Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan. 20, 2013
Fr. Anthony Brankin
About two weeks ago I read an opinión piece by a Sun-Times columnist, Neil Steinberg, who was objecting to the Cardinal’s recent request of all the pastors that they include the cardinals letter to the people regarding the impossibility of so-called gay-marriage.
Steinberg was beside himself with rage that the Cardinal of the Catholics might think that he would have a right to try to influence legislation by asking Catholics to write to their state legislators to make their opinions about gay marriage known. How dare the Cardinal think that he might have the same rights as anyone else.
It was truly an amazing article.
But behind it all was Steinberg’s ignorance about the nature of marriage and as archly as possible—he mocked the Cardinal for believing and teaching that the marriage of two members of the same gender is an impossibility. Never mind that humans have understood it this way for thirty thousand years and it was not a discipline invented by the Catholic Church. Steinberg informed us in his column that since the cardinal is not married—he is too dumb to understand what is involved in a marriage. The poor Cardinal and all those stupid Catholics think that marriage is related in an essential way to the marriage act—when all right thinking people understand that the marriage act hardly counts at all—that it is just a diversion—nothing of great consequence— hardly important—an activity you enjoy for a moment before you get back to fixing the back porch.
But you see the cardinal was on to something—the cardinal knew and knows as do most Catholics that the act of marriage is not inconsequential—it is not meaningless. It is not silly. It is not just a fleeting moment of pleasure in a series of moments in a day—it is profoundly important—it is in fact sacramental in the sense that a sacrament is an outward sign that gives grace. It is something that we see or feel or hear or touch—on a human level—that carries the presence of God. It conveys the very being of God.
It’s for love and life
The act of marriage is meant to mean so much more than what moderns will admit. The act of marriage means that love—if it is true love—must be faithful and true—an exclusive love that is way more than special—it is me for you and you for me for life. And that faithfulness is sealed in the act of marriage.
The act of marriage means that love—if it is true—is permanent—it is a love undying—and ever-enduring. And the two will protect each other to their last breath. And that permanence is sealed by the act of marriage.
The act of marriage means that love—if it is true—is creative and is open to and flowers forth in humanity— more flesh and blood—more squalling brawling brats—and how beautiful they are—and as many as you can have! The miracle of birth is really the miracle of conception where two become one in every sense. And that fruitfulness is sealed in the act of marriage.
Sex is not superficial
The act of marriage is the sacramental seal of love on every level. It means that you can trust the one you love with all those arms and legs and diapers and tuition bills. You can trust that the one you love—to whom you have given yourself that he or she will be there for you. No matter what. That is what marriage is—and the act of marriage is the sacrament and seal of that—and is not to be dismissed by the sexual revolutionaries who have only brought tears and death in the wake of their teaching of the superficiality of sex.
Because to dismiss the act of marriage as something not important only tears the whole house down. The love of Family—mother and father and children all in sweet accord is sealed by that act. That act—in all its seriousness—this is about life and death you know—is what brings family and God and therefore peace into the home.
The Pill revolution
Biology has a point—and it is the God of Life who sharpens that point.
We have had a very serious problem in our world these last forty or fifty years since the invention of the Pill, which exploded upon our world and into our lives and destroyed so much of the life we loved.
The pill—promoted by the likes of Hugh Hefner and Planned Parenthood and rock and roll and major media and the politicians and the liberals and internet porn and Time magazine and HBO—told us that physical love is not sacramental—it is just pleasure that you take from anywhere you can—from someone who is not your spouse—from someone who is your same gender—from a stranger—from anything—from a magazine—from a book—from a picture—from someone or something entirely inappropriate.
The pill has taught the world a very sad and wrong lesson, that love is not about life and that marriage is not about family—in fact love does not mean anything at all—not family nor children nor God—neither permanence nor faithfulness nor fruitfulness—love and its physical manifestation just means pleasure—and is as cheap as potato chips.
Where abortion came from
I know this is the Sunday that we are asked to talk about abortion and the Supreme Court’s decision many years ago that permitted the taking of the life of an unborn—But I am watching this gay marriage thing and am amazed at how in only a couple of years we have surrendered so completely to something so alien to humanity and its continuation.
I cannot help but wonder where did all this come from? Again I answer: The Pill. There has obviously been many major changes in our minds and hearts about the nature of life and love and marriage and children. And the pill worked those changes. In other words, if love is not about the creation of children in a faithful and lifelong commitment—which children necessitate—but about pleasure—then it is not too long before pleasure becomes the priority and if anything gets in the way of pleasure—like children—or biology—or gender—then we eliminate it.
A million for marriage
There is hope, though, that a more human and healthier understanding of life and love might begin to re-establish itself. In Paris, France last week, there was a demonstration. A million people showed up to protest gay-marriage. And these protestors—some liberal—some traditional—all placed the heart of the problem— exactly where the Pope does—that in the final analysis, love is about family and family is about children and children are the fruit of love between a man and a woman.
The protestors with the Pope were trying to remind the rest of us that children are not possessions—neither disposable nor interchangeable. Children are not objects—they are not furniture—and therefore they have rights—that no one can take from them—no one. They have a right to life and a right to a mother and a father.
No one has a right to a child, but a child has a right to a mother and father.
And to deny them those rights in the name of some so-called superior right—to same-sex love or the right to abortion is just plain wrong. That’s exactly what those million French demonstrators were saying—If we deny children their rights we make them our victims. And it was stunning to hear modern people say that. I don’t know if they will have an effect on the rest of their country—or on the world— but it is nice to know that maybe the Sun-times and Neil Steinberg will not have the last word on this.