As goes the quality of marriages, so goes the quality of life in the Church and in the world as a whole. While the Eucharist is the summit and climax of the Church’s sacramental life, it can be said that sacramental marriage serves as the basis and foundation of the Church’s sacramental life. Infant Baptism illustrates this. The Church urges parents to arrange for the baptism of their child as soon after the birth of the child as is possible. Think of how the number of baptisms would shrink if more and more parents put off the practice of bringing their children to our parishes for baptism.
As a result of the discipline of clerical celibacy, it can be said that vocations to the priesthood come from the homes of the laity. When a man is ordained to the priesthood, this happens only as a result of a lot of support that he receives along his journey to priestly ordination. Normally, a substantial amount of support that a candidate for the priesthood receives comes from his own parents. If parents do not invite and encourage their sons to consider the priesthood as a possibility for their lives, the number of men preparing for the priesthood will shrink. As a result, people will have less and less access to those Sacraments that require the presence of a priest to confect and to administer them. Think of how impoverished the Catholic Faith would be in settings in which persons do not have access to sacraments that require the presence of a priest. Again, it needs to be stressed that priestly vocations spring from parents who encourage their sons to consider the priesthood.
The Church proactively promotes the sanctity of marriage in ways such as the following: 1) Each diocese insists that couples who want their marriage to be recognized by the Church participate in an extensive pre-marriage preparation process. In situations in which neither party for a prospective marriage has been married before, these couples need to contact the parish office at least 6 months prior to their envisioned wedding date. For engaged couple situations in which either one or both parties have been married before, the Church first needs to explore whether persons in this situation are free to enter into a marriage that would be recognized by the Catholic Church. 2) The Church urges engaged couples as well as married couples to learn about and then to practice Natural Family Planning within the context of their marriages. When couples relate to the gift of our sexuality as God has designed this, as this is promoted in the Natural Family Planning program, this leads to happy and joy-filled marriages. 3) Marriage enrichment opportunities, such as Marriage Encounter weekends and retreats for married couples support couples in the on-going challenge to strengthen and to build up their marriages. 4) Every year, our Diocese honors married couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries with a special Mass in their honor at the Cathedral with our Bishop as the main celebrant.
Close to home, we can work to promote the sanctity of marriage and family life in ways such as the following: 1) Hopefully, in response to prayer, each couple will want to determine for their family life what is a necessity and what is a luxury. If we focus upon working to obtain those goods and services that we need in order to live as the Lord wants us to live, we will have the time and energy that are needed to build wholesome relationships within our families. 2) Some families promote a setting in which meaningful conversation and sharing can occur by refraining from the use of technological devices when they share meals.
If each of us continues to pray and to work proactively to promote meaningful communication and sharing within a setting of God-inspired love, we will be contributing in a significant way to make our marriages, our parishes and the communities in which we live more Christlike and caring settings in which to reside.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor