The recent Supreme Court ruling was… eye-widening.
I won’t dive into how the SCOTUS can’t legally do what they did, or casually mention that male and female bodies are totally and completely oriented toward “bonding and babies” so no other union participates in God’s plan for creation, or the fact that Facebook has blown up in obnoxious, heated debate. I won’t flip out crying, “What are we going to do now??!!”
Because I’m going to keep doing what I was doing before this whole thing started.
Today I woke up and I’ve been living my sacrament. I fixed my kids’ breakfast, put together lunch for Andrew, planned the day and ate my toast. We prayed, played, read books, made brownies, and watched an [educational] show. The same as any other week day.
Because Pope St. John Paul II asserted: “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the world in which we live,” compelling us all to the fact that the family is a God-given driving force; a powerful image of the Creator himself sent to go to work loving as Christ loves. And now, as much as ever before, that mission continues. It has not changed.
In feast or famine, we press on joyfully; striving to know and accept God’s will.
What happened by the hand the Supreme Court was allowed by God, let’s remember, and he is absolutely worthy of our trust. He has a plan – The Plan.
“The world is a different place than when I was growing up,” I’ve heard so many say. True, there are innumerable differences between then and now – technology, security, any given thing; but on a fundamental level, people haven’t changed. The SCOTUS ruling indicates how things are just the same as they were. No, this probably wouldn’t have flown a decade or two ago (maybe it would have), but there have always been people seeking equality without any idea of what it is. Equality isn’t we can do the same exact things; equality is the freedom St. JPII mentioned – the ability to do what we ought instead of what we want. And by this definition, the Court acted out of turn. They are not the legislature. Similarly, the legal recognition of same-sex union does not equate it with marriage.
Right and left, journalists and commentators assert that marriage has been redefined. Ahem… Marriage has not been redefined. A divine institution will never be redefined because its Origin is without change. Marriage according to God’s design is an exchange of offering and receiving; our bodies to our perpetual call to sacrifice and love. Man and woman are not simply the traditional marriage, they’re the only marriage.
Not everyone sees it that way.
Don’t worry about them.
There is no better time to be a Catholic – isn’t this what we’re all called to do? Cling to and reveal God’s love and design in our lives? But we have to be ready: the questions and skepticism of our faithful practices have come and and so we must be educated, compassionate, as well as invested in our own families. In the face of something drastically different, we’re supposed to be in the world, not of the world. Turn your focus inward to the surroundings of your own home because the best thing you can do right now is to immerse yourself in being a good spouse, a good parent. Love and serve Jesus by offering your family your whole heart and trust in his perfect Plan.
Spot-on, Katie. Thank you for this.
THANK YOU, Erin. I’m honored that you liked it so much.
Thank you for this.
My daughter sent me your message and I thought it was so well done. I just sent it to a priest friend of mine who agreed with me. Thank you for keeping us grounded in what’s important and remembering Who is really in charge.
Thank you so much, Diane – this is such a trying time, but truly, not much has changed. People have always been/will always be in opposition to the truth and its implications.
I’m so honored that you read my piece and passed it on. Thank you and God bless your family!
Beautiful said!
Thank you. Wonderful article.
So edifying and encouraging! Thank you.
Mary, thank you!
So well said, Katie! What the world fails to understand is legal marriage and matrimony as a sacrament are two very different things. The latter cannot be “re-defined”. 🙂
Thanks, T!! I agree – another blogger (Dr. Taylor Marshall) is encouraging Catholics to use the term “holy matrimony” consistently now, because there is zero confusion as to what it is.
Thank you for reading, Tina! Such a nice surprise and huge honor 🙂
I am reminded that all that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men (and women) to do nothing. We live in times where it is expected for good people to shut up in the face of sin and evil, or get chastised in some way!
Katie, you’ve done a great job with this post! We should all refuse to be silent in the face of evil.
Thank you, Steve! I think we’ll experience a new wave of courage in the Church if we are prayerful and trusting in God’s will, otherwise I think the trying time will reveal the real faithful. Would you agree?
Thank you for this beautiful meditation on marriage and God.
There are many of us, Catholic singles, who don’t have anybody to turn to in their homes. This is maybe why one has to vent on Facebook because it feels like the world today is a one humongous black hole sucking everything and everybody into abyss, stealing from us our potential spouses and children who will never be born.
HOPE, Robert! There is always hope in God’s will. And though Catholic singles may not presently have vocational families, there is the family of the Church. Regardless of vocation, we’re all called to be educated in the ways of our faith and arm ourselves with knowledge.
Thank you Katie, great post !
As the prayer from the Divine Mercy chaplet, “Jesus, I trust in you”
Such simple words, and such consoling words as well. Thank you, Gene.