Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Jeremiah 3:14-17; Matthew 13:18-23)
The gospel today speaks of different types of soil to nourish the seed of the word of God. It features the many qualities of ground as metaphors that facilitate the coming of the Kingdom: proximity to well-traveled roads, rockiness, presence of thorns, and richness of composition. Let’s take a look at rocky soil that provides little substance in which the word of God may take root. We will begin with an example.
Last week the legislature in Argentina passed a law which validates so-called gay marriages. Some well-intentioned people show little concern about this development. They claim, “If gays or lesbians in another part of the world think they are married, let them; it doesn’t affect me.” However, the new law in Argentina is part of a global movement that is distorting a proper understanding of marriage. Marriage unites a man and a woman in intimate love so that they may procreate and provide for children. It is an absolutely vital institution that must be safeguarded if civilization is not to devolve. Seeing it exclusively as an arrangement for sexual gratification or even the partnering of individuals lessens its purpose of engendering and nourishing new generations of responsible people. Much more may be said about marriage; for example, why heterosexual couples who cannot give birth may wed. But now it is only necessary to note that an improper concept of marriage easily leads to shallow existence thwarting the fruition of the word of God.
Upholding the nature of marriage as a union of love and the proper context of procreation does not ordain contempt for homosexuals. God knows that they are too often ridiculed and harassed. Like everyone else, they must be accepted and cherished as human beings. But recognizing the inherent contradiction of “gay marriage” as possible disserves society and makes the ground on humanity treads especially rocky.
