Abstract
This paper examines the role of a Christian family in the spiritual and social formation of a committed consecrated person. It addresses the family as central in the life of a child and the inalienable right of the child as a member of the family. The family, therefore, serves as the child’s first domestic Church and micro-society. As a result, the child’s family should respect and uphold the rights of the child. It also discusses the role of the family as the first Local Church and the evangelizer of the child. As primary evangelizers, parents initiate the primary growth in the spirituality of their child in words and practice. Pope Francis calls the parent-children evangelization Kerygma, “the most beautiful, most excellent, most appealing, and at the same time most necessary.â€Such gestures of faith in action nurture the spiritual growth of the childen kindle the child’s desire to embrace a higher commitment to a life of total self-giving in the service of the Lord and the Church. The call to total consecration, therefore, is an additional call to a Christian that requires total submission to the will of God through the observation and practice of the publicly or privately professed Evangelical Counsels: Obedience, Poverty, and Chastity in a stable state of life recognized by the Church. As some of the disciples of Jesus Christ withdrew when they could not embrace Christ’s teaching on the Eucharist, so would a consecrated person who did not understand or accept the implications of the religious commitment question the rationality of the vows until such a person separates him or herself from the religious community. When the consecrated person decides to withdraw his/her religious obligations and returns to his or her former way of life, parents ought to respect such decision and strive to reintegrate him or her with the full rights of the member of the family and society.
References
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