The Domestic Church | A Curriculum for Life

The Domestic Church | A Curriculum for Life ¹

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(This is the first article in a series aimed at building up parents in their role as primary educators and encouraging them to hand on the Catholic faith at home as they form their own curriculum for life. ) 

“In God's plan the family is in many ways the first school of how to be human. Be human! This is the imperative passed on in the family…The Creator of the universe is the God of love and of life: he wants man to have life and have it abundantly, as Christ proclaims (cf. Jn 10:10); that he may have life, first of all thanks to the family.” ²

You may not have realized this, but if you are a Catholic mom or dad with kids at home, you are running a school. Your home is not just a school for scholars, but a school for saints. When John Paul II writes that in the family we learn to be human, he means that you as parents are teaching your child(ren) to be human.  To be human, to be fully human, is to be a saint. Christ came that we might have abundant life, and that life is the God of love.  The more we are filled with the life of God the more we fulfill the imperative to “be human!” because we humans are made in the image and likeness of God.

As a parent, you may think that you are not qualified to run a school, or that you didn’t sign up to be a teacher, but you are a teacher. In fact, you teach all the time, and you have taught your kids a whole range of things which they learned from you in the home. You can teach your children because you do teach your children.  You teach them how:

to eat, to talk, to get dressed, to brush teeth and floss, to go to the bathroom, to use manners, to play well with others, to say prayers, to tie shoes, to speak politely, to wash the dishes, to make the bed, to put away toys, to not interrupt, to wait their turn, to fold the laundry, to answer the phone, to save money, to share with others, to clip nails, to shower, to walk, to say the alphabet and then to read, to use fork and knife, to ride a bike, to sit still, to chew with the mouth closed, to not talk to strangers, to tell the difference between a true and false friend, to get over disappointment, to try again …

What is truly amazing is that schools outside the home have something left to teach kids. They do well with things like language arts and math, which, by the way, they can do only because you first taught the child language and how to count.

Your kids will not “graduate” from home like they graduate from a school; there is no certificate, no diploma, and no silly cap with tassels (unless your family likes that sort of thing). So, what is your classroom for? The classroom of the home ultimately prepares the child for heaven.  Jesus said, “in my Father’s house there are many rooms," ³ and he has readied one for your child(ren). Your job is to equip them for the journey. This is done by teaching them to be human. Much of the teaching listed above simply demonstrates that you teach them already, and much of the teaching is meant to lead them to a place they can function in polite society. What is much more important than teaching manners, however, are the classes you teach which lead them to sanctity. This series is about exploring those classes.

Some of the classes we will look at you are probably already teaching, some you may have never considered, and still others you may find you want to start right away. Wherever you are at in the particular curriculum of your home, hopefully you will find something that will encourage and inspire you to improve your domestic teaching craft.

The best teachers are life-long students, and so are the best Catholics.  To be a Catholic is to be a disciple of Christ. Disciple comes from the Latin discipulus, which means “student.” This in itself is an important lesson to teach your kids. When they see you reading and studying and trying new things it shows them that:

          1. to follow Christ is a life-long journey, and
          2. you don't already know it all.

I once heard parent invited to a presentation at the parish say, “I don’t think I need it. I’ve been Catholic my whole life, by now I have it figured out.” How we respond to God’s grace in our own lives teaches our children a great deal. Consider that the whole project of being a disciple (student) of Christ is growing closer to the Source of love and life. Consider also that this Source is infinite and we are finite.  To think we have the infinite figured out is to think we could fit the whole ocean in a bucket (which is to say we either think too little of the ocean or too much of the bucket). This doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t get some of the ocean into that bucket, even filling it to overflowing. So too, can we be overflowing with God’s grace when we are open to it.  On the other hand, a closed container cannot be filled, and God will not fill us when we are closed. This is like a corked bottle thrown into the ocean, it could float there for weeks, months, even years.  All the while that bottle is surrounded by ocean, but never filled by it. Similarly, as parents, we can either plunge into the ocean of God’s grace and mercy like a bucket or stop it up like a corked bottle.

God is wants to pour his grace into you so that you can be the first and primary disciple handing on the Catholic faith to your child(ren). He made you to lead the school of your home. You are not alone; the Lord is always with you. Keep going, you can do this!

(The next class: Time Management for Eternity)

¹ “The family is the domestic Church. The meaning of his traditional Christian idea is that the home is the Church in miniature. The Church is the sacrament of God’s love. She is a communion of faith and love. She is mother and teacher. She is at the service of the whole human family as it goes forward to its ultimate destiny. In the same way the family is a community of life and love. It educates and leads its members to their full human maturity and it serves the good of all along the road of life. In its own way it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the church” (John Paul II homily in Perth (Australia) on
30 November 1986).
² Gratissimam Sane 15.
³ John 14:2.