Homily: Friday - 19th Week in OT 2016 - Love and Marriage

Back in April, Pope Francis issued a document on the topic of “Love in the Family” called Amoris Laetitia, latin for “The Joy of Love”. Love, authentic love, brings authentic joy.

There are many counterfeits for love in our modern culture, just as there are a lot of counterfeits for joy.

All throughout the Gospel of Matthew, which we’ve been reading through extensively for several months, Jesus gives many instructions and parables teaching us to build our lives on what is true, what is holy, to strive to walk in the truth made known to us by God. He teaches us to practice authentic love, that we may be filled with authentic joy. 

We are seeing in our own day how faithless, disordered relationships, rampant promiscuity and unrestricted sexual license bring so much brokenness, so much sadness. When men and women seek marriage for selfish reasons, disaster ensues, particularly in bringing such hurt to each other and their children.

Our own Father Wendelken who worked in our marriage tribunal for several decades could attest to how marriage fails where there is selfishness, stunted maturity, attachment to worldliness, unforgiveness, poor communication, secular notions of happiness.

Pope Francis offered this document on the issues of marriage and family because marriage and family matter.  Marriage matters. Being faithful to the demands of marriage, doing what it takes for a healthy marriage, raising children in according to the law of Christ, these things matter for the future of civilization and the salvation of souls. The Pope said, “The welfare of the family is decisive for the future of the world and that of the Church.”

This is why the Catholic Church takes what the Lord teaches in the Gospel this morning very seriously. Where many of the Christian denominations water down, change, or simply ignore this teaching, the Catholic Church sees this morning’s Gospel as pivotal for civilizations survival and our faithfulness to the Gospel.

For those who are living the Christian life in an “imperfect manner”: those living together outside of marriage, those only civilly married, those divorced and remarried, Pope Francis explains that “following the divine pedagogy”, that is the teaching of Christ, “the Church seeks the grace of conversion for them”, the Church seeks to help people remedy their lives. We need to help people seek to remedy their lives according to the Lord’s teaching while being very careful to take into account the complexity of each situation. To be patient, to receive people joyfully, to invite them gently, to speak the truth clearly.

Pope Francis ends Amoris Laetitia with a prayer to the Holy Family:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love; to you we turn with trust. Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic churches. Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division; may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing. Holy Family of Nazareth, make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Graciously hear our prayer…

…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.