# The Biblical Vision of the Family - Mar Mari Emmanuel Explains How to Read the Holy Scriptures

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 19 Jul 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73038770/the_biblical_vision_of_the_family_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends. Our readings, the first Reading
[0:03] Speaker 1: from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark are super important
[0:08] Speaker 1: because they have to do with what we call technically
[0:11] Speaker 1: Christian anthropology, the Christian or biblical understanding of who we are,
[0:17] Speaker 1: and most specifically in relation to marriage and family topics,
[0:22] Speaker 1: obviously of importance to a lot of people today, how
[0:25] Speaker 1: we define ourselves who we are. The readings in a
[0:29] Speaker 1: kind of a beautifully compact way of bring this out.
[0:33] Speaker 1: So what I want to do is just kind of
[0:35] Speaker 1: march us through this Genesis readings from Chapter two of Genesis.
[0:39] Speaker 1: Read those first three chapters of Genesis in a way
[0:42] Speaker 1: you get the whole trajectory of the Old Testament. But
[0:46] Speaker 1: let's look at this line by line. The Lord God said,
[0:51] Speaker 1: it's not good for the man to be alone. I
[0:56] Speaker 1: will make a suitable partner for him. Now that's saying
[1:01] Speaker 1: an awful lot. In basic biblical anthropology, the fundamental unit
[1:08] Speaker 1: is not the individual. You'll find that in some of
[1:11] Speaker 1: the founders of modern political philosophy, look at Thomas Hobbs,
[1:14] Speaker 1: look at John Locke. Where the individual and his rights
[1:17] Speaker 1: and prerogatives and so on is the building block of society.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Not true in the Bible, not true in Catholic social teaching,
[1:27] Speaker 1: in which the fundamental building block of society is not
[1:31] Speaker 1: the individual but the family. The Lord God said, it's
[1:36] Speaker 1: not good for the man to be alone. The Bible
[1:39] Speaker 1: is not an individualistic system. It certainly respects and acknowledges
[1:45] Speaker 1: the rights and freedom of the individual, of course it does.
[1:48] Speaker 1: But the building block of our social theory, if you want,
[1:52] Speaker 1: is not the individual, but the family. We are built
[1:57] Speaker 1: for togetherness. We're built for another. There's just something inadequate
[2:04] Speaker 1: if we are alone. So the Lord God formed out
[2:09] Speaker 1: of the ground various wild animals and various birds of
[2:12] Speaker 1: the air, and he brought them to the man to
[2:14] Speaker 1: see what he would call them. There's so much packed
[2:17] Speaker 1: into the poetry of those liones. Notice, please, the human
[2:21] Speaker 1: being was also drawn from the dust of the earth.
[2:24] Speaker 1: We are cousins, close relatives of all the other animals.
[2:29] Speaker 1: We human beings are indeed made from the earth. We
[2:33] Speaker 1: stand against any system that would say, you know, the
[2:36] Speaker 1: real me is the soul, and the body is just
[2:39] Speaker 1: kind of dis appendage or the bodies of prison. And
[2:41] Speaker 1: you'll find that in Plato or the body is something
[2:44] Speaker 1: I can manipulate arbitrarily. You find that in modern wokeism
[2:47] Speaker 1: and ancient gnosticism. Now, no, we are our bodies. We
[2:52] Speaker 1: come from the dust of the earth, as the other animals.
[2:55] Speaker 1: Do we forget that at our peril, and that would
[2:59] Speaker 1: be sermon for another day. But all forms of dualism, platonism,
[3:03] Speaker 1: gnosticism have that problem. The Bible is very clear, like
[3:08] Speaker 1: the other animals, we are formed from the dust of
[3:10] Speaker 1: the earth. But here's the difference. We also had in
[3:16] Speaker 1: the language of Genesis, breathed into us by God the spirit. Now,
[3:21] Speaker 1: don't think of that as simply as like the air
[3:23] Speaker 1: coming in and out of the lungs. The spirit here
[3:27] Speaker 1: the ruach in the Hebrew, the pnuma in Greek, spiritus
[3:31] Speaker 1: in Latin. It means breath. But that's a symbol for
[3:38] Speaker 1: the higher spiritual and intellectual powers that we have. Think
[3:44] Speaker 1: now of mind and will and freedom and creativity, or
[3:49] Speaker 1: of the earth, yes, but we're also of the spirit.
