An Apologetical Explanation of the

Church as the Family of God

In what ways is the Church the Family of God?

Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, [Jesus] said, “Here are my mother and my brethren!  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.”  (Mt 12:49-50)

God said, “I will welcome you, / and I will be a father to you, / and you shall be my sons and daughters, / says the Lord Almighty.”  (2 Cor 6:17-18)

God calls every human person to become his son or daughter, to come into his true family in Christ.  The Church is the assembly of all who respond to that call.

The image of the Church as the Family of God is found throughout Christ’s teaching.  In the Gospels he makes frequent use of family imagery to define his mission, his Person, his commands, his relationship both with God and with his disciples, and the Church’s own relationship with God.  And although Christ also uses other images—both primary and secondary—when speaking of his Church, the image of family remains dominant.  Christ is the eternal Son, sent to regather in himself those whom the Father has called to be his beloved sons and daughters (cf. Eph 1:5).  For this reason, the Catechism teaches that “the Church is nothing other than ‘the family of God'” (CCC 1655).

It is by the Sacrament of Baptism that we become the adopted sons and daughters of God, for it is there that we first receive the sanctifying grace that incorporates us into God’s family.  God’s acceptance of every one of us as his son or daughter is called divine filiation.  This divine filiation that was begun in Baptism is strengthened in the Sacrament of Confirmation.  (Cf. CCC 1213, 1303, 2026, 2798)

The Fatherhood of God is not simply a metaphor.  Christ has revealed that God is an eternal and perfect Father—our Abba, meaning “Father,” or, still closer, “Daddy”—beside whom even the best earthly father pales in comparison.  St. Paul reminds us that God’s Fatherhood is the origin and standard of human fatherhood (cf. Eph 3:14).  (Cf. CCC 2214, 2398)

Although Christ alone is the eternal and Only0Begotten Son of the Father, he nonetheless teaches all of his disciples to approach God as “Our Father.”  United to Christ, the Son, in Baptism, we too become sons and daughters of the Father.  (Cf. CCC 854, 959)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraphs 542 and 2233.

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