Deepthi 2022

fold mission of Christ and the Church. Since the
Church herself is the prolongation of Christ, it is
true to say that Christ’s triple mission as prophet,
priest and king is the constitutive element of her
mission. The same triple function of Christ and
the Church is also to be found in the domestic
Church.
The threefold missionary role of the Christian
family through its self-giving love and faith. As a
sharer in the life and mission of the Church, which
listens to the word of God with reverence and proclaims
it confidently, the Christian family fulfils
its prophetic role by welcoming and announcing
the word of God: it thus becomes more and more
each day a believing and evangelizing community.
Karl Rahner relates the mission of the Christian
family with the Church’s own mission. He
says that as baptized persons the members of the
family act in a manner which is precisely proper
to the Church and manifests the sign of love which
witnesses to God. Therefore they become capable
missionaries of the Church through participation
in the Trinity-centred threefold mission. Briefly we
shall look at the participation of the Christian family
in the threefold mission of the Church. Through
its mission the family makes the Church present
in this world.
1. The Priestly Mission of the Family
St. Peter wrote, “You are a royal priesthood” (I
Pet. 2:5, 9). This refers to the common priesthood
of all believers so as to “declare the wonderful
deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into
His marvellous light” (I Pet. 2:9). In the church of
the home, all family members are priests by virtue
of baptism, and all offer spiritual sacrifices to
God through the daily fabric of family exchange.
In the domestic sanctuary, each believer is a priest
for each other.
However, the priesthood of the parents involves
the responsibility to present God to their children
and their children to God. The preisthood of the
parents is based on their love toward God which
they exercise in their daily life. In order to establish
a relationship between God and their children,
parents should seek this through their family
prayer. Praying parents give an authentic example
for their children of their love toward God. The
children are capable of sensing the inner spirit of
faith and love of their parents.
“Lay people share in Christ’s priesthood: ever
more united with him, they exhibit the grace of
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Baptism and Confirmation in all dimensions of
their personal, family, social and ecclesial lives, and
so fulfil the call to holiness addressed to all the
baptized.”
As a Church in miniature, the family is really a
priestly community based on a sacrament. In the
family through their conjugal union husband and
wife manifest God’s love for his Church and they
form together a Trinitarian icon. In marriage they
exercise the baptismal priesthood or common
priesthood of Christians in a privileged way. The
family carries out the priesthood of the faithful
through daily liturgical and sacrificial life.
“It is here that the father of the family, the
mother, children, and all members of the family
exercise the priesthood of th baptized in a privileged
way by the reception of the sacraments,
prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life,
and self-denial and active charity.”
Every prayer of this Christian community is
truly a sacrificial and priestly prayer, whether it
be grace at meals, the breaking of bread, the family
prayer, or Mass together, where they join with
all the other churches in miniature to intensify even
more the presence of Christ.
Through the priestly mission of the parents,
they themselves and the children begin to accept
God as their king and try to bring his kingdom
into their family through the Christian life.
2. The Prophetic Mission of the Christian Family
By virtue of their prophetic mission, lay people
are called to be witnesses to Christ in all circumstances
and at the very heart of the community of
mankin. The Christian family fulfils its prophetic
role by welcoming and announcing the word of
God: it thus becomes more and more each day a
believing and evangelizing community.
Through the sacrament of marriage God makes
them a sign of his loving covenant between Jesus
Christ and his bride, the Church. They bear a special
vocation to be witnesses to the Gospel in the
contemporary world. In and through the events,
problems, difficulties, and circumstances of everyday
life, God comes to them, revealing and
presenting the concrete demands of their sharing
in the love of Christ for his Church in the particular
family, social, and ecclesial situation in which
they find themselves. As part of their prophetic
role married couples are also called to allow the
newness and the power of the Gospel to shine out
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