Posted on 02/28/2014 11:23:36 AM PST by NKP_Vet
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican this morning. In remarks following the readings of the day, the Holy Father focused on the beauty of marriage and warned that the Church must accompany – not condemn – those who experience failure in married life. He explained that Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church, and therefore you cannot understand one without the Other.
The Holy Father also warned against giving in to the temptation to entertain “special pleading” in questions regarding marriage. The Pharisees, he noted, present Jesus with the problem of divorce. Their method, the Pope said, is always the same: “casuistry,” — “is this licit or not?”
“It is always the small case. And this is the trap, behind casuistry, behind casuistical thought, there is always a trap: against people, against us, and against God, always. ‘But is it licit to do this? To divorce his wife?’ And Jesus answered, asking them what the Law said, and explaining why Moses framed the Law as he did. But He doesn’t stop there. From [the study of the particular case], He goes to the heart of the problem, and here He goes straight to the days of Creation. That reference of the Lord is so beautiful: ‘But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh’.”
Pope Francis went on to say, “The Lord refers to the masterpiece of Creation,” which is precisely the human person, created as male and female. God said He “did not want man to be alone,” He wanted him to be with “his companion along the way.” The moment Adam meets Eve, he said, is a poetic moment: “It is the beginning of love: [a couple] going together as one flesh.” The Lord , he repeated, “always takes casuistic thought and brings it to the beginning of revelation.” On the other hand, he explained, “this masterpiece of the Lord is not finished there, in the days of Creation, because the Lord has chosen this icon to explain the love that He has for His people.” At the very point “when the people is unfaithful,” he said, God speaks to him with words of love”:
“The Lord takes this love of the masterpiece of Creation to explain the love He has for His people. And going further: when Paul needs to explain the mystery of Christ, he does it in a relationship, in reference to His Spouse: because Christ is married, Christ was married, He married the Church, His people. As the Father had married the People of Israel, Christ married His people. This is the love story, this is the history of the masterpiece of Creation – and before this path of love, this icon, casuistry falls and becomes sorrowful. When, however, this leaving one’s father and mother, and joining oneself to a woman, and going forward... when this love fails – because many times it fails – we have to feel the pain of the failure, [we must] accompany those people who have had this failure in their love. Do not condemn. Walk with them – and don’t practice casuistry on their situation.”
Pope Francis also said the Gospel episode encourages us to reflect “about this plan of love, this journey of love in Christian marriage, that God has blessed the masterpiece of His Creation,” a blessing, he said, “that has never been taken away. Not even original sin has destroyed it.” When we thinks of this, we can “see how beautiful love is, how beautiful marriage is, how beautiful the family is, how beautiful this journey is, and how much love we too [must have], how close we must be to our brothers and sisters who in life have had the misfortune of a failure in love.”
Turning again to Saint Paul, Pope Francis emphasized the beauty of “the love Christ has for His bride, the Church”:
“Here too, we must be careful that love should not fail: [it is dangerous] to speak about a bachelor-Christ (It. Cristo troppo scappolo): Christ married the Church. You can’t understand Christ without the Church, and you can’t understand the Church without Christ. This is the great mystery of the masterpiece of Creation. May the Lord give all of us the grace to understand it and also the grace to never fall into these casuistical attitudes of the Pharisees, of the teachers of the law.”
“It is always the small case. And this is the trap, behind casuistry, behind casuistical thought, there is always a trap: against people, against us, and against God, always. ‘But is it licit to do this? To divorce his wife?’ And Jesus answered, asking them what the Law said, and explaining why Moses framed the Law as he did. But He doesn’t stop there. From [the study of the particular case], He goes to the heart of the problem, and here He goes straight to the days of Creation. That reference of the Lord is so beautiful: ‘But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh’.”
If the church is to help homosexuals, to do more than wag its finger at them in their pit, it needs to get this down pat. Maybe they should read it over and over first. Divorce rates in the church today are scandalous.
Homosexuals, who overwhelmingly have been abused in childhood in order to be disordered toward homosexuality, need our prayers for their cross is heavy. They need to understand that they have a problem just like an addict but their problem can be overcome by the power of God.
Problem with homosexuals is they have no use for the Bible and the word of God. It’s like talking to a wall.
I used to consider divorced people to be second class citizens...until it happened to me. It only takes one side to do it, and without cause.
As a woman I used to know said, “I take responsibility for some of the problems in my marriage, but not my divorce because I didn’t do it.”
Everyone is loveable and hateable. When you marry someone you make a commitment to focus on their good side. When someone violates that vow and chooses to be their spouses enemy, there really isn’t much the other spouse can do about it. When a person has CHOSEN to stop loving their spouse, it is all on them. After all, love is not a “deserved” thing.
