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March 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – 1. Behind the debates about the matrimony between a man and a woman and the “marriage for all” of the LGBT-ideology there is to be found the diametrical opposition between two incompatible images of man. In this context, it is necessary to understand marriage correctly and to live it in a new way.

2. The Christian image of man is based on the order of creation: philosophically, the order of creation has a counterpart in the concept of 'nature'. The concept of 'nature' does not mean the factual-material, but the spiritual-personal, which gives the material existence its form, its essence. Man is a person in a spiritual-bodily nature. The moral law has been written into the heart of every human being (Rom 2:16sq) as well as explicitly revealed to the people of God in the form of the 10 Commandments (Ex 20: 1-17; Deut 5:6-22). Thus there is a common insight into the nature of man beyond the borders of religions and world views. Man is never a means to an end, but an end in itself. This is also the meaning of the natural and international law, which has its origin in the thinking of the school of Salamanca and of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). These principles have been reflected in 1948 in the Charter of Human Rights or in the German Basic Law: The dignity of man is inviolable and this dignity precedes all positive legislation. The state cannot determine what the nature of man is, if it does not want to achieve a dictatorship of opinion and thus undermine its own democratic foundation.

3. The image of man of genderism, the socially arbitrary construction of gender and of transhumanism is purely materialistic “as if God did not exist”. Gender ideology is therefore an anti-human ideology that wants to destroy the natural order and with it the spiritual-bodily integrity of man: the human being is not recognized as a unique person in the conditions of his corporeality, his historical and social location, but much more as biological matter that serves one's own pleasure or the alien arbitrary will in just any form. Human nature, the creation as man and woman, is first to be deconstructed, i.e. destroyed, in order to be then newly constructed and defined at the complete discretion of whomever. What a devilish game that is to be played here with man. A game that is diametrically opposed to the principle 'the dignity of man is inviolable' from an anthropological and Christian point of view. In reality, the identity of man lies first in his person as man or woman, in his language, his culture, his conscience, etc. – but not in the erotic attraction to himself, another person, a fetish as a means of sexual self-pleasure.

4. Only the Christian Sacrament of Marriage forms the perfect framework for the sexual development of man as man and woman. That is to say, it is oriented towards the other beloved person and thus towards God, Who also carries out His Will of creation and salvation through marriage and family. Marriage between a man and a woman is in no way only a form of mutual sexual satisfaction, but, rather a community of intimate personal love and holistic responsibility for each other (including the sacramentally mediated salvific relationship with God) and for the children and relatives. The classical and at the same time very modern doctrine of marriage has nothing to do with an appropriation of the spouses for (utilitarian) child rearing and for the egoistic satisfaction of sexual desires. Marriage is rather the participation of the spouses in God's creative love in becoming one flesh (in Christ as a sacrament) and in the realization of the Creator's will through the succession of generations. The children are here not toys of the parents. Rather, they are created by God and entrusted to the parents so that they may find their salvation in the glorification of God the Creator, Redeemer and Perfector of every human being.

5. The effort to adequately understand marriage in God's Will of creation and salvation remains Christian only if the biblical testimony and the anthropology developed in the life of the Church and in the doctrine of the sacramentality of marriage do not fall under the paradigm of the anthropology of genderism, which is not natural but materialistic, i.e. atheistic. One must not, as in Gnosticism, submit the entire Revelation to an ideological speculation and only with some reminiscences maintain the appearance of Christianity (with associative Bible quotations or the insane dictum, such as “God created me diverse, egoistic, racist, nationalistic, etc.”, as if the dysfunctions and character defects were caused by God in a Manichaean way).

6. Thus, the state can not arbitrarily redefine the nature of marriage according to political interests, since the mutual assignment of man and woman belongs essentially to the nature of man. The concept of “marriage” can be properly used only in the context of the natural law and even more so in the ecclesiastical context: the unique union of a man and a woman in the communion of love, body and life before God. Thus, the use of the political slogan “marriage for all” is only a proof that nothing has been understood. One can even go so far as to suggest that such confusing and deliberately cynical wording may even be a violation or attack on religious freedom. The husband and the wife are unique persons in their love community and not the interchangeable sex partners in smaller or larger numbers.

7. People with same sex attractions are just as beloved by God as everyone else. Also the blessing of those individuals is –  just like the blessing of all people no matter what sexual inclination – is always an act of divine grace and a call to live according to the Commandments of God. But on the morning of creation, God blessed the first marriage as the union of a man and a woman. A union of whatever kind, which is contrary to God's Will, cannot at the same time be declared to be approved by God. For to bless, benedicere, means to declare something to be good and to become good in God's view and towards God. Respect for individuals with certain inclinations must also be distinguished from the interests of pressure groups that deliberately want to impose by force or with the help of brainwashing their views on the majority in society. According to the dictatorship of relativism, anyone who justifiably disagrees with this view is to be silenced, ostracized by the media or even legally prosecuted.

8. However, no other forms of living together can be blessed by the Church – if she remains loyal to her Divine Founder – except marriage and consecrated life; individuals, on the other hand, can all be blessed.
This does not only refer to the partnership of people with sexual inclinations to persons of their own sex. Also the partnership of a man and several women or of a woman and several men cannot be blessed by the Church. Even normal friendships are not formally blessed. Marriage between a man and a woman is part of the essential characteristic of the Church, since it is the fertile nucleus of the Christian family. It was instituted as a Sacrament by Jesus Christ and is inseparable from the community of believers. It is only with Jesus that, in the face of many an obscuration (caused by Original Sin) of marriage, God's original Will for monogamy, indissolubility, openness to the child and sacramentality has once again become fully apparent.

Therefore, it is important that pastors, in the name of Christ the Crucified and Risen Lord and the Good Shepherd, encourage spouses to rediscover each other again and again, also as unique persons loved by God, and to rekindle in the Holy Spirit the fire of personal and integral love again and again. The family is and must remain the only place where the highest form of this spiritual and physical love and union with each other and with God is lived and where God's Love for His creation is presented by man and woman in a uniquely fruitful manner.

Gerhard Cardinal Müller, Rome

Editor’s note: Authorized translation from the German by LifeSite's Dr. Maike Hickson