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Module Lesson 16: Commitment to Value Family Life

Objectives:
 Recognize the real value of family life.
 Demonstrate gratitude to God and to parents through loving acts.
 Emphasize the important role of the family in building the domestic church.

A. Introduction

The family is a seedbed where life and values are being nurtured that every individual or member of the family become fully human.
No matter how ideal a family may be, there will always be conflicts arising. However, these conflicts can make the union of the family
stronger if they can handle the differences smoothly. The whole family will determine if the conflicts will lead to division, or to greater
love- either to crisis or to where Christ is.

In the gospel, Jesus belongs to a simple family but his parents tried their best to show him love by taking care of him and providing
for his needs.

The Holy Family

Luke 2:41-52

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up
according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in
Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him
among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days
they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who
heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his
mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did
not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his
mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

Reflection

What was the reaction of Mary and Joseph on finding JesusWhat

in thecould
temple?
Jesus possibly mean when he said, “I must be in my Father’s house”

Joseph and Mary as foster parents of Jesus showed great concern for him when he was found missing from the Temple.
Jesus who is already aware of his identity acknowledged the work entrusted to him by the Father. But when Mary and
Joseph asked him to go home with them, he obeyed them.

B. Lesson Proper
The Family
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The conjugal community is founded by Christ in the Catholic Church to ordain the good of the spouses in begetting children for
God’s kingdom. The primordial responsibilities of spouses in marriage were procreation and education of children. A man and woman
in marriage with their children form the institution called family. God instituted the family as a fundamental institution where members
are equal in dignity but have rights, duties, and responsibilities for the common good of its members and for society.

The Christian Family

A Christian family is called a domestic church for it is an ecclesial communion of faith, hope, and charity. It constitutes a
specific revelation and realization of unity which is important in the church. It is a communion of persons which is a sign and image of
the unity of the Holy Trinity. The mission of the family of Christians is to evangelize in charity by their daily prayer, reading God’s word,
and getting involved in charitable activities toward others. Sharing of relationship in the family is a privileged community where
feelings, affections, interests, and thoughts are for the common good of the parents and upbringing the children.

The Family and Society

The family is the natural society in which spouses are called to share love in the gift of life. Family life is the beginning to a life
of society, the original cell of social life. In the family, the children learn from parents’ and elders’ moral values, love, and honor to God.
In the family, they can practice the foundation for freedom, security, and fraternity within and in the society. Members in the family live
and learn to care and be responsible for the young, old, sick, poor, and handicapped.

The family must be helped and defended by the society with appropriate social measures especially those who cannot fulfill
their responsibilities. Civil authority should consider their grave duty to safeguard the well-being of marriage and family life, foster public
morality, and develop prosperity.

The Duties of Children

God’s commandment requires children to respect their parents as a natural affection of a bond in the deeper meaning of
divine fatherhood as the source of human fatherhood.

Respect for parents of filial piety roots from gratitude of the gifts of life, love, and let them be the instruments of God to bring
into our world offspring who may grow in wisdom, grace, and stature. By the true docility and obedience of the children, filial respect is
kept as God’s command.

Particularly the fourth commandment reminds the adult children about their duties springing from love and gratitude: care for
old and sick parents, presence during their loneliness and distress.

The Family: A Sanctuary of Life

By its nature, conjugal love is open to the gift of life. Procreation is a gift of life for all people in which the author of life is God
himself.

Sanctuary of life is founded on marriage where the gift of God is accepted. To become Gospel proclaimers is the mission of
Christian families; of life in which members of the family or family associates create laws for the state to protect and promote life and
not to violate right to life.

The family has a great role in responsible parenting in which spouses become special fellow creators of God’s work.

Methods for Practicing Responsible Procreation

1. Reject sterilization and abortion (morally illicit). It is horrible and constitutes serious moral disorder, contributes to anti-life
mentality, a great threat to a democratic and fair co-existence in society.
2. To reject the different forms of contraception. Rejection is based on a call to defend a real and true development of people by
understanding that is integral and correct about the sexuality of a person who is human. To use methods that are natural in
regulating birth is advised by the Church for which the purpose is to have uncompromised respect and acceptance; periodic
abstinence during times of fertility of the wife and openness to a consequence positive for the good of human society.
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The spouse alone can make the decision as to the number of children and interval of birth; any programs of the government to
help in the spouse’s information about population growth, solidarity to a dignified life, and promotion of life are encouraged.
But programs and financing of contraceptive mechanisms and sterilization are morally condemned for it destroys the dignity of
the person and family.
3. Some techniques for reproduction life sperm and ova donation, surrogate motherhood, heterologous fertilization that are
artificially conducted are unacceptable ethically. It is not acceptable to use laboratory equipment to substitute the procreation
act of parents; an injury to the right of the offspring to be born from a father and mother biologically.
4. Human cloning refers to the biological entity reproduced with identical genetics to the original organism. It has many serious
moral implications. For the Church, cloning is against the dignity of human procreation because it is a substitute to the real
marital act of love between spouses. Parents have the direct duty and right of their being to be a part of the offspring’s moral
formation and education.
5. Educational institutions founded and supported by parents and the state must respect religious ethics; private schools also
serve the whole population (public sector)
6. The role of the father and the mother is necessary for the responsibility to provide their children with integral education.
7. Similarly, parents have a particular responsibility toward educating their children they should inquire about the institutions/
schools’ methods for sex education to verify and evaluate the value property.

C. Synthesis/ Closure/ Wrap Up

Remember!
- The family is the seedbed where love, faith, hope, respect, obedience, and other values are nurtured.
- The family is considered as the basic unit of society and from it stems the values that will help build a better and Christ-
centered society.
- The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy
Spirit.
- The family is the basic means for carrying out God’s plan, since it is a community of persons, serving life through procreation
and education of offspring, participating in the development of society, and sharing in the mission of the Church.

D. Enrichment Activity

Answer the following questions below. Write your reflections on the space below. (at least 5 sentences each)

1. What is the importance of your family in building up your faith as a follower of Christ?

2. How do you show you value your family?

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3. Joana is suffering from a rare type of cancer and twice a month she undergoes chemotherapy. She has given up many
chances at school and in the community due to her treatment visits at the hospital; as a younger sibling you intend to lighten
her load and you list 5 ways to do this.