Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
MONDAY, June 27th Mt. 8: 18-22 Alleluia Verse: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening; you have the words of everlasting life.”
Today’s readings can only be described as apocalyptic warnings in both the first reading and the Psalm. Even Jesus, in the Gospel, gives a warning to a would-be follower: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
Yesterday’s meditation was based on a rich and powerful article titled “Blessings That Flow From Marriage & Family” by Fr. Ed. Today, he gives us a staunch warning about obstacles to receiving such blessings. Very much in tune with the readings of today!
MAJOR OBSTACLES TO LIVING OUT MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY LIFE by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
Given that the family holds primary importance in the well-being of children, society, the country and the world at large, many obstacles rise to prevent, corrode and even destroy families.
This being the case, let us name and describe these major obstacles so that they can be avoided or at least overcome so as to save the family. It is the moral obligation of the Church, the political structures, academics, and the world at large to promote the family and the values that accrue to this first and most basic institution, deriving from God Himself—the family!
History has proven time and time again that the major civilizations of the world have declined and terminated in ruin primarily due to the corrosion and the attack against the stability of the family. Often included in this moral decline and destruction is capitulating to sexual immorality in one form or another. Jesus stated it unequivocally: “Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God.” (Mt 5:8)
The following are a list of the many attacks that if not resisted can easily lead to the decline and downfall of the family, as well as the society at large. Spiritual writers, especially Saint Ignatius of Loyola, have constantly insisted on the capital importance of the principle of self-knowledge. The desert fathers had a two-word axiom: KNOW THYSELF!!! This can be applied in a more vast and extensive sense of knowing the dangers militant against the stability of the family!
1. THE TRIAL MARRIAGE (COHABITATION) MENTALITY. It is a very sad fact that many, very many, young people make the decision to start to live-together, to cohabit before opting for the decision to receive the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. This decision is catastrophic morally. Why? For the simple reason that they decide to live in a state of mortal sin. Consequently, they sever themselves from the source of grace, the Sacramental life of the Eucharist and Confession for as long as they co-habitate. Once children arrive on the scene, these little innocent ones are deprived of the abundant graces that flow from the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Let us pray for the younger generation that they will start off on the right foot by pleasing God and getting married in the Church. Without God we are lost: with God we can do all things!
2. MODERN DRUG: THE DRUG OF PORNOGRAPHY. Whether we like it or not we all live in a modern pornographic society. Left and right, north and south, east and west we are being bombarded by images. We live in an image world. Unfortunately, many of these images are indecent; many are pornographic. The sources? Television, Radio, Movies, You-tube, Instagram, the Internet, and cell-phones, even conversations—all of these are not intrinsically evil. However, if sought out and used impurely, the effects are nothing less than catastrophic. Modern experts in addictions and moral slavery all concur with the fact that pornography is highly addictive. By many, it is termed the Modern-drug. Once the addiction takes root, then the human person, especially the woman, is viewed not in her innate dignity, created in the image and likeness of God, and through Baptism a daughter of God, but rather as an object. Objectivized she is seen as a mere object to be used, utilized, exploited and then discarded. Pope Francis calls it the throw-away society.
3. SLAVERY TO THE INTERNET, SLAVERY TO THE CELL-PHONE. Modern technology, if properly used is invaluable! However, as Saint Paul reminds us, it can be a two-edged sword. In a few seconds, almost any information we desire is at our fingertips. However, the real danger is that we can become addicted to anything and that includes our cell-phone. Unfortunately, we can become so accustomed to the phone that we give more time, more attention, and more priority to the phone. As a result, the material object of the phone has greater importance over spouse, children and family. In this area families must come together and discern very seriously where, when, and how much time should be dedicated to the use of the phone. If not, the very center of family life will not be God, but the modern idol of the CELL-PHONE. We do not want to bend our knee to the phone, but to the living God. An idol by definition is any person, place or thing that we place above God, and all that refers and relates to God—including the family, the Domestic Church.
4. POOR OR MEDIOCRE MARRIAGE PREPARATION. Recently the Holy Father, Pope Francis, in one of his catechesis mentioned the lack of proper preparation for those who have chosen the Marriage-vocation. The Holy Father calls for a more serious and intense process of preparation for Holy Matrimony. The Pope mentions the fact that without solid marital preparation, without the proper tools, once married it can easily happen that when encountering their first crisis, the young married couple fall apart. Parishes should establish solid marriage preparation courses. (In the Parish of St. Peter Chanel in Hawaiian Gardens, CA, we have implemented this over the past 20 years!!!)
5. THE CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY. Another major detriment and enemy militant against the family is the pervasive Contraceptive mentality. By this is meant the following: a lack of openness to life, to children, to the reality of procreation. In past generations, husband and wife would marry and be open to and happy in receiving as many children as God, in His Divine Providence, would send them. Today, quite the contrary, many young couples have the mentality of trying to avoid having children and with that avoidance utilizing immoral means. The Pill, Norplant, the IUD, as well as chemical means to avoid conception, procreation and openness to having a child. Of course, one of the primary purposes of the married life is that of being open to having children. Bible resources always view having children as one of the greatest blessings from God, the Author and Origin of life! (Read Pope Saint Paul VI’s short encyclical Humane Vitae, for more information on this topic.)
