One of the saddest challenges of this contemporary age and time is the increasing rate of divorce, wrong definition, misleading propagation and misrepresentation of marriage and family life. The idea of relativism of truth has plunged lots of people to do things contrary to the original plan of God. Some nations and people are now rejecting God’s view of marriage. Cultural zealots, political leaders, those in judicial seats and some religious leaders are now usurping God’s stand whenever they reformulate or redefine the terms of marriage. Today, both our first reading and the gospel strongly calls us to uphold the sanctity of marriage and family life.
They both remind us that marriage is instituted by God. So, it must be cherished and protected. We see Jesus in the gospel passage defending the sacredness and indissolubility of marriage. It is a Sacrament and a channel through which God’s love for his people and the Church is empirically expressed. From the union of a man and a woman, family life is generated. And family is the natural and fundamental unit upon which all societies are built. It is the main school of all the social virtues. It is the seed-bed of social life. For it is in the family that we learn to practice obedience, a concern for others, a sense of responsibility, understanding and mutual help, a loving co-ordination of essentially different characters.
The family is the first school of life and love, and each of us is marked indelibly by our own family and childhood experience. Children become, later in life, what their homes have made them. Indeed, it has been proved that the health and progress of a society is measured by the health of its families and how marriage is held sacred. Pope St. John Paul II stated that “Marriage is the mutual gift of self by husband and wife which creates an environment in which children can be born and develop their potentialities, become aware of their dignity and prepare to face their unique and individual destiny”.
In a good sense, the work of creating continues in the family and parents ought to partner with God’s plans and purpose for human peaceful existence. Dear Friends in Christ, our celebration today calls us to follow the original plan of marriage. From the narrative of the first reading we understand that the union between a man and a woman is a sacred institution ordained by God. The marriage institution is well defined and ordained between a male adult and a female adult. It is not between an animal and a human being, not between a man and another man nor a female and another female. God created us male and female.
Hence we ought to maintain and practice the original plan of God unto marriage and family life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1660) states that “The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children”. Today’s liturgical readings are tutelage on the significance and importance of the institutions of marriage and family. Both are essential institutions ordained on genuine love for the sustenance of humanity.
For marriage to flourish, the first reading must be digested. God’s original plan for the marriage covenant rests on principles of love, loyalty, truth, trust and help by both partners in obedience to God. Marriage requires the man and woman to put each other’s good before their own. There can be no good family life or marriage of any kind without a sacrificial love on the part of each member. Dear people of God, it is important to note that the increasing rate of divorce today is due to the little value attached to marriage. When marriage is treated as a commodity or an article rather than a Sacrament and Sacred institution, it is bound to fall apart. Let us try to do away with the vices that causes danger to marriage such as: Infidelity, lack of communication, odd belief system, jealousy, gossip, lack of attention, lack of appreciation, anger issues, lies, trust issues, danger of social media etc.
There is need for married couples to understand the teachings of the Church concerning marriage. The Church makes us to understand that Marriage is an “intimate partnership of…life and love…established by the Creator and rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent” (Gaudium et Spes, 48). At this point, Christian maturity comes to play. There is need for continuous agreement and conscious effort for spiritual, physical, social and psycho-emotional maturity for the sacred union of a man and a woman to flourish.
If the foundation of marriage is not built on honesty, truthfulness, mutual love and prayer, there are possible chances that it will not survive and will one way or the other wither. It is an unfortunate news that marriage and family life are under serious attack by the devil, who seeks to steal the joy, kill the meaning and destroy the essence therein. In our Marriages, we need God’s blessings and to cooperate with His grace to be fruitful and have a healthy family.
