Homily originally presented October 7, 2018.
Marriage was designed by God!
Years ago, there was a little comic strip that made it’s way around and always brought a good laugh from sales people … perhaps you’ve seen it too.
It was a series of 6 picture boxes like you usually see in a comic strip:
In the 1st box there’s the image of a machine with the saying, what Sales requested.
The 2nd box showed the machine slightly altered saying, what Research designed,
The 3rd box showed the machine altered further saying, what Engineering approved.
The 4th box showed the machine altered again saying, what Manufacturing made.
The 5th box showed the machine different still saying, what Marketing packaged.
And the 6th box showed a very different machine saying, what the Customer wanted.
You just had to laugh they looked so different and yet ...
this was the case more times than you want to believe!
The customer has a need and a Company goes off to satisfy the need but what shows up is something very different … meaning maybe Sales didn’t listen very well to the Customer and maybe the departments within a Company failed to hand-on and carry out the vision of what the final product was supposed to look like.
And so the final product ends up looking nothing like the original request!
In Sales we would laugh … at ourselves … for not listening better to the Customer
and we might also laugh at the way things can get turned around at the factory when many other people get involved.
How nice it is to see a product come to market that is exactly what the Customer wanted. It’s satisfying to the Customer and it’s rewarding to the Company providing the product.
It’s a win – win situation!
Well, what’s interesting about all this is that there’s a great similarity between:
a Company closely following the design wishes of a Customer, and
all of us closely following the design wishes of God,
God is ... the Great Designer ... He is the Perfect Designer.
He knows what He wants ... and He has the perfect design for everything.
Most especially ... He has the perfect design ... for us.
Like a Customer revealing his desires to a Company through a Salesperson,
God has revealed His desires to all of us through His word, His Son & His Church.
Now, if we do a good job of listening to God,
then we will know the true design of what He wants ...
and be able to implement that design in our lives.
This will bring great satisfaction to Him … and great satisfaction to us.
It will truly be ... a Win – Win situation!
Now, a very important design that God has for us involves our human sexuality.
So highly important is this that God didn’t waste any time in revealing it to us …
it’s there in the very first Book of the Bible.
In Genesis, chapter 2, proclaimed today, we heard God declare:
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife,
and the two of them shall become one flesh.”
That’s God’s design for our human sexuality and for the human family.
There it is ... in a single sentence!
You could say that God has a great economy with words …
He speaks briefly … but with great clarity.
He doesn’t want us to misinterpret His design and go off doing something else.
In one sentence, God ruled out 3 misuses of our human sexuality!
1st: God says no to Fornication (sexual relations before Marriage) by saying:
“for this reason man shall cling to his wife … He didn’t say his girlfriend!
2nd: God says no to Adultery (sexual relations outside of one’s Marriage) by saying:
“for this reason a man shall cling to his wife … not his neighbor’s wife.
3rd: God says no to Homosexual sexual relations by saying:
“for this reason a man shall cling to his wife … he didn’t say another man.
So, immediately after creating man and woman, “God made them male & female”
God spells out His design for how the human family should look …
that it would be the union of one man with one woman …
and that this union would take place only in the holy bond of marriage.
It’s so clear and yet ... down through the ages, many people have tried to re-design
God’s design for the human family.
To God, any re-design is unacceptable ...
and will not bring satisfaction to Him or to the people involved.
Time and again, God has reminded us of his Divine Design for Marriage & Family.
For example, in Mark’s Gospel just proclaimed, Jesus affirms His Father’s design when he responds to the Pharisees’ challenge that Moses permitted divorce.
Jesus comes right back and says, “Because of the hardness of your hearts,
(Moses allowed this) but it was not so from the beginning of creation.”
Wow! Jesus is emphasizing that nothing had changed in God’s design for us.
What changed was man’s desire to follow God’s design.
So Jesus takes the occasion to affirm His Father’s design ... quoting what His Father said in Genesis: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife ... one flesh.” and then emphasizing it’s permanence by adding,
“Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
So, is divorce ok? No! not according to God.
The holy union of Marriage is never to end in divorce.
But look what’s happening today …
50 to 75 percent of Marriages are ending in divorce!
That’s not God’s plan … that’s outside the plan.
In fact, that’s so far removed from God’s plan ...
that it could bring eternal unhappiness to those involved.
Listen to Jesus’ warning:,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
You see, in the eyes of God ... both are still married to their original spouses.
