TEN BASICS OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY




1.    GOD ORIGIN.   Marriage and family does not come from politics or governmental systems. Rather, Marriage and the family comes from the author of life itself: God.  God is FAMILY!!!  The Trinity is family, consisting of three distinct and separate Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Two of the basic and fundamental qualities in the family of the Trinity are unity and love.   The Father loves the Son and the Son mutually loves the Father and the bond of love between Father and Son is the Holy Spirit.   The Holy Trinity is the model for all families.
    
2.    MAN AND WOMAN.  Marriage and family consist in an unbreakable bond between man and woman.  The first Book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, says that God created them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. What God has joined let no man rent asunder.   It was Adam and Eve and not “Adam and Steve!”
               
3.    PROCREATION.  One of the principal properties of a true family is the willingness and the openness of the man and woman, husband and wife, to have children.  In the union of one flesh God can intervene and bring to life a new human person.  In the moment of conception life begins.  The husband and wife provide the material elements, but it is God (the author of all life) who intervenes and infuses the immortal soul that will live for all eternity.
         
   
4.    HOLY MATRIMONY.   In God’s loving Divine Providence He has provided a Sacrament to bless Marriage and the family with special and specific graces. This is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.   This Sacrament confers the necessary graces on the husband and wife to be faithful to each other until death do they part, to grow in mutual love for each other and to be good parents to their children.

5.    SERVICE.    Jesus said that He had come not be served but to serve and to give His life in ransom for man.  Our Lady, in the account of the Annunciation, proclaimed herself the Handmaid/servant of the Lord. Of the seven Sacraments, two are Sacraments of service: Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.   Holy Orders, the Priesthood, are designed for the service of the Church, the People of God, the Family of God.  Holy Matrimony is designed as a Sacrament where husband and wife are at the service of each other, and their children.  “To serve is to reign; to reign is to serve.”
                 
6.    CHILDREN AND FAMILY.  Children have a natural right to a loving family life consisting of the loving and affectionate presence of the mother. The child has a natural right to the presence of a strong, supportive, providing father.   The emotional support of the child needs and requires the different forms of affection that only a father and mother can give to the child. Otherwise, the child will be raised emotionally unstable, unbalanced and unhealthy in heart, mind and soul!  Let us firmly stand up for the rights of the child. They also have civil rights that should be met and defended!
            
7.    SAME-SEX UNIONS ARE WRONG!   God created male and female for the purpose of uniting, bonding and being open to procreate and raise a family.  Biblical resources confirm this truth, the Natural Law and even common sense.  Behind the widespread promotion of so many sins--- abortion, pornography, suicide, and homosexual/lesbian unions is the devil.  Jesus calls the devil a liar and a murderer from the beginning.   The devil is bent upon destroying modern society through killing the innocent unborn baby but also through destroying the family through the promotion of what are called “Same-sex marriages”.
               
8.    LEGAL NOT ALWAYS MORAL.   It must be stated with the utmost clarity not all that is legal is moral.  Slavery had been legal in USA; abortion was made legal on Jan 22, 1973, and same-sex unions are proliferating in states, and other countries at an unprecedented rate. This does not make it morally acceptable to God.  As the prophet sadly warns us: “There will be times when people will call good bad and bad good.”  There is an overall hardening of the conscience.

9.    HISTORY SPEAKS!   It is a sad but all too real historical fact that when marriage and family enters into crisis and decline then it is just a matter of time that the entire society will unravel, crumble and disintegrate. Look at the great Greek and Roman civilizations. Great as they were, when the family dissolved so did the society as a whole.  The USA could easily be heading in the same direction if the family is being rent asunder by wrong political decisions and a totally erroneous redefinition of family! Let us learn from history.  He who does not know history is condemned to repeat the same errors!
              
10. FATHERHOOD AND FAMILY.   Lacking in many aspects of the family life today is the presence of the Father. An observation from a prison!   Mother’s day was quickly approaching and the inmates were asked if they would like a Mother’s day card to send home to their mother. Immediately the cards were given out and there were not enough—so much did the inmates in prison care for their mothers.  June arrived and the same offering was made for the inmates to send a Father’s day card.  Not one of the inmates requested a Father’s day card to send home! Why? Most likely for the following reasons: the inmates never knew their father, or their father never really cared for them, or their father was abusive or their father simply disappeared from their life!   In other words, many of these inmates ended up in jail because of the lack of the presence, the love and the attention of the father.  The father is irreplaceable in the family.   Why not turn to the Holy Family and in a special way to good St. Joseph for the future and salvation of the family!

 


In conclusion, we must all be strong and unflinching in standing up for the traditional family that consists of man and woman united in the bond of love, open to procreation (the brining forth of children) in an indissoluble bond until death do they part.  Pope John Paul II clearly stated that the future of the world passes through the family, the basic cell and building block of society.