Marriage and Family

If you do not know by now, one of my favorite philosophers and theologians is also my hero: Karol Wojtyla or more commonly known as Bl. JPII. He actually wrote a lot about various subjects that have greatly affected my life. He has had an incredible influence on me and in turn, my family. I’d like to talk to you about something that he has written about quite a bit; the importance of family and marriage. You see, for JPII and the Church, the family takes its origin in the marital covenant of husband and wife (CCC 371). This expression is the first expression of our social nature. Aristotle states that man is a political being and, in other words, a social being; he is made for community. But let’s rewind to the Genesis account to get a better look at family and marriage.

I’ve stated this before while speaking on Genesis. I am not going to state if it is literal, allegorical, tropological, anagogical, etc… (big words theologians use). Instead, what I am going to say is it is pedagogical…it is teaching something (please see Dei Verbum, the section on the OT if you want to investigate). It is teaching the “why” and not the “how.” When looking at Creation, you notice something peculiar. See, after God creates He utters, “it is good, It is good, it is good….” Then again, something peculiar happens. He states in Gen 2:18, “it is not good that man should be alone.” The first negative statement that the divine Godhead utters is when man is alone. This says something about the human person.Man is created for community (as Aristotle alludes too). He is created for the other. In this case he is made for woman, and vice versa :). They are meant to live in a social unit (CCC 1882), a family. JPII states in his Letter to the Families, “ [in]the Book of Genesis, the reality of fatherhood and motherhood..[is]..The interpretative key enabling this discernment is provided by the principle of the "image" and "likeness" of God highlighted by the scriptural text (Gen 1:26)..”

The family has been here from the beginning, and is a community of love (please see previous posts for description of love) since we are made in His “image and likeness.” See, only persons are capable of living in communion, and the first human communion is that of husband and wife in marriage. “Human fatherhood and motherhood, while remaining biologically similar to that of other living beings in nature, contain in an essential and unique way a "likeness" to God which is the basis of the family...”

What JPII is describing is phenomenal! That the human family, in some analogous way, actually models the “image and likeness” of God. The essence of the intrinsic vocation of man is to love as God loves and to live in a communion of persons or, a family. Man and woman are complementary both physical and spiritual. All one has to do is look at the physical features of man, in comparison to the physical (sexual) features of the woman, to see how elementary this concept is. And this goes without even mentioning all the psychological and physiological ways men and women are complementary!

See, marriage comes into being when a man and woman freely choose to give themselves irrevocably to one another for LIFE. It is a bond that goes beyond, “I am so tired of this…” or “he/she does not make me feel like….”. It is much deeper than that. It is a union that bears the likeness of the union within the Trinity. “the ‘communion’ of persons [family] is drawn in a certain sense from the mystery of the Trinitarian "We", and therefore "conjugal communion" also refers to this mystery. The family, which originates in the love of man and woman in marriage, ultimately derives from the mystery of God.” In the very communion and conjugal act of marriage, in which they are so closely united that they become “one flesh”, it is a bodily, AND SPIRITUAL union. It is through the body that the two are “wired” (or predisposed) to form a communion of persons in marriage, and Christ has elevated to the dignity of a sacrament. The love of husband and wife calls man and wife to cooperate with God in giving life to new human persons.

This is one of the main reasons why Catholics and other Christians are so pro-life, and pro-marriage. We are for these things because these things are naturally a part of who we are and what we were created for. I could go into a long spill about the natural law, to further the point. BUT, I will not bore you to death! :) I will say that the person is designed, both physically and spiritually to live in loving relationships, just as God is perfect relationship in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.