YOUCAT Question n. 373 - How should a family live its faith together?
(Youcat
answer) A Christian family should be a miniature church. All Christian family
members are invited to strengthen one another in faith and to outdo one another
in their zeal for God. They should pray for and with each other and collaborate
in works of charity.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 2226) Education in the faith by the parents
should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when family
members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in
keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches
other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching
their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God (Cf.
LG 11). The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical
life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of
children and parents.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) Parents stand in for their children with
their own faith, have them baptized, and serve as their models of faith. That
means that parents should make it possible for their children to experience how
valuable and beneficial it is to live in the familiar presence of the loving
God. At some time, however, the parents, too, will learn from their children’s
faith and hear how God speaks through them, because the faith of young people
is often accompanied by greater devotion and generosity and “because the Lord
often reveals to a younger person what is better” (St. Benedict of Nursia,
Rule, chap. 3, 3).
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 2227)
Children in turn contribute to the growth
in holiness of their parents (Cf. GS 48 § 4). Each and everyone should be
generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels,
injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ
demands it (Cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:4).
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