By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Families are under attack on several fronts: whether it is what makes a marriage with one man and one woman, whether it is children who should have a mother and a father or about how life comes into the world. Those who wish to redefine God’s plan continue to apply euphemisms in attempts to change the contents while keeping the label the same.
Our Catholic families report that the campaign to normalize sodomy continues with two-woman or two-man pairs moving into parishes, schools, and other community activities as they simulate every aspect of marriage and family life. They brilliantly assume that because no one wants to be accused of being “mean,” they will easily continue to change the very fabric of our Catholic parishes and schools as they appear in the pews on Sundays and perhaps present themselves for Communion.
Reports are that these couples outdo others in showing compassion to others in need. Catholic parents are quick to report that they are “very nice people.”
However, as I commented on Twitter:
“Procuring a child, joining PTA, knocking on doors with condolence cakes: all part of scheme to mainstream sodomy & woo worldly with ‘nice’.”
With the Rome Synod on the Family only months away, the Church finds herself in an emergency situation in which the first aid of Church teaching must be applied as a remedy to salvage ailing and weakened human will in rebellion against the holy and divine plan.
Will the synod hear from families like the one whose story I will describe?
Loving and faithful Catholic parents of six raised their children to know and practice the faith. They consistently took their children to Mass even while on remote locations for summer vacation, and this before the advent of cell phones and the Internet which make finding the local church easier than ever.
One of their children, a son, after years of experimentation with same-sex activity, decided to “marry” another man in a ceremony at a Protestant church. He proceeded to invite everyone he knew, including extended and far-flung family members. His parents, well acquainted with Church teaching which counsels Catholics against attending as a sign of approving invalid marriages, refused to go to the ceremony.
Even aunts and uncles attended, traveling long distances cross-country. Some family members attacked the parents publicly, pressuring and attempting to shame them through email and other means to force them to change their minds.
As a result of the parents’ decision, to this day son refuses to speak to them; he returns mail to sender and does not attend family events where the parents and siblings who refused to attend the simulated marriage ceremony will be present.
Their son returns all cards and letters to sender and refuses to see or talk to his parents. He has completely cut them off. Thus this Catholic couple suffers continually the cost of witnessing with a prophetic voice that a man cannot “marry” a man.
This kind of shunning happens all the time to people who refuse to sacrifice a state of grace even for the sake of family members. Christ testified that He came to bring “not peace but the sword,” dividing parents and children because of those who reject Him and His teaching.
Will the synod in Rome hear from couples like this who have sacrificed their happiness on Earth in order to work and pray for the salvation of their children and other family members?
The Gospel on a recent Sunday demonstrates that even those with incipient, unformed faith recognized the simple fact that Jesus must also be accepted as a prophet whose words are true if He is able to exercise command over nature itself by performing the miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes to feed the five thousand.
That simple, logical faith is unfortunately not so common today among many Catholics who receive the Eucharist every week while violating the very reason it exists. They do this by rejecting the prophetic voice of Christ through truth of faith and morals taught by His Church.
On July 25 this year we celebrated the 47th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the papal encyclical by Blessed Paul VI which condemned as morally inadmissible any form of contraception.
As we read in n. 11 of Humanae Vitae, “every marriage act must be open to the transmission of human life.” This means that no marriage act may ever be intentionally closed to the transmission of human life by the use of contraception, which it is impossible to use without having an anti-life will.
If the spouses engage in the marital act with an anti-life will, even with Natural Family Planning in the absence of a grave reason for spacing or delaying births, they commit mortal sin with the result of the loss of the state of grace.
This clear and settled teaching on human sexuality within marriage is still widely rejected, as it was when first promulgated in 1968, by many who even today still claim to be Catholics and regularly receive Communion which is, for that reason, sacrilegious and useless.
But the purpose of Christ and of our Catholic faith is so that by Christ’s coming as Savior to impart a state of grace we can live one day forever in His Kingdom: You cannot be Catholic in fact if you willingly persist in a state of sin, that is, you are in a state of mortal sin and refuse to confess and receive absolution.
We do not need to change Catholic teaching because we have Confession. Forgiveness through absolution is the answer, not futile attempts to change the truth.
When it comes to the truth, all we have to do to be saved is to change our minds and trust the Lord for the constant help of His grace in the sacraments so that we may continue to profess and witness to Him with authenticity and integrity.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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(Follow me on Facebook at Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick on Twitter @MCITLFrAphorism. I blog occasionally at mcitl.blogspot.com and APriestLife.blogspot.com. You can email me at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.)
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