By REY FLORES
Imagine that your house is on fire. You’re standing there helpless, being held back by your neighbors, first responders, and others who have your “best interests” in mind. Some neighbors are yelling, “Don’t go in there! It’s too dangerous!” “If you go in there, you will die too!”
Well, guess what?
Your wife and children are in the inferno and there is nothing you can do about it — that’s if you have a “first responder” priest who tells you that “maybe things will work out and we’ll see,” or “I don’t want to get in the middle of it.”
Whatever happened to the hardcore priests who knew that marriage was a covenant and a contract? Whatever happened to the Catholic priests who protected what the Church truly taught regarding sacramental marriage?
As Catholics, we all should be very aware how the Enemy hates marriage and families. This is not fiction. Evil is as real as God is.
Our Lady of Fatima told us that the final battle would be against families and many of us are facing this ugly reality as we speak. Divorce is an ugly thing, but it is one which is promoted and sanctioned by our secular society, and now unfortunately even by dissident elements in the Catholic Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly tells us that marriage is an indissoluble contract, a covenant, with God. Unless there is grave danger to one spouse caused or brought upon by the other spouse, a marriage should remain intact, without any nonsense of separation, or ultimately divorce.
Children witnessing their parents’ separation can constitute child abuse, as far as I’m concerned. I speak from my personal experience when my own parents were divorced. It all started when I was twelve years old, and the whole ugly divorce process finally ended when I turned eighteen. The pain, however, will never end for me.
One of the most vulnerable, trying, and difficult times for any of us is when we grow from a child into an adult. I was completely devastated by my parents’ separation and divorce. To this day I am still suffering from it. I wouldn’t wish all the pain and suffering I went through during my teen years on my worst enemy.
My parents’ split has detrimentally affected my relationships with women my whole life. It has had a negative impact on my own marriage and on my own children.
There needs to be a movement to save marriages and families against the generational ills of separation and divorce. To deliberately deny a child’s natural right to a mother and father is pure evil.
We can go on all day talking about how pro-life and pro-family we are, but all the while too many of us stand idly by as marriages and families collapse, and are destroyed, even within our own Church.
Seriously: Why are some dioceses handing out annulments as if they were handing out candy at a parade on the Fourth of July?
I don’t think people realize what the word “covenant” truly means. All the wedding vows which are uttered at countless altars throughout recent history carry the same weight in the minds of some people as saying, “I do — until I get tired and sick of you.”
Whatever happened to “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer”?
We are living in a throwaway culture where life itself has no meaning. People, Catholics included, are either aborting their children or contracepting as if there were nothing wrong with any of it.
Now marriages are disintegrating as we have now entered a “throwaway marriage” culture. I liken divorce lawyers to ambulance-chasers, all looking to profit from the devastation of marriages and families. When and how did we get here?
The secular popular culture has always promoted lust, greed, and every form of sin known to man. That is no secret. The problem is that culture has now infiltrated our Church, causing many Catholics to buy into it.
When a husband and wife say, “I do” at the altar, they aren’t just saying it to each other, they are sealing a contract with God. This isn’t make-believe; this is a very real covenant which is never to be taken lightly.
The holy Sacrament of Marriage is just that — holy. No one and nothing can, or should, diminish its eternal value. Anyone, especially a man of the cloth, who doesn’t fight like all the angels in Heaven to save and protect marriage, will be held accountable by our Lord.
Marriage today has become a joke in the sense that homosexuals can now “marry” each other, or people can even marry inanimate objects or themselves. Marriage has been reduced to a feel-good mentality in which divorce is always the answer to any problem — never mind the consequences to all involved, especially our children.
We must all invoke the Holy Spirit to save the all-important institution of marriage. We husbands and wives need to humble ourselves, letting go of our own selfishness, our pride, and our egos, and ensure that the covenant of marriage is never broken.
MarysAdvocates.org says the following:
“If you are a faithful spouse who is heartbroken and abandoned, you can send a plea to the diocesan shepherd, the bishop, and ask him to try to intervene to stop a break-up. Mary’s Advocates provides a template petition containing this plea.
“Your abandoning spouse may be inspired by an invitation from the bishop to remember his or her marital promises, and remember the original heartfelt desire to be a dedicated spouse.”
Visit MarysAdocates.org for more resources to save your marriage.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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