The Holy Family Model Not Exception, Paperback/Mary Shivanandan Std

Descriere

Description Description of Book The communion of love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the source from which love in the human family springs, according to contemporary Catholic Theology. The Holy Family, from the Middle Ages in Europe, was considered the earthly Trinity but because there was no conjugal intercourse it was considered the exception. In her book, Shivanandan argues that Christ is the model for all human love in His conforming to the father's will. The Holy Family, with Christ at the center is, therefore, the model for all baptized human families. Shivanandan traces how the family as a communion of persons came about and is lived in Western culture along with distortions which affect it today. Until the role of Joseph as husband and father and a philosophy of the person and communion of persons, both of which matured in the 19th and 20th centuries, were developed, a full understanding of the Holy Family and by corollary the human family as a communion of persons imaging divine Trinitarian communion could not come about. Central to the author's theme is the understanding of the human person as gift and his/her fulfillment as self-gift to God and/or another human being, especially according to the teaching of St. John Paul II. The Holy Family witnesses both to celibacy for the kingdom and human spousal love. In the central portion of the book, the author spells out what it means to be a communion of persons both in the Holy Family and human families. The person, both as man or woman, is in a unique relationship with God. Sexual difference, while intrinsic to the person made in God's image, never obscures the equality of his/her being a person whose freedom is fundamental. The spousal relation, while giving different roles to man and woman, must always respect, especially, the personhood of the woman. Similarly motherhood and fatherhood have distinct gifts and tasks. The bodily nursing of the infant by the mother in imitation of Mary, is particular