A Theology of the Family: The Home as a Missionary Outpost

The pandemic has presented both an opportunity and a challenge for evangelization within marriage and family life at the parish level. During 2020 many church parishes were closed and homes became, for a short time, the place where families prayed and sacrificed together. Families spent more time together and sacrificed more than ever before. Will any of this impact our love and understanding of the “church of the home” or the “Domestic Church”?

Through our apostolate, Witness to Love, we see that this is a time for a hopeful investment in the future of our Catholic Church. We have seen the immense impact that a family can have as a leaven, when they understand that their home is a “missionary outpost” of the local church. The beauty of a parish fully alive with families is breathtaking, but the work that it takes to open the door for the Holy Spirit requires all of us. God is calling us to step into the gap for the future of marriage, the family and our Church.

We are in “The Year of the Family” and our Holy Father has asked us to reflect on the joy and the witness of the family. This excerpt  from the USCCB’s “Year of Amoris Laetitia” vividly captures the powerful role spouses and family play in building the Church:

“The sacrament of marriage is a gift received, but also contributed to by the spouses who offer the gift of themselves to each other, and their union to God. Their formation in this dynamic structure of mutual self-gift is life long as they accompany one another, their families, and the Church in the family’s pilgrimage to the Father’s house. 

Within this continuum marriage, and the community it gives rise to– the family, is truly a house of formation: founded upon the sacrament of baptism and the consent of the spouses, nourished by the Eucharist and communal prayer, and reaching out in familial charity. From the very beginning it is in the family that children engage their vocation to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ. Responding to the Holy Spirit’s universal call to holiness they begin their journey of responding to the call to a particular vocation within the family.” (Walking with Families during the Year of Amoris Letitiea, USCCB)

How do we prepare our families for their glorious vocation to accompany one another on their journey to the Father’s house? We need to support all parents in their vocation to raise their children to be saints, and we need relational evangelization in marriage preparation and formation. What is needed is a new model: one of accompaniment and mentoring. A model whereby one couple will walk with another couple, centered in the Eucharist, in order to bear witness to marital love, proclaim the joy of the Gospel in word and deed, and begin to experience life-giving community.

Pope Francis continues to stress the importance of ministering to your community and reflecting upon what you have to offer even if it is not perfect. So often, as individuals and as a Church, we think that only the perfectly polished have anything to offer. Our favorite paragraph of the official Catechesis for the World Meeting of Families — Love Is Our Mission — affirms that we all have a mission to witness to the love of Christ:

“This mission is not reserved for the few or for the extraordinary. Nor does it mean that families somehow have to stop being themselves or seek after some impossible perfection in order to witness to the Gospel. The Christian family is called to deepen, reflect upon, and witness to the love and life that are already basic to being a family.”

There is no better way to encounter Christ than by wholeheartedly giving yourself in service to others, either in ministry or volunteering. For us it was in service to each other, to other couples through Witness to Love, and to our own family that we encountered Love Himself. We are all sons and daughters of God, made in the image and likeness of God and God has called us to be one in him. Marriage and family are the most tangible ways of experiencing God’s love in the world.

So many good families are on the sidelines, and we are all called to be missionaries and witnesses of God’s love!

Learn more about the Witness to Love apostolate at: WitnesstoLove.org