Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

Renewing the Christian Family I

Finding a Road Map

Trappist monk Dom Armand Veilleix wrote that

"the relationship between the world and the church has deteriorated and we have now, all over the Western world, but especially in Europe a situation where the great majority still consider themselves believers, and even Christian, but do not consider that their Christian faith is supposed to affect their social, matrimonial or economic life."

Dom Armand went on to suggest that the countries of the Western world are for all practical purposes atheistic. It is not a stretch to say that many even purportedly Christian families are for all practical purposes atheistic. Consider the Roman Catholic mother who tells her parish priest that the only reason she is getting her daughter confirmed is that she may one day have a "church wedding." Consider the couple that totally disregard - or are unaware of the Church's teachings on sexuality. Consider the many who send their children to Catholic schools - even fine Catholic universities – in order provide their children with excellent educations but whose practice of the faith consists of going to church at Christmas and Easter and on occasional Sundays when it is convenient. Consider those who dutifully attend Sunday liturgy but who believe that the Church has no business - depending on their political persuasion - making pronouncements on abortion, capital punishment, just war, sexuality, just wage, or immigration, to name a few. To live in these ways is to allow us to be formed and informed by strange gods, perhaps most prominently the god of self.

To grow as Christian families we need to allow our Christian faith, the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition to form and inform our selves, our marriages, our relationships, our work, our prayer, and our communities. Where is the Christian family to turn for a model or a road map? The answer may come as a surprise – monasticism. Pope John Paul II, writing in his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen (The Light of the East), said that "in the [Christian] East, monasticism was not merely seen as a separate condition...but rather as a reference point for all the baptized." He continued: "The monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human existence." So it is precisely here in the Christian East - in our own backyard - where we can find a roadmap for the Christian family. And I suspect that the degree to which we have been distracted by strange gods, that is the extent to which we have failed to see the roadmap in our own backyard. The importance of monasticism to the Christian is not new. Presbyterian minister Eric Dean, himself a regular visitor to Benedictine monasteries over several decades, wrote a little book Saint Benedict for the Laity (1989, Liturgical Press) in which he shared his own insights into how the Rule of Saint Benedict can be a roadmap for the laity.

As this series continues, we will begin to look at the ways in which monasticism can be our guide as we attempt to grow as Christian families. We will "visit" some of the monasteries and attempt to gain insights into renewing Christian family life.