Catholic Synod of Bishops on the Family

The Catholic question du jour is: Should Catholics who have been married, divorced and remarried be allowed to receive the Eucharist? 

In a couple of days, the Vatican will host a small but worldwide assembly of bishops will be discussing this at at an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on topics related to the family and evangelization. There will be no dogmatic pronouncement, the USCCB reports that this synod is to "assist the Holy Father by providing counsel on important questions 

facing the Church in a manner that preserves the Church's teaching and strengthens her internal discipline." Don't expect any new "ex-cathedra" statements. However, there is still a lot of angst among some theologians that the bishops will influence the pastoral approach to Catholics. 

Here's my two pennies and that isn't worth much. First, what Christ wrote about the indissolubility of marriage: 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery." Mark 10:10-12

That's pretty straight forward. Yet Matthew records an exception to that rule. 

Sola Apostasion

The whole doctrine of divorce stands or falls with one word of Jesus stated on the Sermon on the Mount. Here's the whole passage that deals with marriage:    

"It was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce' but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Matt. 5: 31, 32

Since "unchastity" is the sole and only reason a person can be divorced, so we better know what that word meant to Jesus' listeners. The original word in Greek is porneia, which can be broadly defined from anything from general immorality to an illicit marriage, specifically marrying a close relative or a civil union or a concubinage. 

So the liberal bishops are saying that the church should read this passage as broadly as possible so that annulments are more easily obtained. The conservatives want to keep in defined more specifically and historically to mean illicit marriages. 

Personally, my heart wishes mercy for those remarried and a broader interpretation of porneia. My head, however, worries about the consequences of broadening the definition. 

However the Synod goes, I will support the church for it was given the power to bind and loose. So if bishops keeps this bound, I will pray for those people whose expectations will be wounded by the ruling. If the synod liberalizes it, I will weep for joy for those who can now participate and pray that the overall tone will not be one of, "now that we have this one, let's go for the definition of marriage and the usage of contraception."

One more Biblical passage that will back up the bishops' authority to make a ruling on this. Look at  Jesus' words in the gospel of Mark 10: 

[The Pharisees asked Jesus,] "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus

responded, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way." 

Moses had such powerful God-given authority that  he saw the hardness of Israel's heart and was able to loose the original intent of marriage and bring in divorce. Does the New Covenant Church not have as much power to bind and loose as Moses? 

Therefore, do not lose heart no matter what the church does or does not do. God will give you the grace to have a supernatural faithfulness to His Church even when we at times feel like despairing. Christianity is about carrying the Cross God has given us even when we are confused. Have faith that God will not abandon you nor His Church.

How the Sacraments Make Men

After the London Male Fashion week where models were wearing dresses...well... I think this post is germane:

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The world needs courageous Christian men with a passion for God, a passion for holiness; masculine men, who initiate; who are responsible and steadfast men, strong and faithful, disciplined and add to that a dash of kind.

What our culture is growing are boys of ease who want to be men of ease. It is a culture of Wikipedia, the microwave and the bell curve. Survivor Man, a fishing channel, and Sunday football televise recreation. Now men are so passive that when they get hungry watching other men be active, all they have to do is tear upon a bag of chips. Their testosterone chooses to stay-at-home and become a hero in a video game or pursue anime women instead of getting out and initiating a conversation with an actual woman. And Christian guys often choose the comfort of a stay-at-home church or a church so casual that the strain of tucking their t-shirt into their old jeans isn’t required. 

Ever since Adam blamed Eve, God seems to spend a lot of His time making cowards into men. God violently confronted Moses and Jacob getting into a physical fight before making them His leaders. He knew they needed to be able to take a punch to be heroes and saints.

Interestingly, one of the great side effects of being a Catholic is that if you start your boys out young being faithful to the sacraments, they will do a lot to infuse masculine traits. For, not only will they receive passive, imputed grace making them like Christ, but the personal initiation and struggle of the will to do the sacrament is an active grace. The sacraments are heavenly discipline, spiritual bootcamp.

Think about it.

If a man is baptized and confirmed as an adult, it requires a lifelong commitment--that in an act of the will that moves into an act of the body. He must go through RCIA. That’s one step in the right direction. Even if baptized as a newborn, the child will then go through the steps to confirmation. The sacrament of baptism and confirmation requires commitment.

The sacrament of reconciliation teaches a boy to be a man through self-examination. It requires him to regularly think about what he had done wrong, why, and then have the humble courage and emotional strength to admit it, out loud, to another man. All that analysis can cause you to realize that not only are you not so good, so you better not judge others, but you are not so bad and all that learning of self-forgiveness can bleed into forgiving others and learning some sense of humor. So the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation develops: courage, humility, faithfulness, commitment, kindness, humor, discipline and wisdom. That sacrament alone, if you teach your sons what it means and take him to it from an early age will do a great deal to make him a man.

When you go to the sacrament of the Eucharist daily or weekly, we teach an active grace of faithfulness, self-denial and steadfastness. 

Then if your son’s vocation is marriage or holy orders, these sacraments can take them to another step of active, manly grace. For whether they make a life-long commitment to a woman or the church, they will develop courage, faithfulness, kindness, discipline, and even physical strength being a good husband or priest. As the years go by and they have to make decisions that may cause suffering for them or their families or parishes, they learn wisdom and humility.

Even the sacrament of Anointing the Sick can make a man more humble and give him the courage to face serious illness or death.

God gave us a type of Divine GPS to help boys find their way into manhood and once there continue honing his masculinity until he becomes the ultimate hero--a saint--and that is through the sacraments.