Twenty-Seventh Of Year B
October 2006
"It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate." Does this mean that everyone should marry? No. It does not. It means that generally speaking men and women should marry and procreate children. It does not mean that every man and every woman must, or even should marry. There is no reason why a person should marry if he/she does not wish to marry. There is no justification for pressuring a person into marriage just because it is the custom to marry or because one wants grandchildren or does not want ones name to `die out'. (If you are a Christian you believe that you will live for ever aid therefore your `name' cannot `die out' whether you marry or not.)
Marriage; that is the commitment of one man and one woman to living together as husband and wife until one of them dies, is not to be taken on lightly. Giving birth to and rearing children is a long and difficult process. The fact that you can get married does not necessarily mean that you should get married. The fact that you can procreate children does not necessarily mean that you should procreate children. God our Father has arranged things for us so that we can marry, procreate children and rear them properly. God has set up the human family. In the human family one man and one woman live in a lifelong, stable relationship of mutual love and support, within which they can procreate and rear children in the best possible way. While always defending this Christian teaching on the ideal of marriage and family we must also recognise the existence of other religious and secular traditions which recognise polygamy or polyandry as proper marriages and families. We must also recognise the right of people to practise these different ideals of marriage and family life.
Today we also have same sex marriages and families, and single parent families. When I talk of single parent families I am not, here, referring to families where one parent has died or single parent families resulting from divorce or what you might call accidental one-parent families. I refer to cases where a woman has a child or children but has no intention, and never had an intention, of having a husband or partner. You see we human beings think we know better than God, so we start fiddling around with our lives and with the lives of others. We also fiddle around with what we call marriage and with what we call a family.
If certain people wish to act in this way it is their business and we should wish them well and accept them as they are. After all God gives us the freedom to do as we wish and doesn't get all hot and bothered when we do not follow his plans and wishes. This does not in any way suggest that we are compromising our own belief in Christian marriage and family.
Condemning the actions or lifestyle of others seldom, if ever, brings about a change of heart; but if our actions and lifestyle are obviously good and beneficial, then others, seeing this, are drawn to our lifestyle and beliefs.
So avoid wasting your time and energy in loud voiced condemnation of the actions and lifestyle of others, rather, as the Gospel says; `Let your light shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.'