Good morning. This morning Jesus speaks to us from the Gospel of Matthew regarding the law. He recognizes the importance of the law. We are all aware that we need laws to provide for the common good. Without laws we would live in a world of chaos. There are laws that guide our way throughout a variety of areas of our lives, including marriage. Many people view recent discussion of marriage as merely being a religious concern; however it is far from that. Amongst the pageantry and ritual of the wedding of every man and woman is the involvement of a community. The celebration of marriage is a sacramental commitment made amongst one’s faith community. Marriage is more than a personal matter between a man and a woman; it likewise is a public matter, in marriage we call upon our family, friends and faith community for their support and blessings. But beyond the sacramental aspects of marriage, dating back to the beginnings of written history we have had laws and publicly created ways of overseeing and defining the sexual unions between men and women with “well-defined responsibilities of mothers and fathers.” As indicated earlier, laws exist as a means for guiding us on how to best live our lives. Plainly speaking, marriage is a clear and definite entity which has been known for some 5000 years to be the union between one man and one woman. So, why is this matter so blasted important you ask? Because marriage is not just about one man and one woman, it is much, much more. Marriage is good for men and women, it provides for their personal stability, their personal health, and their financial well-being. Married people have longer life expectancies than unmarried folks. Marriage is good for children, it provides for their emotional and spiritual stability, sound socialization, and it provides for the healthy modeling of a mother and father. Research upon research clearly notes that children do better emotionally and academically when raised by their happily married biological parents. Marriage is good for the community. In the words of our late Pope John Paul II, “As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.” We need only look to the research and the dismal numbers on homosexual unions to appreciate why marriage is what it is, the union between one man and one woman. When done well, marriage is the best thing known to man since they danced the first chicken dance some 5,000 years ago between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Do something good for your marriage today. Make a great day!
Today we recall the good life, gifts, and works of Saint Leonard Murialdo.
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