Marriage Sunday: Let's hear it for Marriage

You have to hand it to our Parish Priest, John Boyle. He really is good with his homilies. To introduce Marriage Sunday, inter alia, he referred to the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, as a single parent. It's a twist on that oft told story that I never considered.

While he (Fr Boyle) spoke mostly on the parable, which was after all the gospel, he did speak about Marriage and its sanctity.

Many marriages, regretfully, end in divorce or separation. But, that doesn't mean that the state (or rather the vocation to wedded life) is finished, or not something today's singles strive for.

It is still the best state for a family and for raising children.

I must admit that the Same Sex Adoption bill passing through NSW Parliament is a win for those pushing to have same sex unions recognised as "marriage". And, like many things which the normal order of things has been changed for various reasons, political correctness included, it's a slipper slope we now encounter for those who want to keep the millenia old definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

At the risk of offending my friends who are in same sex unions, I must nail my colours to the mast. Marriage should still be that, a union between a man and a woman.

In the political arena, we can take some consolation that both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition do not want to introduce a bill to recognise same sex unions as marriage. Well, so far.

After all Labor now has the Greens on their loose coalition and one of their platforms is to have same sex marriages, we can only wait and see.

And, if I remember that Senator Bob Brown in an effusive mood, after announcing the "coalition" with the Labor government, expounded on some of things not agreed on with the latter. One of these was same sex marriages. And, he said that it’s time has come, citing as an example what is already law in Catholic Spain.

I wonder if he has referring to the 15th century under the rule of Isabella and Ferdinand, referred to as “Isabel, la católica” and “Fernando, el católico”, respectively. As, the current Madrid government is separate from the Catholic Church's heirarchy. And, the law was passed by that government against the Church's wishes.

Well, we live in interesting times. The present "hung parliament" and the current government still has to get rolling and whether the Greens will push this agendum together with its environmental agenda is still to be seen.

If we still consider marriage as a sacred union, which our Lord affirmed "what therefore God has joined togther, let no man put asunder" (Mark 10:9), let's hear it for Marriage. Let's support those who plan to marry, are married and especially those that aspire to the sacrament of Matrimony.

After all our Lord not only "restored the original order of matrimony but raised it to the dignity of a sacrament. He gave spouses special grace to live out their marriage as a symbol of Christ's love for His bride the Church". (Compendium of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church p. 96).

So, to those in the state or about to step into the state of marriage, hear, hear.