12pm Mass
5pm
10am Mass (monotone)
 |
| Pope Paul VI with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Future Pope John Paul II) |
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Audience: 3 Masses (1500-2000 parishioners)
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God’s
Plan for Marriage, Sex & Family (Homily #37)
27th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct.
4, 2015
Over
20 years ago, I was at World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, in 1993,
when Pope St. John Paul the Great visited the United States. In his all-too familiar Polish accent, the
Holy Father departed from his prepared homily and said, “The family is under attack! The
family is under attack!”
And
according to Italian moral theologian Cardinal Carlo Caffara, Cardinal Caffara once
received a letter from Sr. Lucia of Fatima, Portugal, who the Blessed Virgin Mary
appeared to in 1917. Sister Lucia wrote
to Cardinal Caffara, “The final battle
between Our Lord and the devil will be over marriage and the family.”
Whether
it’s John Paul II or Sr. Lucia’s letter, these themes are consistent. This makes today’s Gospel on Jesus’s teaching
on marriage and family so needed for us in the 21st Century.
There
are two simple points from the Gospel on Jesus and His Church’s teaching on
marriage and family. They are the 2 main
purposes of marriage and the marital act.
1.) The
unitive purpose: The complementarity of the man and woman
in marriage until death.
2.) The
procreative purpose: The openness to children and fruitfulness
in marriage.
And
I realize that for us today, even among Catholics, the Church’s teaching on
marriage and family can be difficult.
But it is not impossible. “With
God, all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26).
I.
Regarding
the first point about the complementarity
of the man and woman in marriage, the unitive purpose, or the two becoming
one flesh, Jesus pointed us to the beginning
of creation, “God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife.” Jesus affirmed what we see in
the First Reading where it is written in the Book of Genesis: God will make a “suitable partner” for the
man in marriage.
In
Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, this exclusive suitability is a
complementarity, a natural unity of
a man and a woman. It is “natural” or is
a type of “natural law”. The suitability
of one man and one woman is inscribed in nature. Jesus reveals that God is the author of
marriage—not the state, not the federal government. The state’s
role, rather, is to uphold the natural law, not re-define it. “What God has joined, no human being (and
that means no state officials, no judges) must separate.”
Additionally,
in the Judeo-Christian worldview, the man and the woman share a fundamental equality in their dignity. Just as Eve came from Adam’s rib, his side,
so too does the Church come from Jesus’ “rib” his pierced side when he died the
sleep of death on the Cross. The man
and woman are side by side, equal in
dignity, different in function.
God instituted marriage,
but Jesus elevated marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament. This is why, dear brothers and sisters, for
Catholics, we must be married in the Church instead of just being married
civilly before the Justice of the Peace, or in Reno, or even just living
together – or cohabiting – without marriage.
The vow or consent of the man and woman makes the marriage.
In the case of two baptized people before a priest (or a deacon
delegated by the pastor), it is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, but in the
case of two Catholics only civilly married, in the eyes of God they are not
properly married. [READ SLOWLY:] For those Catholics in the state of only a
civil marriage, this is an invitation to be married in the Church and have your
marriage “convalidated”
with the priest in a simple, beautiful ceremony.
For
couples living together even if they have kids already, secular research
studies have shown that the rate of divorce, spousal abuse, and infidelity are
higher than those that are married. This,
too, is an invitation to be married in the Church. When we are married in the Church, God pours
forth His graces upon the marriage and family which do not occur in any other
way. This is the unitive purpose of
marriage.
II.
The
second main purpose of marriage and the marital act is the procreative purpose:
the procreation and education of
children. In the Gospel, Jesus said,
“Let the children come to me” after being indignant or angry when his apostles
did not welcome children.
Thus, all sexual activity belongs in
marriage. Notice
that the Church here doesn’t just teach that sex belongs in marriage, but all
sexual activity belongs to only married people that have taken a vow. This is called chastity, not just abstinence,
but chastity. We must prepare not only
our children for chaste, faithful Christian marriages. But we ourselves who are married should also practice
chastity, too, within marriage.
The
unitive and procreative aspects of marital love cannot be separated. What God has joined, let no man put
asunder. Contraception and sterilization are contrary to the plan of God for
marriage and family. Contraception deliberately violates the
mutual self-giving of a man and woman as designed by God. The Church isn’t saying that conception must
occur with each marital act, but rather, that when married couples do engage in
the marital act, that it is open to life. And, for those that need to space their
children’s births, couples may turn to natural means such as Natural Family
Planning – N.F.P. – which respects the women’s fertility cycle. Secular studies have shown that the spousal
abuse, infidelity and divorce rates are in single digits – actually 1-2% – for those
who practice NFP.
Did
you know that, up until 1930, all of Christianity – our separated Protestant
brothers and sisters included – taught that contraception was against God’s law? Then, the Protestants, one after the other,
voted to change this 2,000 year-old teaching.
Only the Catholic Church
affirmed that contraception was against God’s plan for marriage and
family. In 1968, Blessed Pope Paul VI, wrote a letter called Humanae Vitae. In Humanae
Vitae (no. 9), the Holy Father beautifully taught that married love is
total, truly human, faithful, mutually exclusive, and fruitful. He
warned that contraception would promote marital infidelity and a general
lowering of morality, especially the youth (HV no. 17). He foresaw that men would lose respect for women, not as an equal partner
but someone to use to just satisfy his needs.
Governments would disregard the dignity of the human person and basic
human rights (by treating humans beings as a number), and the contraceptive mentality would
eventually lead to abortion and as we see today human trafficking, pornography,
domestic abuse, sexual slavery and violence around the world and even in our
own city.
At
Fatima, Portugal, when the
Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to 3 shepherd children, she said that many marriages do not please Our Lord and most souls are
lost because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason. Against this flood of modern-day assaults,
let Christians rejoice in the Good News of God’s plan for marriage, sexuality
and family. So, in summary: The 2 main
purposes of marriage and the marital act are the (a) unitive and (b)
procreative aspects.
The
Sacrament of Holy Matrimony will help us lead marriages that are pleasing to
God, and as we sang in the Responsorial Psalm, “May the Lord bless us all the
days of our lives!”
Our
Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
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