unique spiritual and sacramental space, i.e. the Church is made of families based on the sacrament of marriage and these families that are mutually related through one faith and one baptism constitute the Church. The Church is »the house of God« (1 Pt 2:5; 4:17; 1 Tim 3:15; Heb 10:21); the great »family of God« lives in it. This great, universal family is made of many smaller families, which were often called domestic Churches (Ecclesia domestica) in the Church antiquity. One might say that since the very beginnings of Christianity, the family had the ecclesial face as much as the Church had the familiar face.The Christian family is the primary and natural place in which all three missions of the Church are lived: testimonial proclamation of the Word of God, celebration of the Triune God through common prayer and home liturgy, and service in love. For each of these missions, the universal and the domestic Church is equipped with the three-fold office through which they participate in Christ’s mission and dignity of the prophet, priest, and king. This office is primarily performed by spouses towards each other, followed by their common performance as parents and their individual performance as the father and the mother of their children. The children, on the other hand, are not only users of these offices, but are, in accordance with their physical and spiritual maturity, called to perform the same office of the prophet, priest, and king for their parents and siblings. In that regard, the family is an exemplary locus of mutuality and communion in service, an atmosphere in which not only the Christian but also the ecclesial life is being realised.

Keywords

family; Church; domestic Church; sacrament of marriage; proclamation; celebration; service

Hrčak ID:

133989

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/133989

Publication date:

6.2.2015.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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