Getting a Civil divorce does nothing to the permanent bond established on
the wedding day where each spouse pledged their faithful love for each other.
So for either of them to have sexual relations with anyone other than their original spouse would be adultery … which is a mortal sin … and will separate them from God for all eternity. We talked about this last week in our discussion of Hell.
I happen to think this is the #1 reason why Catholics leave the Catholic Church.
They get divorced and they don’t like the rules of the Church that say ...
you can’t get remarried .... unless and until you secure an annulment.
They see them as the Catholic Church’s rules and fail to see them as God’s rules.
The Catholic Church didn’t make this up the Rules for marriage ... God did!
And the Catholic Church is one of the only Churches left ...
that is still upholding the teachings of Jesus regarding Marriage.
.
Some Catholics leave the Church and get married at another church ...
Some Catholics leave the Church and get married at the Justice of the Peace.
Some Catholics submit their Marriage Case to the Marriage Tribunal of the Catholic Church ... to see if one of 11 different impediments was present ... that would result in their marriage being declared spiritually null and them receiving an Annulment ... a formal declaration by the Church that they are free to marry.
Here’s a powerful insight from Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles California: “Today, most people see marriage as a function of two people deciding,
for their mutual benefit, to live together in the form of intense friendship.
Children, play, physical pleasure, emotional fulfilment,
professional achievement, etc. are all fruits of this relationship.
The Church does not deny any of this.
It fully accepts the psychological and natural dimension of marriage.
But following the design of the Lord, it moves beyond this understanding, appreciating marriage as an ingredient in God’s designs and not simply our own. Yes, Marriage is situated within a supernatural order
and unfolds according to a supernatural purpose.
Ultimately, God has joined a man and a woman together.
That is why a properly sacramental marriage is permanent. Yes, marriage is more than worldly, because it participates in God’s providential design, it endures.
God designed Marriage to endure ... just as His love for us endures.
Listen to how the Catholic Church defines God’s design:
“Marriage is “a partnership of the whole of life between a man and a woman, which is ordered to the unity of the spouses and the procreation of children. This permanent, exclusive and sacred bond is indissoluble by any force other than death.”
The Bride and Groom express their understanding of this when they vow:
- “I take you to be my husband (wife) … till death do us part.”
- “I will love you and honor you … all the days of my life.”
God’s design for Marriage is that it be permanent and indissoluble.
Yes, God’s Design is the permanent & indissoluble union of a man and a woman.
And yet, sadly in our country and others ... a subculture has gotten civil approval
of their “re-design” of God’s Design for Marriage.
It’s called the gay Subculture.
It’s men and women engaging in sexual relations with others of the same sex.
The Church calls this an intrinsic disorder.
It is a disorder that is everywhere and always sinful for it is far from God’s design.
Recognize the distinction between someone who is homosexual & someone who is gay.
Homosexual refers to a person’s sexual orientation.
Gay refers to a person’s sexual lifestyle.
One involves attraction … one involves acting upon that attraction.
Having same sex attraction is disordered … but not sinful.
Engaging in same sex sexual relations is disordered and sinful.
The Gay Subculture re-defines Marriage to include:
sexual relations between: 2-men or 2-women.
This looks nothing like God’s design … defined in both Genesis and the Gospel. ...
where God made man ... “male” and “female” ...
and declared that they would become one-flesh.
You see, God’s original design for Marriage and Family involves 2 essential characteristics:
The complementarity of a man & woman whereby their sexual organs fit together,
and, the fruitfulness that can result from that union.
God’s love if fruitful!
And being designed in His image and likeness, we are designed to be fruitful too.
Listen to the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 128 just prayed today:
“Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home,
Your children like olive plants around your table.”
May you see your children’s children. Peace be upon (you).”
Two men don’t fit together sexually … two men can’t produce a baby.
Two women don’t fit together sexually … two women can’t produce a baby.
So homosexual unions are outside God’s design for all human beings.
Marriage, as defined by God, has served the world beautifully for ages.
Those who cling to His design, will flourish.
Those who engage in any re-design, will experience sin and sadness.
Remember how happy a Customer is when a Company gives them a product
designed just the way they wanted it.
So too, God will be very happy with all of us when we live our lives …
just the way He designed them to be.
Let’s pray that all people hear and embrace God’s design for Marriage and Family.
That will truly be ... a Win- Win situation.
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