“Peace to this household.”
Saint Angela Merici said, “Disorder in society is a result of disorder in the family.” People strive for world peace, but what about in the home and the family? Blessed Mother Teresa spent most of her time telling people to go and bring peace to the home, the family, and the womb. Mother Teresa gives us the following wisdom:
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked, and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”
“I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is ‘Abortion’, because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, ‘Murder’ by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
What is a home? A home is not just four walls and a roof. It is the life that beats within the family, like the saying “Home is where the heart is.” We may live in many different homes in our lifetime, but it is our parents and siblings that make up the home. “The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections, and interests, arising above all from the members’ respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a ‘sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouse as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children’s upbringing.’”[i]
Music – “Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Both of the videos above share the common theme of home and why it is not simply a building. It is the people who we love and cherish along the way. It is the memories that we recall and the lives that we live to bring peace within our own families, our neighborhoods, and hopefully to the whole world.
What is the nature of a home? The basic nature of a home should be the basic nature of the family. The nature of the family is ordered toward the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of their children. “The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.”[ii] The Catechism teaches, “A man and woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family…In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.”[iii]
Why is it important to have peace in the home? Christ wished to bring peace upon the homes He entered, like when He sent out the seventy-two disciples. Jesus wished to bring His peace to the home, not the disciples’ peace. When we bring Jesus’ peace into our homes, we become more like the Church. In fact, the home is the domestic church and what happens in the home should be a reflection of what happens in the universal Church. How do we behave while at Church? We show reverence, respect, charity, etc. These virtues should also be seen in the domestic Church, the home. “‘The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church.’ It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.”[iv]
What are the dangers and/or attacks against the family and home? If the family is the domestic church and the cell of humanity, then Satan will obviously want to attack it. He started with Adam and Eve, then their children, Cane and Abel. Some offenses are adultery, divorce, polygamy, incest, and cohabitation. These attacks bring division among the family instead of peace. They look to tear away and break down the foundation of the home. These grave sins completely rob the home of God’s peace. What are other dangers and/or attacks against the family and home? Same-sex “marriage”, abortion, contraception, domestic abuse, etc.)
How does cohabitation tear down the home? Many people think that living together and having children while not being married is not a problem. From the outside, it looks as if they are married and doing everything correctly. It is not like a divorce where the parents split and leave the children to decide which home they will end up in. However, the problem with cohabitation is that there is no real obligation to a life long commitment with the other person. “All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.”[v] An unmarried couple with children might say they will get around to getting married. However, “Human love does not tolerate ‘trial marriages.’ It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.”[vi]
What is society’s role in regards to the home? Society’s important job is to defend and aid the family whenever needed. Society is fully dependent on the success of the family and home. Society has a responsibility to support and strengthen marriages and the family.[vii] The Second Vatican Council says that the civil authorities should “acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.”[viii] While society and civil authorities are needed at times to help, they are not to supersede or take the place of the rights of the parents and the family.
[i] CCC 2206
[ii] CCC 2201
[iii] CCC 2202; 2203
[iv] CCC 2204
[v] CCC 2390
[vi] CCC 2391
[vii] cf. CCC 2210
[viii] GS 52.2