The Communal Nature of Marriage and the Missionary Dimension of the Domestic Church

Antiphon 18.1 (2014) 48–68 The Communal Nature of Marriage and the Missionary Dimension of the Domestic Church Rolando Moreno The family as a domestic church has been stated countless times, recovered in the documents of the Second Vatican Council1 and proclaimed as the root of the Christian family’s ecclesial identity. Understanding the nature and role of the domestic church today is of vital importance for the work of the New Evangelization. It is impossible to deny modernity’s far-reaching impact on marriage and family life, which has resulted in the ongoing cultural confusion about the family’s true identity in Christ, as an image of God’s love in the world.2 There are powerful forces at work aimed at transforming the Christian understanding of the human person and the Christian understanding of marriage. These forces are essentially attacks that threaten the inner logic of the family itself, its nature and its anthropological foundations in the imago Dei. Hence, now more than ever, we need an adequate pastoral response in the area of marriage and family life. Thirty-three years since its release, John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio continues to offer a fresh articulation of the beauty of Christian family life, in an age of increased anthropological reductions. With prophetic wisdom, Familiaris Consortio keeps urgently calling our attention to the nature of 1 See Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964) 11. 2 In many facets of pastoral ministry today, especially in marriage preparation, one can easily witness a real disconnect between the Christian understanding of person, marriage and family; and what many couples actually believe and live as their understanding of marriage. The dominant mentalities of the culture often seem more operative in their lives, both consciously and unconsciously. 49 The Communal Nature of Marriage and the Missionary Dimension of the Domestic Church marriage and family and to the many profound challenges that families currently face. The document is John Paul II’s pastoral response to the needs of the family in the modern world. It states, The family in the modern world, as much as any other institution , has been beset by the many profound and rapids changes that have affected society and culture. Many have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life3 . Recognizing these challenges, Familiaris Consortio also provides a beautiful articulation of spousal love, united as a domestic church with its ecclesial mission to sanctify the temporal order. In light of this, a few questions emerge. How is the Christian family missionary in nature? How is this notion of domestic church a concrete reality and not merely an abstract or a romantic ideal? What concerns me here is not only the theological and anthropological foundation of the domestic church but how this theology is lived in real time and how the domestic church participates in the Church’s evangelizing mission as such. What I propose to undertake is not an exhaustive analysis of the theology of the domestic church, but rather a theological reflection on certain key areas that undergird its missionary dimension. Moreover, these issues concern me not only as one engaged in pastoral ministry, but also as a husband and a father. The Church recognizes the central role of the family in evangelization and the need to attend to its pastoral care. John Paul II states “Make every effort to ensure that there is pastoral care for the family. Attend to this field of such primary importance in the certainty that evangelization in the future depends largely on the ‘domestic Church.’”4 In light of this statement, this essay will examine three areas pertinent to the theology of the domestic church and its missionary /sacramental identity. First, we will survey the Trinitarian and Christological foundations of the domestic church. Secondly, we 3 John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation on the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981) 1. 4 John Paul II, Address to the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate (28 January 1979) IV .1...