The Gospel of the Family-The domestic church in

sacramental prepFr Sean Kilcawley, STL

Director of family life and evangelizaiton

Call to mind baptism

• “Receive the light of Christ…parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly.• The light fanned into flame• The light protected from the

winds• Who has the key role?

What is the Gospel of the Family

• The “good news”• Proclaimed about the family• Proclaimed to the family• Proclaimed by the family• The family must be both the subject and the object of evangelization

Pope Benedict XVI• “The new evangelization depends largely on the Domestic Church (cf. ibid., n.

65). In our time, as in times past, the eclipse of God, the spread of ideologies contrary to the family and the degradation of sexual ethics are connected. And just as the eclipse of God and the crisis of the family are linked, so the new evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family. The family is indeed the way of the Church because it is the “human space” of our encounter with Christ. Spouses, “not only receive the love of Christ and become a saved community, but they are also called upon to communicate Christ's love to their brethren, thus becoming a saving community”

New Evangelization

• Traditional Evangelization is the proclamation of the gospel to the “unchurched” –Ad Gentes• Pastoral care- is the work we do to enrich and deepen the faith of

those who are already in the Church• New evangelization pre-supposes that there are people in the church

who have received pastoral care without being evangelized.

Evangelization

Ad Gentes Pastoral Care

-fervent-said “yes” to Jesus-surrendered-Profound Christian outlook-Bear witness-Make Evangelizers of the Evangelized.

New Evangelization

Pope Francis-Field Hospital image

• “The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. ... And you have to start from the ground up.• If it’s a field hospital we need to triage

Triage Familiaris consortio

• Knowing that marriage and the family constitute one of the most precious of human values, the Church wishes to speak and offer her help to those who are already aware of the value of marriage and the family and seek to live it faithfully, to those who are uncertain and anxious and searching for the truth, and to those who are unjustly impeded from living freely their family lives. Supporting the first, illuminating the second and assisting the others, the Church offers her services to every person who wonders about the destiny of marriage and the family.(1)

3 methods of transmitting the faith

• Kerygma—the first proclamation of Christ’s saving love• Catechesis- • Doctrine and morals

Level of evangelization/

catechesis

DescriptionOf target audience

What they need Example Response to the need. Focus of ministry

1 Already faithful Support Leaders, and those evangelizing

Doctrine/MoralsDeepening of dogmatic and moral teaching of the ChurchAdult education

2 Confused or bewildered

Illumination and clarity

Unclear on homosexuality and necessity of confession

Catechesis--EvangelizationContinued CatechesisAdult education

3 Hindered by injustice (includes injustices within family life itself)

Assistance Abusive environment, Divorced, Remarried

Kerygma--First Proclamation of God’s saving loveCommunities of support in various circumstancesof suffering

Both in Church and out of Church*

*Source: Familiaris Consortio by John Paul II; paragraphs 1 and 2

Pope Francis on the Homily“I say this also thinking about the preaching and content of our preaching. A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep and sure than this proclamation. Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can draw even a moral consequence. But the proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives. Today sometimes it seems that the opposite order is prevailing. The homily is the touchstone to measure the pastor’s proximity and ability to meet his people, because those who preach must recognize the heart of their community and must be able to see where the desire for God is lively and ardent. The message of the Gospel, therefore, is not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ.”

Kerygmatic catechesis

• 164. In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. The kerygma is trinitarian. The fire of the Spirit is given in the form of tongues and leads us to believe in Jesus Christ who, by his death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy. On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” This first proclamation is called “first” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment.

Kerygma about the Family

• Finding your family in the family of Christ• How did you find Jesus?• How did Jesus find you?• Why are we Catholic?

Redemptor Hominis 1010 . The human dimension of the mystery of the RedemptionMan cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.

The Devil’s Plan- Attack on Communion and Love at all levels•“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brethren.” (Lk 22:31-32).

The Devil’s ongoing battleplan-methods of communication• Party line• Short cord in kitchen• Long cord• Cordless• Email• Instant messaging• Social media• Hand held devices• Snap chat

Story of Salvation and our story

Creation FallOrig. Sin End of Time

Coming of Christ

Distortion Clarity/growth In virtue

Wedding feastOf the Lamb

Good

What is Love?

F SHS

Wills the good

Entrusts himself completely

Fruitfulness

To “Be For”To “Be From”

To be with

Imago Trinitatis

• “The real God is by his very nature entirely being-for (Father), being-from (Son), and being-with(Holy Spirit). Man, for his part, is God’s image precisely insofar as the “from,” “with,” and “for” constitute the fundamental anthropological pattern. Whenever we attempt to free ourselves from this pattern, we are not on our way to divinity, but to dehumanization, to the destruction of being itself through the destruction of the truth.” Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Freedom.

Benedict XVI

• The family is the place where the theology of the body and the theology of love intersect. Here we learn the goodness of the body, its witness to an Origin that is good, in the experience of love that we receive from our parents. Here the gift of self in one flesh is lived out in the conjugal charity that joins the spouses. Here the fecundity of love is experienced and our life is interwoven with that of other generations. It is in the family that man discovers his relationality, not as a self-actualized, autonomous individual, but as a child, a spouse, a parent, whose identity is founded on being called to love, to receive himself from others and to give himself to others.

God

Man

Wills the good. Gen. 2:16-17

Entrusts Himself

Original Solitude/sonship

M WC

Wills the good/entrusts self

Entrusts self/wills the good

Original Unity/spousal-parental love

God

Man

Wills the good

Entrusts self

autonomy

Doubt

Original Sin - Loss of Sonship

M WC

Loss of Spousality

Loss of Parenthood

M WC

Wills the good/entrusts self

Entrusts self/wills the good

Christ

Church

CrossEntrust myself

Redemption

Domestic Church

• The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason too it can and should be called "the domestic Church."(58)• When is a family created?

Domestic Church in Familiaris Consortio• Therefore, it must be emphasized once more that the pastoral

intervention of the Church in support of the family is a matter of urgency. Every effort should be made to strengthen and develop pastoral care for the family, which should be treated as a real matter of priority, in the certainty that future evangelization depends largely on the domestic Church."(165)

Domestic Church

• In our time, as in times past, the eclipse of God, the spread of ideologies contrary to the family and the degradation of sexual ethics are connected...• Rite of Baptism• References to sexual immorality in the media• Friends, New girl, secret life of the American teenager• Pornograpahy, pre-marital sex, gender dysphoria, and homosexual unions are

portrayed as “normal”

The family is indeed the way of the Church because it is the “human space” of our encounter with Christ.

• How are we encountering Christ within the family• This means nurturing the light of Christ within the family and guarding

against the storms of a sexualized culture• We have to ‘create space’ for an encounter to take place• Physical space• Relational space

• Follow the form: Kerygma, Catechesis, Doctrinal and moral conclusions

A note on gender dysphoria and pornography exposure• Body

• Gender identity

• Attractions• Admiration

• Arousal

Resolutions

• As a Child of God

• As a couple

• As mother/father