6. THE LGBT AGENDA. Unfortunately the LGBT agenda has inserted itself into the overall mentality of the modern world. The devil himself has inserted and embedded his presence in three principal and key places in modern society. Pope Saint John Paul II terms this the institutionalization of sin— meaning that it is a sad fact that sin is not simply an isolated fact but has encrusted itself into the very institutions of society. There are three primary places where the LGBT and the total confusion of sexual identify have found their abode: 1) Hollywood (the Mass-media), 2) Politics in general that largely promotes Liberal ideologies; 3) Academics that unfortunately are teaching even from the most tender ages the Transgender ideology! Our work is to fight through prayer, penance, and intelligent structures for the traditional and Biblical roots of the family. That is to say, we must promote and defend the family as designed and ordained by God, and that is man and woman uniting in love becoming one flesh and resulting in the bringing forth of children as a fruit of their marital union.
7. THE DIVORCE MENTALITY. It is a sad fact that nobody can deny that most marriages terminate in separations and eventually divorce, and then the separated persons choose to live in the state of adultery. Sacramentally married couples must enter into Holy Matrimony with the firm decision and conviction of living out the promise that they made on the very day of their marriage. The couple conferred the Sacrament of Marriage with these words of promise, this marital vow (both say these words individually): “I promise to be faithful to you in good times and bad, riches and poverty, health and in sickness, until death do we part.” This in a world in which many fail in willingness to make permanent commitments. Those who do marry must affirm the permanent and indissoluble character of Holy Matrimony. Only death ends their marital commitment. The word separation and divorce should not even be part of their vocabulary.
8. A PAGANISTIC, SECULAR, MATERIALISTIC WORLD MENTALITY. Couples that strive to live out their marriage absorbed, imbued and immersed with a modern paganistic, secular, materialistic world-view most likely will not survive as a marriage and family. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen expressed the concept succinctly and to the point in the book that he penned for married couples with the title IT TAKES THREE TO GET MARRIED. Bingo!!! If a married couple is to remain faithful until the end, they must be united as three: husband and wife, but the third person must be JESUS THE LORD! Indeed, Jesus the Lord is the hidden but most important Person in the Marriage. Indeed, He is the super-glue that cohesively unites the couple in love—a love related to sacrifice.
9. DRIFTING FROM THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE. Related intimately with inserting Jesus in the center of married life is the reality of the Church titled, “The Mystical Body of Christ.” Modern liberals often assert: “I love the Bible, as well as the Person of Jesus Christ. However, I cannot stand the Catholic Church!!!” Not only is this mentality false but it also militates energetically against the teachings of Jesus Christ. He left us but promised that He would be with us always even until the end of time. (Mt 28:20) How and where is Jesus present? Precisely in the Catholic Church, and most specifically in the Sacraments—especially the Eucharist, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In a word, once the married couple drifts from the life of the Church and the sacramental life, that couple is in serious danger. The many ravenous wolves of secularism, hedonism, unfaithfulness, pornography, anger and despair can all viciously rent asunder the marriage structure and rapidly. Many Catholics are dying of a certain SPIRITUAL ANOREXIA—that is to say, a spiritual starvation from not nourishing on the ultimate source of strength—the Bread of Life in Holy Communion!
10. RESENTMENT, ANGER AND LACK OF FORGIVENESS. It must be said with the utmost clarity: resentment, anger and a lack of forgiveness can ruin the best of families. Sacred Scripture teaches clearly: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph 4:26) Husbands and wives must learn how to cope with disagreements, differences of opinion, quarrels and discords. A true sign of maturity in Marriage and Family Life is the ability of the couple, after a quarrel or disagreement, to be able to forgive each other, to reconcile and make amends, and restore peace quickly. To go to bed angry at each other could be catastrophic. At Weddings, I often tell the couple in my wedding homily that these are the three most important short phrases that should be said frequently by the couple marrying: “I love you! Forgive me! I am sorry! Lack of forgiveness leads to resentment; resentment to bitter anger, and anger even to coldness and hatred. If you like, what acid is to the stomach wall, unforgiveness and resentments are to the soul, in this case to the soul of the family. May the words of the English Catholic poet, Alexander Pope, be the motto of every married couple: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
Let us pray fervently to the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary and Saint Joseph for the sake and for the future of the families of the world, and most especially for our own families. We are all called to become saints. Jesus taught this as an imperious command: “Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy.” (Mt 5:48) In most cases, holiness flows through a holy channel or vessel and that is the family. May this prayer in honor of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Saint Joseph, be our prayer:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, make my heart like unto yours. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I breathe forth my soul unto thee. O Sacrament most holy, o Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
