The Christian family is a domestic Church, the domestic Church is a community of the people of God that is located and is living under the same roof. It is a place where life begins and love never ends. It is a creation of God where everyone (father, mother, grandfather and mother, children and cousins) learn how to live, how to love, how to pray, how to serve, how to work and how to be happy together. In Africa, the family is bigger than just father, mother and children alone. God Himself established the family when He created Adam and Eve and made the progenitors, the father and mother of the human race. By bringing Adam and Eve together in a union, He established the institution of marriage as we read in Genesis 1 and 2. Marriage was one institution that was not destroyed or damaged by original sin or the waters of the flood. Through the union of Adam and Eve, the family was established in order to enjoy the benefits of intimate friendship and communion with God.
However, through sin, the family was tainted, such that a relationship that was originally a relationship of love and purity between man and woman turned sour, the family which was a place of love between brothers and sisters became a space where intense jealousy and hatred began to thrive as evidenced in the sibling rivalry that led to the murder of Abel by Cain his brother. The chaos that ensued in the first family of Adam and Eve assumed greater dimension in the lives of the sons and wives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You can read all about that in the Books of Genesis and Exodus in particular. This trouble with family life was also manifested in the tragedies and violence in the family of David and the family problems that are reflected in Tobias and the bitter complaint of Job who lost his beloved ones, his wealth, and experienced the betrayal of a wife. There are lots of evidence in the Scriptures that shows the breakdown in family life that began as a result of sin and the transgression of human beings, men, women within the human family. To be continued.
• Most Rev. (Dr.) Alfred Adewale Martins, Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos.
