January 18th Fast

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JMJ

". . . According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature, that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. . .  People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves. According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. . . The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply. No, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female – hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves. Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his nature into question. . . . From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. Likewise, the child has lost the place he had occupied hitherto and the dignity pertaining to him. Bernheim shows that now, perforce, from being a subject of rights, the child has become an object to which people have a right and which they have a right to obtain."  

(Christmas Address of Pope Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia, 2012)

We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into indolence by the devil concerning the attack on marriage and the family.  The attack on the marital covenant is an attack on man himself.  The complementarity of man and woman is necessary for marriage to survive and thrive.  Opponents of marriage* know this and so want to obscure the duality of the sexes by nullifying their difference completely.

Yet, because God has placed physical (anatomical, emotional, hormonal, etc.) barriers to this desire to eradicate man's nature, the devil encourages his cohorts to take a different path.  Rather than eradicate man's nature, his forces obfuscate it.  Men are thrust into a chaotic state and view their nature as the devil wants them to view every other absolute: as something relative and not definitive.  The goal of the culture of death is to make man dispensable.  He is dispensable because his life is not purposeful, and it is not purposeful because secularists believe no One has created him with a purpose.

But we know that we are not here by chance; we are not who we are by accident.  We do not choose our being, God made each us with a firm purpose in mind.  One's nature is created by a loving Father, who has a definitive design for that person.  As St. Paul said:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." (1 Cor. 12:12)

The family of God, and the domestic church will suffer unless its members all live out their natures as God intended.  In our very nature, God gives us the gifts to live out our vocation.  Yet, if we resist this call, we resist Him who made us and thwart a divine design.  It is imperative to resist the prideful temptation to deny or wish away any part of our natures or those we complement as this denies the wisdom and creative genius of God.  The Pope concludes the above excerpt noting the supernatural danger in denying man's being:

"When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defense of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man."

Recognizing the dignity of each man and woman, let us embrace the beautiful nature God has created in us and strive to complement and reverence (not suppress or dominate) the dignity of others.   Our witness is vital so that our children and others may naturally embrace who they are and who they are created and called to be as well.

*I will cease calling it "traditional" marriage as the very word "marriage" can only have one meaning.  Opponents want it labeled "traditional" so as to differentiate between various types.  But their can be only one definition, one relationship that is a marriage.*