_________________________________________________________

The origins of Christianity have grown up within the home, showing the

co-naturality which exists between the plan of God, which calls all into the one house of the Father and the experience of the family living together under one roof.

In Ephesus at the home of the couple Aquila and Priscilla (cf. Rm 16,5) in Corinth at the house of Gaius (cf. Rm. 16,23) at Collosae in the house of Philemon (Fil 4, 22) and in Rome in the houses of the patricians converted to the Gospel-called basilicas- the original communities were domestic churches.

"Make of your house a church" was the hope of St. John Crysostom, promoting a genuine experience of Christianity.

_________________________________________________________

To remake the Christian fabric of human society is the mission of the Church in this moment in history, when the loss of Christian origins is becoming a more evident loss as it gives way to the current and common mentality.

The faith in fact, today and yesterday appears often eradicated from the most significant moments in the life of the human race; it is manifested only episodically and is often relegated to the private sphere, where it remains private.

Religious practice is more connected to traditions and to practices than an authentic life of faith.

To remake the Christian fabric of society will be possible only if Christians will decide to overcome in themselves the separation between the gospel and life, recovering in their daily activity the unity of a life which finds inspiration in the Gospel and the power to live it out.

The Second Vatican Council affirms: " One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of their daily lives" (GS 43).

Even among families which say they are Christians, one notices a life without faith. One finds a way of life that is very opportunistic and dichotomous. In some moments-above all in difficulties-the faith becomes the secure door into and obligatory means to getting what one needs. In other times, those of well-being, success, serenity, the faith does not even enter in

It is not difficult to hear questions like:

-what does faith have to do with my life?

-what does the Church have to do with my decisions?

-why should I listen to the teaching of the Pope, of Bishops, of priests on questions which are my personal or family concerns?

It is indispensable " to get in touch with and almost shake up by means of the power of the Gospel the standards of judgement, specific values, points of interest, the lines of thought, the inspiring sources and models of the life of humanity, which are in contrast with the word of God and with the plan of salvation". (EN 19)

It is sufficient to refer to:

-the diffusion of an immanentistic vision of man of history of the world

- the re-emergence of nihilism and the conflicting results of desperation and violence and of indifference toward life.

-to an explosion of radical subjectivism which is translated into the primacy of the individual, of the exasperation of needs and of the principle of possessing more and more

-It is true that today we have arrived at a new religious question.

It is necessary nevertheless, to study attentively the content in order to understand the end and the point treated by the question of faith and of religiosity and that point should be well directed and purified.

The responsibility to promote an adult faith and of an adult family in the faith is the main objective of the new evangelization in the sense of a renewed fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus.

In this renovation, by means of the power of the Gospel, the family urgently needs to be the decisive frontier in the new evangelization.

The family community needs to listen always more deeply to the authentic words which reveal its identity, its interior resources, the importance of its mission in the city of man and in the City of God.

It is called to truly become " a space in which the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. Therefore, in the intimacy of a family conscious of this mission, all the members evangelize and are evangelized" (FC 52).

It is very important to consider the dimension of the family as a church of the laity.

The Christian family has its own prophetic mission, its own worship,

its own pastoral life. Parents should be convinced of such a ministry. They should be prepared for such a ministry. They should formed into Christian educators. What is the specific element of this ministry or service? It can be synthesized like this: the family has the role of humanizing history and of revivifying the Church.