[3:54] Speaker 1: We participate in the very mind of God. And this
[3:57] Speaker 1: is why listen. Now, this is why the animals come
[4:01] Speaker 1: before Adam. He names them, literally, he catalogues them. Catalogon
[4:08] Speaker 1: in Greek would mean according to the word see participating
[4:14] Speaker 1: in God's own mind. Adam, the human being can now
[4:18] Speaker 1: recognize the intelligibility in things around him. So Adam naming
[4:24] Speaker 1: the animals is showing his godlike capacity. So even this being, yes,
[4:30] Speaker 1: from the earth, this embodied reality, but is also a
[4:34] Speaker 1: spiritual reality. We forget that at our peril. You can
[4:40] Speaker 1: denigrate the body, you can also denigrate the spiritual and say, oh,
[4:43] Speaker 1: this is just an epi phenomenon of the brain or something. No. No,
[4:47] Speaker 1: the Bible is very clear. The coming together of the
[4:50] Speaker 1: two is what makes up the human being. Notice, please,
[4:55] Speaker 1: he catalogues. He names the animals according to their objective intelligibility.
[5:01] Speaker 1: He recognizes. It was Joseph Roskinger who taught me this
[5:06] Speaker 1: little trick. To recognize, recognize is to think again what's
[5:13] Speaker 1: already been thought. Adam naming the animals is thinking again
[5:20] Speaker 1: what has already been thought into them by God. Now,
[5:25] Speaker 1: in doing this, the Church Father saw this. In doing this,
[5:28] Speaker 1: Adam becomes the prototype of all scientists, of all philosophers.
[5:34] Speaker 1: That beautiful this animal from the earth, yes, like the
[5:38] Speaker 1: other animals, but yet has this godlike capacity to participate
[5:43] Speaker 1: in the very mind of God. How powerful, how powerful
[5:47] Speaker 1: that anthropology. So Adam gives names to all the animals.
[5:51] Speaker 1: But then, you know, God and He both realized, but
[5:55] Speaker 1: none of these is an adequate partner for me. So
[5:59] Speaker 1: the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man,
[6:02] Speaker 1: and while he was asleep, took out one of his
[6:05] Speaker 1: ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord
[6:08] Speaker 1: God then built up into a woman the rib that
[6:11] Speaker 1: he had taken from the man, And when he brought
[6:13] Speaker 1: her to the man, the man said, this one, at
[6:17] Speaker 1: last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
[6:22] Speaker 1: Don't see the creation of Eve here from the rib
[6:25] Speaker 1: of Adamus as any sign of denigration or that she
[6:28] Speaker 1: has a secondary place, no on the country. It's meant
[6:32] Speaker 1: to show the coequality of Adam and Eve, of the
[6:36] Speaker 1: man and the woman, that finally he's found someone who
[6:39] Speaker 1: can be truly a second self. Think here, of Aristotle,
[6:44] Speaker 1: you can really only be friends with someone who can
[6:47] Speaker 1: be a second self to you. That's why you can't
[6:49] Speaker 1: really be friends with an inferior in Aristotle. Well, it's
[6:53] Speaker 1: really even more profoundly expressed here that the proper partner
[6:56] Speaker 1: for the man, So this building block of society, the family,
[7:01] Speaker 1: that the proper partner for men has to be his coequal,
[7:06] Speaker 1: and that's the role of the woman. And then here's
[7:10] Speaker 1: how this passage closes. That's why a man leaves his
[7:14] Speaker 1: father and mother and clings to his wife, and the
[7:17] Speaker 1: two of them become one flesh. I don't know anywhere
[7:21] Speaker 1: everybody in the literature of the world where the marriage
[7:25] Speaker 1: act and marriage itself is more beautifully expressed than there.
[7:29] Speaker 1: The two of them separate, yes, indeed, but complementary to
[7:35] Speaker 1: one another, each one recognizing the other as a coequal
[7:39] Speaker 1: but yet different partner. And the two become one flesh.
[7:44] Speaker 1: Now that does mean indeed the body. And we think
[7:47] Speaker 1: here of the sexual act, but see flesh in the
[7:50] Speaker 1: Hebrew has that censory of the totality of the self.
[7:54] Speaker 1: The two become one marriage as the as the fullest
[8:00] Speaker 1: expression of the friendship that forms the foundation of our
[8:06] Speaker 1: civil society. All of that and more is packed into
[8:12] Speaker 1: this little passage. That's why John Paul the Second can
[8:15] Speaker 1: generate his whole theology of the body from these lines
[8:19] Speaker 1: of genesis. Now here's what's interesting is if that's not enough,
[8:23] Speaker 1: we turn to the gospel Gospel Mark and they're interrogating
[8:28] Speaker 1: Jesus trying to trip him up, asking about marriage and divorce,
[8:31] Speaker 1: and can a man divorce his wife? And so on.
[8:35] Speaker 1: Jesus told them, citing this very passage we've been considering
[8:41] Speaker 1: from the beginning of creation. God made them male and female.
