Lesson 13

                                                 God created  Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden and said: “It is not good that the man should be alone;I will make him a helper as his partner”(Gen 2:18).Then God created Eve.Thus God instituted the first family and blessed humanity.Humanity was formed from our first parents Adam and Eve.

Jesus taught that marital relationship is holy and sacred and that it is a relationship which cannot be broken until death.As an answer to the question of the Pharisees,Jesus said: “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female; and said,’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined his wife,and wife,and the two shall become one flesh’? so they are no longer two, but one flesh.Therefore what God has joined together,let no one separate”(Matthew 19:4-6).

Man and women form a family in marriage.Marriage exists in all communities.For us,Christians,marriage is a sacrament.

The most important factors in marriage are mutual love and faithfulness between husband and wife.The love relationship in marriage is likened to the love relationship between Jesus and the church(Eph 5: 22-23).It is a relationship that lasts till death.In marriage,God entrusts the husband and wife with with the responsibility to beget children and to bring them up as a His good children.

Marriage is the sacrament that gives the couple the grace to live united in holy and inseparable love until death,to love each other sincerely and purely and to bring up their God-given children as good Christian.

The most important rite in the sacrament of marriage is the blessing by the priest,accepting the consent of the bride and the bridegroom.other rites of this sacrament are,the tying of the 'Thali',exchange of rings,adorning with the 'Mantracodi',taking the oath,garlanding etc.These are signs that show the bride and the bridegroom are united with each other in marriage.God's blessing are showered abundantly upon the family formed through the sacrament of marriage.Parents are the representatives of God.Children are God's gifts.God protects and blesses the family through parents. An ideal family is one where parents love their children and children obey their parents.

Parents have to provide everything necessary for the all-round development of their children.They must bring them up in christain faith and be a good example to them.It is the duty of the children to love and obey their parents.St.Paul says “children, obey your parents in the Lord,for this is right”(Eph 6:1).Jesus lived as a member of an ordinary family.The holy family of Jesus,Mary and Joseph is a model for all Christian families.

Let us grow as good children like Jesus,who,in the holy family of Nazreth,grew in wisdom,age and in divine and human freedom.Let us love and respect one another and make our families,a heaven on earth.