THE EUCHARIST:
EMPOWERING FAMILY LIFE
by Father Jim Whalen, Catholic Life and Family, Spring 2005
The Holy Eucharist is the source of all vocations in the Church for Christian witness, and for Evangelization. The smallest unit in the Church and society is the Sanctuary of family life: the Domestic Church. The Eucharist sends families on a mission, to proclaim both in word and deed, to share their faith.
The Eucharist has the greatest power possible to move the family to love and serve the Lord, to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to all encountered. This means service to the poor; respect and defence of human life at all stages; promotion of human rights; and the building of a civilization of love, justice, and peace.
Pope John Paul II explains that, “The Eucharist is the very source of Christian marriage. The Eucharistic Sacrifice, in fact, represents Christ’s covenant of love with the Church, sealed with His blood on the Cross. In this sacrifice of the New and Eternal Covenant, Christian spouses encounter the source from which their own marriage covenant flows, is interiorly structured, and continuously renewed” (Familiaris Consortio, #57)1. The Eucharist must be recognized by Catholic families as a source of charity and the basis of the communion and mission of family life.
When family members are prepared to participate in Mass and receive Jesus in Communion, they are being formed into holy temples - sanctuaries of God. The Christian family is healed in terms of wounded relationships and emotions, be they spiritual, moral, or psychological. The Eucharist as a sacrament of love fosters forgiveness and reconciliation. The Eucharist as a Sacrament of Presence will encourage families to reach out to others and to share this Jesus whom they have received. This can take place in various Catholic action movements or organizations. Family commitment to life is a necessary consequence of our union with our Eucharistic Lord. The Eucharist teaches us to be sensitive to all human suffering whether it is that of an unborn child, a handicapped person, or the chronically ill. It encourages families to seek ways to deal with injustices and redress them. At times, it means working in communion with and imitating the saints. It means showing in our lives, by personal example, the truths we profess and the priorities and principles we adhere to. It means being engaged in a more extensive apostolate as part of the whole Church. “Anyone who does the will of the Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt 12:50). It is from the Eucharist that families receive the power and strength to actively live the daily challenge, the daily sacrifice to follow Christ, realizing their role as consecrated members belonging to the family of God - the Church.
The Eucharist forms families and models them after the Holy Family, equipped to offer the whole of family life as a spiritual gift to God, as an evangelizing family. Pope Paul VI expresses this clearly: “…. the family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. In a family which is conscious of this mission, all the members evangelize and are evangelized. The parents not only communicate the Gospel to their children, but from their children they can themselves receive the same Gospel as deeply lived by them. And such a family becomes the evangelizer of many other families, and of the neighbourhood of which it forms part” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, #71)2.
Any evangelizing activity of a family should begin within family life. Nothing should replace or come in the way of the parents as the primary and most important transmitters of the faith to their children. Neither the school nor the Church, neither the media nor peer groups, should usurp this special role of the parents. They should be at best a support for the parents’ rights and authentic family life structure. Pope John Paul II explains: “…. in places where anti-religious legislation endeavors even to prevent education in the faith, and in places where widespread unbelief or invasive secularism makes real religious growth practically impossible, “the church of the home” remains the one place where children and young people can receive an authentic catechesis” (Catechesi Tradendae, #68)3.
Young people, on their part, should seek to edify their parents by striving to live their faith fully, centering their family life around the Eucharist; by respecting and honouring their parents; by prompt obedience; by a life of service to God, their family, their neighbours, and their Church; by special attention to the poor, the unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and the sick. Through Christian witness of a strong family life that is nourished and empowered by “daily bread” - the Eucharist, other families that have lapsed in their faith may be convinced that they too can grow in the practice of their faith and family life, centered on devotion to the Real Presence of Christ. +
1. See the document Evangelii Nuntiandi online.
2. See the document Familiaris Consortio online.
3. See the document Catechesi Tradendae online.