House

If the Lord Does not Build the House... Fr Thomas Kozhimala

The concept of the family is held in high esteem in all the cultures of the human race. The equilibrium of any culture is chiefly dependent on the sacred structure of the family. That is why the family is said to be the basic factor of any society. The family is the furnace where the gold of the human individuality is melted and moulded. The sinner aswell as the saint is born into the family. It is in the family that he receives the necessary formation. The family is the environment where he grows. In short, it is the place where he makes a choice of either life or death. It is from the family atmosphere that the traditions that influence one's personality development and motivation are obtained.

The second Vatican Council describes the family as a domestic church. Without Christ there is no Church. If it is Jesus Christ who founded the Church and guides it, it must be Christ who establishes the family and guides it. The Church is the community of those who believe, those who share. The parents have a priestly function to fulfil in regard to the family. Christian couples should have the firm conviction that it is God who has given them their life-partners, that those partners are God's gifts, and are, at the same time, crosses that should be accepted and borne just as Jesus offered himself to his spouse, the Church, accepted her faults and imperfections and purified her. Thus it is only love rooted in pain that will sustain a family.

Only those individuals who can discern the divine plan will be able to mould the Christian family in its unique purity and give it its proper identity. The golden thread that binds the Christian family together is God himself. The family will have stability only if it is transformed into a temple wherein God dwells. If the foundation of the family should not be shaken, when the good loses its radiance to the allurements of evil, when worldly desires lead the innocent heart astray (cf Wis 4:12), the parents who are the priests of the family, must establish Jesus as the Lord and Master of the family.

Teach, lead, sanctify
These are the duties of the priestly office-to teach, lead and sanctify. To teach, the priests should have the word of God constantly on their lips. The children should be able to approach the parents in search of the word of God. The first lessons should be given through the Scriptures. "Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise"(Deut 6:6-7). When the parents sanctify themselves through the word that is spirit and life (cf Jn 6:63), the Lord will work wonders in the family. (cf Josh 3:5). Sanctification takes place through the word and the purification one's personal life. Parents have a duty to sanctify themselves for the sake of the sanctification of their children(cf Jn 17:19). The family will not become a temple of God without this sanctification (cf Heb 12:14). Just as Lord the God is holy, the parents in the family should also be holy (cf Lev 19:1). When the parents, who are the priests of the family, teach their children, train them to be holy and lead them to the presence of God, the children will come to know the only true God, the Father, his Son Jesus and become heirs of eternal life (cf Jn 10:10). God wishes that the family should be stable. "Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God" (Deut 12:28).

In the temple of the family the Lord pours the love of the Holy Spirit into the body and blood of the husband and wife on the altar of conjugal life. (cf Rom 5:5). The fruits of this outpouring are the children who flourish like olive branches (cf Ps 128:3). God's love envelops that family (Ps 32:10). When the Lord builds the house, the family becomes a temple of God. Then parents become priests of the Lord, teaching, guiding and sanctifying their children and offering expiation for their sins.