By ERIC GIRTEN
THE CATHOLIC KITCHEN
Every year, National Marriage Week takes place the week before Valentine’s Day – Feb. 7-14. I will soon be sending out Marriage Week resources in my monthly newsletter; but in case you miss that, here is a link https://www.usccb.org/topics/marriage-and-family-life-ministries/national-marriage-week.
We have so many awareness days and weeks now that they all start running together (bad); but these moments do give us time, if only briefly, to reflect on the topic at hand (good0 – in this case, marriage. As opposed to, say, National Pancake Day (Sept. 26 if you must know) – where some choose to celebrate the wonder of buttery flapjacks – a reflection and focus on marriage is actually necessary in today’s world. By necessary, I mean critical to the very sub-structure and super-structure of society.
I don’t need to issue a spoiler alert when stating that children are the natural progression of the union between a man and a woman. It is only within a family rooted by healthy marriage that these children begin to learn the skills, ideas and perspectives necessary to contribute positively to a healthy society. Therefore, when marriage is degraded, then family is degraded; and what necessarily follows is the degradation of a society, which is what tends to make the nightly news.
So we ask ourselves: Why is it that there is a faction in society wanting to ensure the limitation of children into society through contraceptives? Isn’t that the next generation of society? Why is it that, if those contraceptives don’t work, there is a faction that wants to kill the child before it can be born? Is this the same faction that seeks to kill marriage, and thus families, by distorting and disfiguring the very definition of marriage? Is this faction concerned at all with the facts that the destruction of these societal norms leads to an increase in crime, suicide and mental illness – while decreasing success in schools and lowering income levels? No; of course not. Why? Because their intent is the destruction of society.
How is it that these factions (the term faction is used because they are in no way the norm or majority) are given credence? How is it that they are allowed to destroy, and then demand acceptance of, the destruction from the whole?
Marriage can seem like a daily lot of endless chores if we do not step back and reflect on the significance of the institution. It is within marriage that men and women who are called to such a vocation are able to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, practice charity, create love, extend patience, spread the Gospel, foster holy vocations and teach the next generation to stand on the shoulders of their predecessors to co-create (with God) a human race that has the potential to reach unknown heights if not shackled by the disease of this culture of death.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, it may seem, at times, that these subversive factions hold the upper hand, and they may temporarily make ground; but do not be distracted from the reality of what it means to be a follower of the Gospel of Life. Do not exchange light for shadow and truth for acceptance. It remains our baptismal calling, whether married or single, to point the way to true joy that can only be found in a relationship with God who is the author of life – not death. And so I encourage us all to not waiver in times of distraction but to continue to stand in the breach and continue to step forward when our name is called. May God shine down His mercy and love upon us all, so that one day we might all rejoice in His name.