[8:47] Speaker 1: For this reason. A man shall leave his father and
[8:49] Speaker 1: mother and be joined to his wife, and the two
[8:52] Speaker 1: shall become one flesh. Now, Jesus goes on, so they
[8:56] Speaker 1: are no longer two, but one flesh. And therefore what
[9:01] Speaker 1: God has joined together, no human being must separate. Now,
[9:07] Speaker 1: look what's added here what I've called before, borrowing from Aristotle,
[9:13] Speaker 1: the transcendent third. Yes, man and woman come together in
[9:18] Speaker 1: their complementarity, they become one flesh. They form thereby the
[9:22] Speaker 1: foundation of civil society. All that's true. But what Jesus
[9:26] Speaker 1: adds with great clarity is they're not just brought together
[9:29] Speaker 1: out of mutual attraction. God has brought them together. So
[9:36] Speaker 1: there's a transcendent third. Aristotle said, a friendship will last,
[9:40] Speaker 1: a marriage will last only in the measure that the
[9:43] Speaker 1: two partners fall in love, not just with each other,
[9:48] Speaker 1: but together, fall in love with a transcendent third, with
[9:53] Speaker 1: some value, some good that transcends them. It might be
[9:57] Speaker 1: that you know, the two soldiers who love their country together,
[10:00] Speaker 1: two philosophers who love the truth together, or here to people,
[10:06] Speaker 1: husband and wife love each other, yes, indeed, but primarily
[10:12] Speaker 1: together they love God. It's God who's brought them together
[10:19] Speaker 1: for his purposes. In the measure that they surrender together
[10:24] Speaker 1: to God. Their marriage is confirmed. Now there's one more step,
[10:32] Speaker 1: and it's just beautiful how these readings kind of paint
[10:35] Speaker 1: the entire picture. So think now everything we've been saying,
[10:38] Speaker 1: but then we add this at the end. And people
[10:41] Speaker 1: were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
[10:45] Speaker 1: but the disciples rebute them. When Jesus saw this, he
[10:49] Speaker 1: became indignant and said to them, let the children come
[10:52] Speaker 1: to me. Do not prevent them from the Kingdom of
[10:54] Speaker 1: God belongs to such as these. And then it concludes
[10:59] Speaker 1: he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands upon them.
[11:04] Speaker 1: One of the clearest indicators of the covenant in the
[11:07] Speaker 1: Old Testament. One of the clearest signs that the people
[11:10] Speaker 1: of Israel have surrendered properly to God is that they
[11:13] Speaker 1: are fruitful, and they multiply. One of the earliest commands
[11:19] Speaker 1: that God gives to his people is be fruitful, and
[11:22] Speaker 1: multiply life, life, procreation, propagation of life, the emergence of children.
[11:29] Speaker 1: All of that listen as the proper fruit of this
[11:33] Speaker 1: coming together of man and woman under the aegis of God.
[11:37] Speaker 1: All of that, the complimentarity of male and female. The
[11:41] Speaker 1: fruit of all of that are the children. You know.
[11:45] Speaker 1: The move of the disciples here is interesting because in
[11:49] Speaker 1: Jesus times they weren't romantics about children. Children had no
[11:54] Speaker 1: status in the society of Jesus time. They weren't even
[11:57] Speaker 1: on the ladder. I think I mentioned that a couple
[11:59] Speaker 1: of weeks ago in a sermon, children were just insignificant.
[12:02] Speaker 1: And so as they come to Jesus, the disciples like, no, no, no,
[12:05] Speaker 1: I think he can't be bothered with these nobodies. And
[12:09] Speaker 1: Jesus none and all he dismisses that, welcomes the children,
[12:13] Speaker 1: blesses them. Well. See, he's the God of Israel made flesh,
[12:18] Speaker 1: and the God of Israel wanted his people to be
[12:21] Speaker 1: fruitful and to multiply. One of the signs that there
[12:25] Speaker 1: are many of them, actually everybody, many signs of the
[12:28] Speaker 1: breakdown of all of this in our society. But one
[12:31] Speaker 1: of them is the absence of children. I know, a
[12:34] Speaker 1: sermon for another day or a lecture for another day,
[12:37] Speaker 1: but the lack of procreation in our Western societies that
[12:42] Speaker 1: were now below replacement level, the breakdown obviously of marriage,
[12:47] Speaker 1: breakdown of the family, a tendency to define one's own
[12:52] Speaker 1: life on one's own terms. See all of that represents
[12:56] Speaker 1: the breaking apart of this Biblical vision. Revisit that second
[13:03] Speaker 1: chapter of Genesis and take a look again. When you
[13:07] Speaker 1: have a little time with your Bible, read this passage
[13:10] Speaker 1: from Mark, because it's Jesus himself, the God of Israel incarnate,
[13:16] Speaker 1: reaffirming precisely what we find in Genesis. It's not good
[13:21] Speaker 1: for the man to be alone. That's why the husband
[13:25] Speaker 1: clings to his wife and wife to her husband, and
[13:27] Speaker 1: that's why this mutual self gift in love gives rise
[13:32] Speaker 1: to children. That's the biblical vision. I know, I know
[13:38] Speaker 1: under assault in many ways, we Biblical people have to
[13:42] Speaker 1: stand up and defend this beautiful vision. And God bless you. Yeah,

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