Photo by Elly Fairytale on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/loving-family-laughing-at-table-having-cozy-meal-3807571/" rel="nofollow">Pexels.com</a>
One of the great images of the Second Vatican Council was viewing a family as a domestic Church. This is a natural outcome when the Church is seen as the Bride of Christ, for it is this relationship that marriage is called to emulate.
Saint Paul carries this image further. Just as a church building needs materials in order to be built, so too the Church needs us to be built. Saint Paul says that we are living stones, just as Jesus is the capstone, the stone which holds the building together.
These images help to show the tremendous and high dignity that is marriage and family life. A husband and wife answer their vocational call from God by loving each other just as Christ loves his bride, the Church. In having children, sons and daughters, they are forming them to grow into beautiful and mature men and women. Parents are literally making disciples of their own children by forming them to follow Jesus and to find their ultimate destiny in eternal life with him.
Such is the purpose of a vocation. Every vocation is about salvation. Every vocation given by God has as its purpose the salvation of souls. A husband and wife who live out the love of Christ for the Church recognize their pathway to eternal life with Jesus is caught up in their love for each other. By focusing on the discipleship of their children, they are fostering the gift of faith given to them by God. In fact, though Baptism is the gateway to the sacraments, it is marriage from which all vocations are given.
Let us pray.
Dear Jesus, You are the giver of all vocations. We thank you especially today for the vocation of marriage and family life. Help us to recognize that when husbands love wives and parents love children, they are imitating the love you have for everyone. Help us to grow in love of you by loving others. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Music: Cheezy Piano Medley by Alexander Nakarada
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4833-cheezy-piano-medley
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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