God is the designer of family life

Many consider it a right to have access to legal abortion or to contract same-sex marriage. Appeal is made to law makers to give legal recognition to such claimed rights. And law makers are giving in to such pressure, but often for political expediency.

“…when we tamper with family, the foundation of society, we undermine all of society—and the consequences are just too enormous to disregard.” (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

What is astonishing is the excessive reliance on such parliamentary law, more than on any other, as if it were the most supreme and only standard of human conduct.

For sure we must respect our laws, especially those that enhance our dignity. However, we should watch out for an attitude of pretending to be the absolute master over what is good or bad, often accompanied by systematic refusal to submit to the law of God. Such illusory freedom leads to serious erosion of the moral fibre of our society. Some norms that were once sacred and the mainstay of human conduct have now been crushed to the ground, rendered banal, and left optional for whoever still wants to deem them important.

Should decisions on matters regarding marriage and family be left to the popular cry on the street or to the majority voice of parliamentarians to whom nothing seems to count save political gain?

Are we not concerned about this evident launch of society into a systematic atheism where a human person not only weans himself from any divine discipline but also goes on to turn himself into his own idol? Adam and Even did it, but they ended up naked.

Our human dignity issues from, and therefore is inseparably connected to, our relation with God. And it is through observing the law of God regarding all aspects of our life that we can maintain this dignity.

In the family, man and woman constitute the first form of communion between persons, according to God the creator who saw it wise that “it is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18). Thus, the Church says in the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes: “The family…is born of the intimate communion of life and love founded on the marriage between one man and one woman” (48). So, naturally, family is a divine institution.

Family is vital for a healthy person and for a healthy society, for it is the ideal environment where one is born and grows. In the family one learns to be human.

However, such development is impossible for someone brought up in a family that refuses to submit itself to the discipline that is proper to human beings. Similarly, when we tamper with family, the foundation of society, we undermine all of society—and the consequences are just too enormous to disregard.

Family is founded on the marriage relationship between man and woman established by God. Marriage is not a fruit of mere human initiative. It is therefore presumptuous for any state to arbitrary legislate on marriage and family in a manner that disregards those characteristics which define marriage and family, such as fidelity, life-long commitment and respect for life.

Matrimony depends not even on the whims of spouses. It is the responsibility of the entire society to safeguard marriage and family with laws, attitudes and behaviours befitting humans according to the will of God the author.

Respect for life is another incontestable responsibility of family as expressed in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church: “The family founded on marriage is truly the sanctuary of life where life can be received and nurtured” (231).

Thus, responsible parenthood calls to participate in God’s work of creation in a manner that respects life. However, though in its objective truth marriage is ordered to the procreation and education of children, it still exists even without children.

The challenge of family today falls on Christians. It’s not the pro-life demonstrations on streets that will safeguard the sacredness of family, but rather a style of life that is prophetic and exemplary, capable of provoking questions and admiration in others.

Such inspiration will come certainly not from parliament but from the law of God as taught by the Church.