ssue 6 - October 2006


COMMENT
Rekindling a Catholic concept of Family
Cathal O` Broin

The Catholic yiew of sex and marriage is somewhat out of fashion. But, while fashions come and go, the Truth always remains the same.

Many modern commentators like to tell us that "morality has moved on from the 1950s", as though the human race was constantly progressing to ever greater heights of enlightenment - as if the past contained nothing but naive children, and we were now all wise adults who could see things with a much greater clarity.

The popular contemporary assumption is that the Church's teaching is oppressive and pointless. The truth, however, is quite the opposite. All modern liberal' philosophy is based in some way on a revolt against the Catholic Church, and what fruits can we see as a consequence? The liberals worldwide have been having their way for many decades, and all there is to show as a result of their agenda, is misery. The western world is in a moral shambles. Broken families are becoming almost the norm, plummeting birth-rates are threatening the future collapse of nations. And just look at the billions of children dead from the liberals' favourite, so-called "safe and legal abortion." It is quite probable that, through abortion and abortofacient contraceptives, liberals have managed to cause the deaths of more people in fifty years than did all the wars in human history put together.

The fundamental horror of 'liberalism' is in reality even worse than the visible consequences that we see in the world - it is the sin of pride against God, which denies the Blessed Trinity the primary place in everything, of worship, honour, and obedience.

The liberal sees the happiness of man as the greatest achievable good, yet it is not. Man was made in order that he might firstly love and serve God. One of the reasons why there are so many agnostics today is because modern man doesn't really seek God, he seeks self-happiness. But, the desire for 'happiness', when considered more important than God, leads us away from Him. For, such a thing is in reality the opposite to love - it is self-love, which leads to self-assertion and self-gratification.

A society infested with liberal thinking quickly becomes a society of individuals all seeking their own happiness above the happiness of everybody else. Self-love is the rule, and so, practices like sex outside marriage soon become the norm, because when man takes his eye off God, he loses sight of eternity.    Happiness is sought in the attainment of pleasure in the present tense, and not the achievement of good in the long term. When people stop treating God as God, they soon forget how to treat man as man - and so, in a liberal, anti-Christian society, our neighbour is often seen as a nuisance if he is bad, or worse if he is good - for then, he becomes merely an object to be used when convenient.

Indeed, convenience is often a rule of life for the liberal. But, if the truth be told, there is nothing convenient about life. When viewed from an irreligious standpoint, our existence in this world makes no sense whatsoever. People who think this way, no matter how much enjoyment they get out of life, lose the zeal to transmit life. The idea of having many children, and putting them through this seemingly unsolvable conundrum thus seems pointless. The contraception mentality comes essentially from worldli-ness, it is a barrenness of thought which stems from the sterility of loving oneself above the source of all love, our Creator - Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

True freedom and happiness only comes through obeying God's law. The world  needs young men and women to abandon the false freedoms which are currentiy in fashion, and and instead, by looking to the unchanging Truth, to rediscover the liberation that only Christ can bring. It is through Catholic marriages, founded on a complete openness to new life, a total self-giving love and an absolute trust in God, that society and civilisation can truly blossom to its fullest potential. There is no substitute for happy and holy families, inspired by the Truth of Christ. In them is an education richer than universities, an industry greater than factories, and a power stronger than governments.

It is time to rekindle the concept of Catholic family life by living and spreading the message of abstinence before marriage, complete openness to life in marriage, and purity always. The world promises many things, but all are mere phantoms that disappear over time. The only one who can fill the eternal yearning of our hearts, is God. When we love Him first we are truly free, and so, by selflessly imitating His generosity in our families and to our neighbours we can build in our world a civilisation of love and find for ourselves a happiness of truth that will last forever.