As we sit back and consider the recent rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court on marriage, we should keep in mind these words spoken by Jesus just prior to His passion and death: “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”
Now is not the time for hand wringing and despair. It is time for conversion of heart and fervent prayer that all may come to know the true freedom and love to be found in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s also time to take a sober look at where we are in American culture and how we got here.
Even with many Americans still professing faith in God (sort of) we are clearly in a post-Christian era that finds its roots in the so-called sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s that embraced contraception, abortion and “free love.”
Curiously, the free love movement actually began in the 19th century and was a concerted effort to abolish marriage as an institution. Birth control, abortion and eugenics advocate Margaret Sanger, for example, was a leading free love proponent.
The heirs of the free love movement changed tactics during the last 20 years and began to advocate same-sex marriage. What happened to all those people who kept insisting that they didn’t need a piece of paper from the government approving of their union?
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that same-sex marriage is not their end game. It’s really more about redefining the family and rejecting our Judeo-Christian heritage. And just look at how wily our enemy is in helping them twist words. The term “free love” sounds wonderful, but in reality, the movement has led to the precise opposite.
God made us for freedom so that we could freely choose to love Him and love others. That same gift of freedom also allows us to reject Him and experience the consequences.
It’s like I tell students in my catechism class: God gave us His Ten Commandments because He loves us and wants us to live in freedom. It is in humble surrender to God and His ways that we find true freedom and love.
Perhaps this is why the First Commandment teaches us to let God be God. When we make ourselves god and try to invent our own moral code we are doomed to failure — at least until we wake up and realize that we are not, in fact, God. I hope that America wakes up soon.
Downhill fast
Under the guise of privacy, the pursuit of happiness and freedom of expression, we’ve watched as millions of families have disintegrated. We’ve killed tens of millions of unborn children. We’ve allowed pornography to enslave and destroy. We’ve poisoned ourselves with corrupt entertainment and turned a blind eye to sexual immorality.
As one priest lamented to me, we’ve got an epidemic of sin on our hands, only no one’s calling it that.
And just as in the Garden of Eden when our first parents rebelled against God, there will be consequences. Some of them will be unintended.
Like Adam and Eve, our intentions are good. We want everyone to be happy. This is a Culture of Me where the Gospel According to Me dictates that whatever makes me feel happy is the ultimate good. This is not rational. Emotions were given to us by God, but we must ultimately be guided by reason. How to reestablish this principle in a society whose motto seems to be “Follow your heart and to hell with the consequences”?
Answer: by living, breathing examples of sacrificial love, true love that makes a complete gift of self. This is what we are called to be.
As we look around, it’s plain to see that America has many false gods. Millions of our fellow citizens — even Catholics — no longer accept the definition of marriage as it’s been known for millennia. Rather than consider what is best for children, our society has put the selfish desires of adults ahead of the wellbeing of its youngest members.
A nation that sacrifices its children at the altar of personal happiness is a nation that will reap a harvest of trouble. Here’s your wakeup call, America. Return to God.
