Marriage and Family
Did you know that family is one of the first things God put into place in His story of creation? Jesus, the Son of God, was born and raised in a family. God gave that much importance to family because is the foundational institution of society ordained by God. It is constituted by marriage and we see that right at the beginning in the Book of Genesis.
“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh”- Genesis 2:24.
Marriage is a sacrament that involves an invitation for two people to a new stage in life. It involves mutual and self-giving love that reflects Christ’s love for his bride, the Church. Married life is a vocation requiring special grace that is conferred through the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. This grace is intended to perfect the couple’s love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. The marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that marriage consummated can never be dissolved, the same way that their one flesh can never be separated.
Out of God’s love, He created man and women in His image and likeness and the act of marriage and sexual union expresses in a bodily, tangible way the face of God, which is Love.” The life-giving love between a husband and wife is also meant to be a mirror of the love Christ has for his Church.
On a couple’s wedding day, they promise that their love will be free, faithful, total, and open to life. Each act of marital intercourse should be a renewal of these vows and it is through that love that a child is born, a gift of God.
Therefore, God designed family to be sacred, holy and to glorify Him. Parents pass on their love of Christ their children and Christ grows in them.
“But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”- Joshua 24:15
Remember, the love between a husband and wife holds a marriage together. A strong marriage holds the family together. Strong families hold society together, and a civilization will stand or fall upon this. As St John Paul the 2nd says: “The future of humanity,” according to the Church, “passes by way of the family.”