Last Friday’s first scripture
reading for the daily liturgy was from the second letter of John and it
contained this little gem: “Anyone who
is so “progressive” as not to remain
in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the
teaching has the Father and the Son.” (2
John 9) In the deeply polarized politics
of our time, on one side we have people who are proud to consider themself “progressive,”
in the sense that they believe it is necessary for government to assert control
over nearly every aspect of society, ostensibly because people cannot manage
their lives effectively without government oversight. Liberal, or progressive thought, is also
associated with an emphasis on individual happiness and freedom, and views
religion as imposing unnecessary restrictions and burdens on the pursuit of
personal happiness. On the other side, conservatives hold more
traditional views about marriage and family, and consider the growing burden of
government regulation as an impediment to economic growth.
Jumping ahead to Sunday’s
liturgy, the first reading from Proverbs described the value of wife who “fears
the Lord” and is a blessing to her husband and family. Psalm 128 also addresses the benefits of
marriage and family, describing the man blessed who fears the Lord, his wife as
a fruitful vine, and his children like olive plants around his table. In other words, the blessings of marriage and
family are the product of walking with the Lord. The gospel parable about a man who entrusts
his servants with talents, also describes the benefit of using those talents
for good, rather than burying them in the ground. The message is clear: God has entrusted us
with many gifts and it us up to us to put them to good use. In that vein, I contend that the greatest
gift God has entrusted us with is our sexuality. Our fertility also represents the great
responsibility we have for procreation and the continuation of human life on
earth. What greater joy and fulfillment
could there be than to join with our spouse and share in God’s plan for
creating new life? Anyone who has held
their newborn child for the first time, understands this tremendous fulfillment
and responsibility.
The very nature of our bodies,
and the biological truths about our sexuality, is that it takes a man and a
woman to create new life. Sex is
inextricably linked to our fertility and procreation, but when we separate sex
from fertility, all hell breaks loose. Even
the atheist Sigmund Freud knew this would spell trouble for society. Nevertheless, the “progressive” point of view
these days is that sex should be an entitlement, completely separated from the
responsibility for child bearing. Anyone
who says otherwise is accused of waging a war on women. And if sex for the sake of pleasure is the
goal, any and all forms of sexual expression are considered a civil right. Hence the growing belief that sexual
expression in all forms is “normal” and anyone who says otherwise is considered
intolerant, some would say, “on the wrong side of history.” Progressive activists have made several
attempts in the courts to establish the right to contraception and abortion as “civil
rights.” And of course the Affordable
Care Act now makes it a legal requirement that every employer must offer these
coverages. In fact, just last week the
Pro-Life group Priests for Life, lost
their appeal in court and will now face heavy fines for refusing to pay for
contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
But herein lies the problem:
Our society is no longer “progressing,” it’s coming apart at the seams. Poverty levels have never been higher in the
US, despite record spending on welfare entitlements; crime is rampant; and
education is in decline. Sociologists
are now pointing to the breakdown of the family as the root cause of these
problems. Even atheist and agnostic
sociologists are concluding that the lack of having both a mother and a father raising
children as a traditional family, leads to poverty, poor educational outcomes,
and crime. (I’ve cited the fact in
earlier blogs about the very high percentage of male inmates who grew up
without a father in the household) And
what is causing this breakdown in family structure? Inarguably, it is sex outside of
marriage. Young men who want sex without
commitment or responsibility are disinclined to marry if sex is readily
available. Young women who can collect
more welfare income if single, are discouraged from marriage. A review of the book Broken Bonds: What Family Fragmentation Means for America’s Future,
put it this way:
“The social
capital created by traditional families is what undergirds the rest of our
society. Sociologists and economists now
understand that when this social capital is diminished, it causes all sorts of
other problems. The crisis of the welfare
state, wage stagnation, income inequality, unemployment, the prison-industrial
complex—all of these can be traced to the breakdown of the family.”
Simply stated, to destroy the family is to
destroy culture. The sexual revolution
has led to too many children for several generations being raised without fathers. Those children do not learn how to manage
their lives well, and the cycle perpetuates itself. The Catholic Church has maintained for
generations that sex outside marriage is wrong and leads to all sorts of
problems, but our progressive culture and the ready availability of
contraceptives and abortion have clouded people’s intellects and weakened their
wills.
The secular world is just
beginning to catch on to what the Church has known and taught forever: that sex
outside of marriage leads to unhappiness, and works against the well-being of society
and specifically children who are raised without one parent or the other. In his Theology
of the Body, St. John Paul II lays out the case for the beauty and gift of
our sexuality, explaining the importance of chastity, modesty, and taking
responsibility for our sexuality in ways that lead to greater intimacy and intense
joy in marriage. This is a beautiful,
meaningful message that too few people are hearing, and if they did, they would
understand the great gift we have been given in our fertility and in
marriage. This is the message our Church
is hoping to share more fully with the world. It is part of the New Evangelization already underway, and it is the topic discussed
in great detail at the recent Bishop’s Synod.
Now is the time to turn away
from the false promises of progressivism, and recognize that God has given us
our most valuable and potent gift, in the form of our sexuality and the
complementarity of men and women. If we
hoard this gift and use it only for personal pleasure, we will be severely
disappointed at the end of our life, like the servant who wasted his talents. However, if we revere and respect this gift,
and use it wisely, we will learn to love sacrificially and be rewarded with the
incomparable fruits of our love, as expressed in the lives of our families.
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