In homilies given on January 25, 2007 and December 28, 2008, in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Caieiras (SP), the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel, Monsignor John Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, discusses the highest function of marriage. Indeed, we are all pilgrims, in a passing life, towards Heaven: this being our goal, our main goal is mutual sanctification!
Watch the excerpt:
They follow the very words of Monsignor John Claudia.
Homily excerpt of January 25, 2007:
"The Sacrament of Marriage: this sacrament was instituted by Our Lord; this sacrament is really extraordinary, because it makes penetrate into both and in the family itself an all special grace through which they will feel the strength of the support of grace, the support of Our Lord to face the problems, to face the problems sacrifices, to face the dramas that life usually brings. And so they strengthen, because God wants society to be constituted on the basis of the family, and therefore He took conjugal union and raised to the category of sacrament."
Homily excerpt of December 28, 2008:
"It is often said that Our Lord erects marriage as Sacrament already in the Wedding of Cana. He goes to this marriage to sanctify this union that was made between the two spouses. But it is not bad for us to think that at the moment the Holy Family is placed there the cornerstone of the family's supernatural destiny.
The family has a function above all others, which is a saving function, of saving. It is not possible for parents to unite without the goal of saving themselves and saving the other spouse, and that they unite without the goal of having children, not working for the salvation of their children. Since our destiny is not on this Earth, our ultimate goal, our ultimate end is not placed in this world, since our ultimate end is put in eternity and that we are in this land of passage, there is no other goal of higher marriage , stronger and more robust than this: one sanctify the other and both sanctify their children.
The saving function of the family is undeniable, transparent, and becomes very clear already at the time of the Sacrament itself, on the very day of marriage. And of themselves the family would have a natural purpose, if it were not for God's initiative to give the family this sacred character of being sanctifying, to aim to sanctify.
We are all called to holiness, there is no doubt, but the family in a very special way, after it has been constituted. And it's about living family life in God and it's about making God one of the essential elements of our relationship between parents and children, between parents and spouses, and too. […]
It is God who is therefore placed within the family, God is the one who cares for the family, God is the one who leads the family. He wants to be the Guide, the Mentor, the Protector, the one who holds, the one who develops, the one who teaches, the one who comforts, the one who attracts, the one he promotes. He wants to be… but it is up to us to be connected to God in such a way that He has full ease in giving all that He wants to give us, and He wants to give much!"