The purpose of this post is not to explain the Catholic Church's stance on Same-Sex Marriage or relationships. This point is really more of a reflection for myself and what I think the Supreme Court's decision means for us as Catholics.
This decision will no doubt make our calling as Catholics more difficult. We tend to associate law with morality, and so by overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, the Supreme Court has, in effect, stated that same-sex relationships are morally permissible. However, as we well know, morality and law do not always match up because we as human beings are not perfect. So by striking down DOMA, our job to proclaim the truth has become much more difficult.
But at the same time--and this is definitely how I prefer to look at it--our job has become easier. Think about it in terms of light and darkness: the darker the night, the more a single light can make a difference, and as long as a light shines, the darkness is never complete.
So the truth has been hidden. Did this not happen to Christ himself? Earlier today, Mark Hart Tweeted, "In John 18:38 a government official asks God, 'What is truth?' Then Truth got crucified.'" But when the world did its best to destroy Truth Himself, Truth revealed itself even more powerfully: Christ Resurrected and revealed himself to many and His Apostles spread His Gospel message throughout the world! Even His very death revealed the Truth to at least one person (Matthew 27:54).
Although the Truth may be hidden from our minds, we cannot hide the Truth from our hearts. This is why St. Augustine said, "The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose, it will defend itself." We cannot hide the Truth from our hearts because we are made for Truth who is Christ Himself, (John 14:6) and, to quote St. Augustine again, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
And so even in the enveloping darkness I have confidence in Christ and I truly believe that the "Light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it" (John 1:5) or if you prefer the words of the Lord to St. Peter, "the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against [the Church]" (Mark 16:18).
From 1969-1970 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote a book entitled, "Faith and our Future." In this book he wrote, "The Church will become small will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes...she will lose many of her social privileges... It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy.
"It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek... But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.
"And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already with Gobel, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man's home, where he will find life and hope beyond death." (Emphasis Added)
I love the very last part of this (long) quote. So often, especially in the United States, we forget that the Church is not a social power but a spiritual one. The early Church was hated with a burning passion. St. Paul, when he was still Saul, killed Christians as a sort of hobby that stemmed from his religious fervor.
During this time period, only Christians who truly loved the Church and their faith were willing to be Christians--it was too dangerous for it to be otherwise. It wasn't until Constantine converted to Christianity that conversions became a "popular" thing rather than an act of faith. Since that time there have been several periods of history during which the Church was, in one sense or another, purified of all those who called themselves Catholics but were only so in name rather than in belief. This is not to say that Catholics are perfect. On the contrary, we know we are all sinners. It is not so much our actions that unite us, but our beliefs that do. However there seems to be an increasing number of people in our society that call themselves Catholics while at the same time believing in things other than those taught by the Catholic Church.
Perhaps this is a time of purification for Holy Mother Church. Perhaps this is a time where we will see those who do not value the Church and Her teachings fleeing from her. But that also means that those who do love the Church, no matter how small in number, will have an even stronger bond. And we must never underestimate what we as a small group of faithful men and women can do to spread the Gospel--just look at the early Church.
This is a time when our faith will be tested. When we as Catholics in the United States will have to stand up for our faith. This is not something that we are so accustomed to. Religious liberty was a founding principle of this country, but now we will be called bigots for what we know to be true. But this, too, can be seen as a good thing.
Conventional wisdom tells us that the things that we suffer for are the things that mean the most to us, but the things that come easy are often taken for granted. This is true for our faith as well. We have become so comfortable in our faith that we have come to take it for granted. We have started to believe that being a Catholic is easy, which is quite contradictory to what Jesus tells us in the Bible. If we truly belong to Christ, then the world will hate us because it hated him first (John 15:18). Perhaps we will even be found worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ (Acts 5:41).
And so the decision of the Supreme Court today gives us a wonderful opportunity: the opportunity to preach the Gospel to a society sorely in need; the opportunity to truly be a city on a hill, a lamp in the darkness, to truly be a witness for the Gospel even as the early martyrs were. This is an opportunity to cling more closely to Christ, to put our hope in Him, and to proclaim our beliefs more passionately. This is a time when our faith will be purified, as gold is refined by fire, and when we must rely on those who we hold dearest to us. So let us leap into this new challenge, confident in our Lord and ready to proclaim Christ to the yearning human heart!
God Love You!
No comments:
Post a Comment