Not all. They first need to be separated from the destructive culture and influences like any other addict before you can break thru with them.
I think that is where the big problem is especially with all these feel good weddings where they make up their own vows and such.
I, N, take thee, N, for my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, til death do us part; and thereto I plight thee my troth.
The Holy Father sympathizes with the broken hearted who are experiencing a broken marriage. Certainly, that is the compassionate and loving thing for the parish priest to do.
The issue making the rounds, however, is focusing more on the condition(s) for granting an annulment of that marriage, which is required after a civil divorce and prior to re-marrying another, other than one’s former spouse.
This statement by the Holy Father spades the ground, and doesn’t reveal a splinter of intent to change a single thing, yet.
The media, the cafeteria Catholics and those outside the Church, would seem to hope our practices become more liberal— to basically join the domino effect of fallen standards. This of course, would lessen the increasingly glaring contrast between the Church and the more liberal others inside and outside the Church.
I can’t imagine anything will be changed or diluted, but perhaps a better style of pastoral companionship and spiritual communion will be in the offing, for those making their path through the Tribunal stage.
Encouragement and preparation for the opinion the Tribunal may render may require its own special catechesis
After all, naturally, it is devastating to be denied Holy Communion. It does, in the flesh, come off as a high price to pay, so catechesis is very necessary, to deal with that brutal level of disappointment.
Yep. Even before my divorce (18 years ago, after 20 years) when someone complained about their spouse and was considering divorce I would say to them, “What part of ‘for better or worse’ and ‘until death do us part’ did you not understand?”
I devotedly wish that Pope Francis would not use words that are not common in the English language, less we are confused by them.
“Casuasity”
>>the use of clever arguments, especially on moral issues, to try to make someone believe something that is not true.>>
This is the reason that the media will ignore the Pope’s words. They do not fit in with their narrative of Pope Francis and his views of homosexuality.....which of course in this day and age includes homo “marriage”.
‘But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh’.”
This is by no means true of all homosexually oriented people. There's organizations like "Courage," a fellowship of chaste homosexual Catholics.
Then there are a bunch of Catholic writers --- Eve Tushnet, Melinda Selmys, Patrick Einheber, Steve Gershom, Gabriel Blanchard, Joshua Gonnerman are the ones whose names I can think of right off the bat --- who are fully Catholic, and who write about living celibately within that orientation. And I am sure they represent a whole lot of other people who are not necessarily organized, and not necessarily writers.
I respect tese people, and I know they would be disturbed at being lumped together with defiant anti-God sodomites.
Just a reminder not to make sweeping, all-inclusive generalizations.
This follows right along with Pope Francis’ further attempts to justify Holy Communion for adulterers, in deference to the German bishops who were behind his election.
Both Kasper and Francis start out by talking about the beauty of marriage but eventually dive into how to get around the indissolubility of the same. Take for instance this statement:
“When, however, this leaving one’s father and mother, and joining oneself to a woman, and going forward... when this love fails – because many times it fails – we have to feel the pain of the failure, [we must] accompany those people who have had this failure in their love.”
What doe’s he mean by “accompany” these adulteress other than sacrilegiously give them Holy Communion?
This pope seems most concerned about this topic, which should not even be on the table.
Meanwhile, Belgium has legalized euthanasia for children this week and all Francis does is compare Communists in a favorable light with St. James.
What doe’s he mean by “accompany” these adulteress adulterers other than sacrilegiously give them Holy Communion?
Leave it to you to twist around the Pope’s so you don’t have to agree with anything he says.
Leave it to you to twist around the Pope’s words so you don’t have to agree with anything he says.
It was a beautiful homily on marriage. Looks like you are not going to get divorced(unless annuled) receiving communion or homo “marriage”. Sorry to disappoint you.
If you are not engaging in homosexual behavior, you are not homosexual.
I didn’t twist anything. I quoted the Pope verbatim. On other threads, I’ve quoted Kasper verbatim. I’ve quoted Marx verbatim.
These guys are up to no good.
You quoted nothing out of his homily on marriage and Kaspar is not mentioned in the homily. Your hatred of Pope Francis is not healthy. If you are Catholic, and from your bitter postings it’s hard to believe, you need to support your Pope, not constantly criticize him. You need to pray for him. He’s the pope that God gave the Church, no one else. In essence what you are saying is you know more than God and what is good for His Church.
"“When, however, this leaving one’s father and mother, and joining oneself to a woman, and going forward... when this love fails – because many times it fails – we have to feel the pain of the failure, [we must] accompany those people who have had this failure in their love.”
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