Learn by Topic: Sacrament of Marriage

In today’s Gospel from the Mass (Matt 9:14-15), Jesus offers yet another reference to the sacredness of traditional marriage:

[14] Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” [15] And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

In past posts, Christ’s insistence on the holiness of marriage have been noted (see here and here).

Today, there are many who are attempting to redefine marriage to include all sorts of distorted options (e.g. alternatives like man/man, woman/woman, multiple men/multiple women, human beings/animals, human beings/inanimate objects).

Jesus Christ continually makes both direct statements that define marriage (Mark 10:7) and many symbolic acts (John 2:1-11) that uphold the only sacred view of marriage; that of one man and one woman.  Today’s Gospel offers yet another:  Jesus is referring to Himself as the Divine Bridegroom and the Church as His bride.  Clearly, Jesus is teaching about marriage in the traditional sense as understood for human history as being between a man and a woman.

Don’t fall for the many confused and perverted ideas about marriage that “moderns” are seeking to promote.

After all, you don’t want to be left at the altar.

The Collapse of the Family

The family has been at the center of God’s plan for humanity since the beginning (CCC 2203) and is “the original cell of social life” (CCC 2207).  God created man and woman to form families and for conception and the raising of children (CCC 2202). “The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life” (CCC 2250).  Across time and world cultures, people have recognized that marriage and family are sacred gifts from God that are critical to the well-being of humanity (CCC 1603).

Since Eden, humans have entertained evil due to sin that has led to animosity between men and women and injuries to the family (CCC 1606).  In recent times, many are abandoning marriage and children: about 50% of marriages end in divorce, 40% of children are born out of wedlock, 1 in 5 children are aborted in the U.S and American fertility rates have fallen below replacement levels. (more…)