Breathing Catholic Air
by Leon J. Suprenant, Jr.

I sometimes wonder how well the Catholic faith is getting through to my kids. The success of our family Rosary is typically measured by how well the children behave rather than by the quality of the meditations. Our six-year-old has the uncanny ability to forget everything she ever learned—catechetical or otherwise—at the drop of a hat (fortunately, most of it comes back within a week). Approximately 10-15 minutes after one of my inspirational lessons on the importance of sharing and loving your sisters, one of my daughters will come crying to me because her sister pushed her or grabbed one of her toys. Sometime before the Gloria, our four-year-old will ask when the Mass is going to be over and, when she discovers to her dismay that we’re there for the long haul, she will seemingly on cue need to go to the restroom. Our conversations at the dinner table or elsewhere can be very affirming, but at other times are raucous and argumentative. The list goes on.

In my better moments, I look for God in the midst of the apparent chaos of family life and ask Him to bless our good intentions and our desire to serve Him. I trust that despite our family’s shortcomings—sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic—my wife Maureen and I are able to create an environment for ourselves, our children, and all who enter our home that is conducive to the Christian life.

The mystery of the Church is not merely an abstract or theological concept, but a flesh and blood reality. It is the mystery of God’s grace triumphing over human weakness and sin. This divine-human drama of epic proportions is played out each day in the very ordinary lives of Christian families.

Domestic Church

As I tuck my daughters into bed at night, I sprinkle—or, on more challenging days, douse—them with holy water as I ask each of them, “Whose child are you?” They respond in unison, “God’s.” Through Baptism we truly are reborn as God’s children. As such, “the Church is nothing other than the ‘Family of God’” (Catechism, no. 1655).

Just as the Church in a true sense is a family, the Christian family is truly a Church in miniature—an eminently practical flesh-and-blood means of salvation for its members. Vatican II and Pope John Paul II have emphasized the family’s role as a “domestic Church” as an integral part of the Church’s vision for the renewal of our society.

The Holy Family, the sanctuary of love where Jesus spent His hidden years, is the example par excellence for all Christian families. The Holy Family was not only a domestic Church but also, in embryonic form, the Universal Church, the Family of God, containing both Christ the Head as well as the mother of the “Body”—all who would come to believe in Christ. For this reason, St. Joseph, husband of Mary and guardian of the Redeemer, is called the patron of the Universal Church.

But now that the Body of Christ has millions of members who are on their pilgrimage to the Father, we can’t lose sight of the value of healthy families—the basic fibers or “cells” of society. The widespread breakdown of families is nothing less than a cancer that harms the well-being of the whole Church (cf. 1 Cor. 12:26). In this issue devoted to Christian marriage and family life, we’re going to examine how the family can be a healthy cell of a Church and thereby foster her growth and vitality in the world. In doing so, it may be helpful to understand that while the family as the domestic Church may be a cell, the family’s “DNA” is the human person, created in God’s image, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and called to unity in the Holy Spirit. As we know from experience, the family is not made up of angels, but of ordinary persons called to an extraordinary destiny.

Kingdom of Priests

Vatican II also emphasized the priesthood of the laity. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, all of us are privileged to participate in the one priesthood of Christ (cf. Catechism, nos. 1268; 1546-47). Of course, Vatican II didn’t “invent” this teaching, rooted as it is in Sacred Scripture. Perhaps the most frequently cited passage in this regard is 1 Peter 2:5, in which the first Pope refers to God’s people as a “holy priesthood,” called “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

How, then, are the laity “priests”? After all, isn’t laity defined as those who aren’t clergy? And even if we are in some sense priests, how does that affect family life?

First, Vatican II, in its profound and positive teaching on the role of the laity, was nonetheless careful to distinguish between the ministerial priesthood (clergy) and the common priesthood of all the faithful (laity). Both priesthoods share in the one priesthood of Christ, but only the ministerial priesthood confers an office of offering sacrifice on behalf of the believing community (i.e., the Church) in the person of Christ.

CUF founder H. Lyman Stebbins explained the difference this way: If I discover a fire near some wooden buildings and extinguish it, as a good citizen should do, that doesn’t make me a fireman. Similarly, if I’m able to apprehend a mugger in the subway, that doesn’t make me a policeman. And so, while we all have the “common” priestly function of offering sacrifice, glorifying God, and loving our neighbor, only those whom the Lord has called to the ordained priesthood fill the office on behalf of the entire community.

A priest in a sense is the opposite of a prophet. A prophet mediates God’s Word to the people. A priest, on the other hand, offers sacrifice to God. We often hear the expression in Catholic circles to “offer it up.” Any aspect of our life that we unite with Christ’s sacrifice is a pleasing offering to Our Heavenly Father. St. Paul teaches us to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). The Morning Offering, with which my family begins its day, begins, “O Jesus . . . I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day. . . .” Whenever our daughters hurt themselves, we have them pray, “All for you, Jesus.” An offering or sacrifice of this nature is nothing if not a priestly act of worship.

Family members exercise their priesthood in a variety of ways, such as through prayer, reception of sacraments, and acts of charity (cf. Catechism, no. 1657). Through the daily realities of married and family life, the Christian family is, in the words of Pope John Paul II, “called to be sanctified and to sanctify the [Church] and the world.”

Pastors of Souls

While all family members participate through Baptism in the priesthood of Christ, this is especially true of Christian spouses. Their mutual, self-giving love images the spousal love of Christ the High Priest and His bride, the Church (cf. Eph. 5:32). In giving of themselves to each other and to their family out of love for Christ, their home becomes a school of love and an oasis of hope to the world.

While the Pope is the Vicar (or representative) of Christ for the Universal Church and the bishop is vicar of Christ in his diocese (cf. Catechism, no. 894), Christian parents are “vicars” of Christ in the family, the domestic Church. Pope Pius XI highlighted this traditional understanding in his famous 1930 encyclical on Christian Marriage (Casti Connubii): “Parents . . . should be careful to make right use of the authority given them by God, whose vicars in a true sense they are.”

As “pastors” of their domestic Church, parents have the primary responsibility for nurturing the mustard seed of faith that was given to their children. The goal, as simply stated in the Baltimore Catechism, is for the children to know, love, and serve God in this life and be happy with Him for all eternity.

As the “first heralds” of the faith, parents help their children to know God not merely by talking about Jesus, but showing them Jesus and introducing them in age-appropriate ways to prayer and to the riches of the Church.

As for love, I have a poster overlooking our kitchen table that has Deuteronomy 6:4-7 written on it (“love the Lord your God . . .”). This daily reminder as we eat breakfast is a good thing, but even more important is a love of God and neighbor that is tangible. It must be experienced and breathed. If the parents don’t manifest this love, the concept won’t seem real to the children.

Also in the bosom of the family, the child learns that “to serve is to reign.” All the baptized are called to serve the Lord according to their state in life. Rather than be closed in on itself, the family must be a school of virtues, where the children learn the value of fraternal charity, generosity, and self-sacrifice, so that as adults they will accept with joy and holy zeal the specific vocation Our Lord has in store for them.

The Catechism says that a “wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith” (no. 2225). We can’t always discern, let alone measure, the progress of these “interior dispositions” in our children. Yet, if we’re faithful to our vocations as spouses and parents in the domestic Church, we’ve done our part, and the rest is entrusted to our merciful Father’s providence and timing.

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