This is a homily that was given on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 3rd, 2012, at Virgin Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Hythe, Kent, UK.
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Blessed Pope John Paul II reminded us of this truth in his theology of the body where he says:
Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.Where is the most tender and intimate and powerful "moment of communion" for man? Firstly of course it is in Eucharistic Communion, where God touches man, cradles him, gives him life and truth. Outside the sanctuary of the Church this tender and mighty moment of human intimacy is in sexual intercourse between man and woman.
This moment is such a holy and great thing that God created it within the sanctuary of the covenant of communion called matrimony, where man and woman gift themselves to each other in a mutual, exclusive, life-long, life-giving, irrevocable and indissoluble commitment. The most perfect image and likeness of God is in marriage from which the issue of life flows forth.
This sacred image of God, a likeness of the trinitarian communion of persons, the family, is under a C.A.S.C.A.D.E. of attack. The devil because he cannot attack the all powerful Most Holy Trinity, attacks the next greatest image of the Trinity - the Family. To counter this attack, we must P.R.A.Y. very much and fight back.
Contraception - the willful stopping the possibility to conceive life at the intimate moment of communion of man and woman. Now God didn't intend man and woman to conceive every time they have sex, otherwise he would have made women fruitful more than just a few days of the month. What destroys the image of God is keeping God who is Life itself out of the picture entirely from the love act. Let us remember that it is in keeping with responsible parenthood "for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, to decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time" (Humanae Vitae). Here, the difference between Natural Family Planning and artificial contraception are too huge to overlook. The pill has been declared a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, greatly increasing the risk of cervical and breast cancer. Condoms are only effective 60% in stopping conception and have been declared by the National Cancer Institute "ineffective against HPV." Maritally, those couples that practice natural family planning have a success rate of 99.8% of keeping their marriage together, while those that practice artificial contraception only 50%. Pretty clear how to keep a marriage together - talk about the intimate "moment of communion."
Abortion - There is no thing any man can do to a woman that can come anywhere near the terrible scars she inflicts on herself when she decides to take the life in her own womb. There is never any reason for an abortion. Even those women who have been raped said they experienced healing, good coming out of evil, when they went through with their pregnancy and had their child. We are responsible for stopping the legalization of abortion and not allowing women to hurt themselves and take the life of a human person who has his or her own rights given by God. It is difficult to say how deeply abortion has scared our society.
Same-sex marriage - Here we are not talking about those civil unions that have been legalized already in some sectors, especially the UK. We are talking about the attempt to redefine marriage no longer as the union between one man and one woman, to become whatever you want it to be. In the preliminary consultation in the UK, 78% of people wanted to not even discuss this issue, which seems to be perpetrated on the masses by a loud minority. No where, not in ancient Greece or modern Holland, has anyone ever tried to redefine marriage. Sure, they have allowed gays to live their lifestyle but never have they gone so far as to allow a redefining of traditional marriage between one man and one woman. You and I are responsible. Write your MP, sign the petition to oppose it, be a part of the consultation. To do so visit this site.
Cohabitation - Shacking up, living in sin, everybody's doing it, so why is it such a big deal? What if people suddenly decided to try defy gravity and began jumping off of skyscrapers? Would you do that too? Taking the intimate act of the marital embrace out of the context of marriage is like taking holy communion out of the tabernacle and eating it on the street corner like eating potato chips (crisps). It is simply fornication, or sex outside of marriage. This denigrates the holiness of marriage and has a devastating effect on the destruction of consciences of young people being able to tell right from wrong and is a recipe for marital ruin.
Anti-love procedures such as In vitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection - In the act of the marital embrace, in sexual intercourse of man and wife, it must remain life-giving and love-giving for the image and likeness of God to protected and nourished. In other words, as soon as you remove the act of conception from the act of love or from the mother's womb, it destroys the image of the trinity in being a communion of love and life. Scientific achievements can greatly aid the fertility of man and woman. However IVF is only 20% effective while Natural Family Planning has been shown to be up to 80% effective in bringing forth fertility for couples. Any scientific invention that destroys this cannot be said to be true science, for it doesn't not fully further the development of man because it attacks his most noble part - his moral conscience.
Divorce - Here we are not talking about spouses separating because of reasons of abuse, neglect, or for the simple fact that one of the spouses never intended to be bonded to the other "until death do us part." Here we are taking about the grave disregard for the indissolubility of marriage, by an eagerness to abandon it for egoistic reasons. God has irrevocably bonded himself to man in a covenant of salvation. Marriage is supposed to be a sign of this. The tendency to disregard this covenant love is a great cause for not only the shipwreck of faith in so many, but also the great ripping apart of the psychological wellbeing of so many children who have been deprived of the security and stability of parents who persevere "in good times and bad." However, persons who have found that their spouse never intended to be bonded for life rightly pursue a decree of nullity of their marriage bond and seek to pick up the pieces of their life. Also, it should be said that the Church has a particular responsibility to accompany single parents in a closer walk and to have a preference for them, helping them live out a very challenging vocation.
Euthanasia - Here we are not talking about the natural ending of life that is necessary when a person must avail themselves of disproportionate means of being kept alive. I have seen first hand how medical science can make sport of persons lives by turning them into guinea pigs. My own grandfather was in a veterans hospital and was being used by interns for every kind of procedure to prolong his life. Before he was unconscious he made it clear that he wanted his family to follow the Catechism of the Catholic Church's position (2278)of
Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted.What we are talking about is murder under the cloak of wanting to get away from the suffering that is normal at the end of life, putting grandma in a morphine coma because she broke her hip and then discontinuing her feeding tube.
This C.A.S.C.A.D.E. of attack is serious indeed. What can we do? We must P.R.A.Y.
Pray - The family that prays together stays together. Prayer, especially frequenting the Sacraments of salvation is of the utmost importance for family life to be protected and for us to be given the necessary wisdom and courage to defend it.
Reconcile - We must learn that each family is not only a school of prayer but also of reconciliation. "I am sorry and I love you" must be words that we use often. First and for most we need to experience the reconciliation of God in the holy sacrament of Confession, where we experience the eternal love of God forgiving us and restoring us, then we need to make this love and mercy felt in our families by learning how to work things out.
Attend Sunday Mass Together - The Lord's day is also a day of the family. Spouses need to watch each other receive communion and see the way that God love's their spouse so that they may imitate his great love and service. Children need to watch parents participate in the mysteries of God so that they may too learn how to become one in him. Everything starts and ends here. How can we learn communion in families unless we first learn and experience it in the Trinitarian communion most perfectly lived and received in the Eucharistic mystery?
Yes to Marriage and Family - Jesus' arms on the cross spell a letter. Which one? Y stands for YES. We must constantly choose marriage. Spouses have to choose each other every day. They must choose to eliminate other good things from their schedule to make room for the higher good of spousal communion that comes from spousal dating, friendship, romance, service, and care. Parents, especially fathers, need to say yes to being with their sons and daughters. Say YES to God and to each other!
