predication.net

In every good deed, our human activity is connected to action, God’s will. Indeed, this is not how two horses with equal strength are harnessed to the same cart. A better picture is the hand that writes with a pen. The writing then corresponds to both the pen and the hand. The cell, however, is a dead instrument. The human will is free. Therefore, it must submit to the direction of God’s hand freely. “Perfection,” as St. Vincent of Pauly writes, ” is that we unite our will with the will of God in such a way that his and our will are one will and will not. St. Anselm says that the joy of the angels in heaven is therefore complete, that they may unreservedly submit to the will of God. We humans on earth can offer God’s will more or less ideally.
The booklet Following Christ speaks of complete surrender, “resignation,” but makes no secret of the fact that there are few who sincerely experience it. Various degrees are therefore mentioned.

At the first stage are those who have decided to submit to God’s will, wherever it is evident from the commandment. They do not want to sin. Already this decision is a great thing and not easily accomplished. And yet it is still far from the perfect surrender expressed in the words of Christ, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Lk. 23:46); Father, not my will, but your will be done! (Lk 22,42).
By distinguishing explicit commands from so-called counsels, Catholic moral scholarship has also acknowledged the incompleteness of written moral laws. They are only the primary fundamental directives. A living relationship with God is more profound and more personal. We pray: that Thy will be done! If we say this from the fullness of our hearts, we are reconciled to all God does in the world and how He intervenes in our lives. St. Cassian writes that no one can
pray for the Father from the depths of his soul if he does not believe that they are equally for our good, the things that do not go well with us as those that God cares more for our salvation than we care for ourselves.
It is, therefore, preferable to conceive of God’s will not as law, which only enjoins and forbids, but rather as a good mother who cares for the child’s every step. We are increasingly convinced of what St. Augustine writes: “Do  outwardly nothing that the Almighty does not will; be it permitted, it to happen, or he does it.” The moral conclusion from this truth is the holy detachment that the Gospel commends: Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, neither 0 your flesh, what you will eat. Thy life is no more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them (Mal. 6:25-26).

Not everything that is solemn and grand is pleasing to God, and God wants it that way. In the Gospel, we heard how God quietly chose a simple man for a significant event in salvation history (cf. Luke 1:26-38).

The Gospel takes us from the event with Zechariah in the temple of Jerusalem to an unassuming town in Galilee, which was the northernmost part of Palestine. The people called this area the land of the Gentiles – because of the number of Gentiles who settled there. Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would magnify the seashore, Transjordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles. This is where God’s message is coming – to this region and to the little town of Nazareth, which was historically insignificant. Jesus’ contemporary asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Perhaps this insignificance is why God began his work of salvation `here.’ According to the Gospel, the message to Nazareth is brought by the same messenger as before to Zechariah in Jerusalem – Gabriel. This time, however, the messenger does not come to a priest but comes to a simple woman `the virgin betrothed to a man of the line of David named Joseph. And the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:27).

In Nazareth, mysterious promises begin to be fulfilled. God sends his message to the Virgin. Of this Virgin, we know that she is betrothed to a man. The betrothed man is Joseph, who comes from the line of David. The Lord God arranged things so that Mary’s son – before the law, the son of Joseph, could be a descendant of David’s royal lineage according to the law. The Messiah was to be a descendant of David.

There is a tendency today for people to seek sensationalism, and they often go to great lengths for it. Many people go to places of pilgrimage to see some revelation. But they are disappointed because they have not seen any disclosure. Although they have seen nothing, or even if they have seen something, which may not yet be a revelation, but a suggestion, they immediately go to tell everyone they meet.
Let us try; though we may have some signs and apparitions, which is not impossible, we can confide them to a person who will understand us and keep them to himself. It may also happen that we confess to someone who will look upon us as foolish and make us look stupid in front of others.

Let us live in retreat and suddenness, as Our Lady did. … God will find us as he found her.

I once traveled with a priest to a small village remote from the civilized world. From this village came two deacons and one divine. As we were riding in the car, I said: “This village has the Lord God’s back.” The priest driving me said: “You see, even though this village is completely cut off from the world, God has found people to serve Him here too.”

Let us not seek incredible sensations around us, for God does not like that, but let us be more concerned with the little things, for out of these grow great things that will please our Lord.

Have property, and be secure. All this is very necessary nowadays. It is specific material security in the life of each one of us, which is essential, but not the most important. We often put all our hope and trust in security. But can it make us truly happy? Are we satisfied with our lives? Do we feel secure?

In our pursuit of possessions, we typically forget about ourselves, our neighbors, and, last but not least, God. We have no time for anything. We do not have time for our possessions.
Has become a god. It has wholly darkened our minds. But the problem is not that we have great possessions. The problem is that we don’t know how to use the valuable goods that God has given us properly. They go wrong whenever man makes them objects of worship and subjects himself to them. But these gifts can also be holy when we turn them into instruments for doing good in the Christian role of justice and love.

Material goods are themselves goods that are meant to benefit not only us but the whole society in which we live. Man can either have God as his goal, which he achieves even through material things if he uses them as a means to earn salvation, or he can set up riches as his goal, with multiple desires for luxury, comfort, and possession of things, and thereby exclude himself from the true joy of possessing God.

There are essential and less essential or secondary things in life. It was important for the passengers of the Titanic to know that the ship was sinking. Many laughed at this at first and blithely played on with their cards. But after a while, it became fatal to them. They forgot they were on a ship.
Our life is also like one big ship where we must not forget that our life has a mission, a goal. Our goal is to be Christ. On Him, we must focus all our hope and love. He is the actual value that determines our whole life because no other value surpasses it, and in no additional value, there is no salvation.

Those who set their hearts on earthly goods will miss the opportunity to meet the Lord. Jesus reminds us, “You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Mt. 6:24). Thus, man’s true goal cannot be merely self-enrichment and the accumulation of goods. This would lead to a great impoverishment of our person. And perhaps even to the loss of salvation. Moderation in the possession and enjoyment of goods gives the Christian both human and supernatural maturity.

Man is also to sanctify himself through the use of these material gifts. Therefore, let us thank God for all He has given us, but also ask for the gift of grace so that we may know how to use these material goods and incorporate them into God’s great plan of salvation.

Introduction.
The Roman writer Aulus Gelasius wrote about his experience on the way from Cassiopeia to Brundusia. On the ship was a philosopher from Athens who promised to teach his students to despise death for money. While the boat was sailing, a storm broke out. The writer observed how the travelers behaved. They all screamed as the ship was tossed back and forth in the great waves. The philosopher did not yell. His face, however, was white as a wall. He was shaking like a leaf. He, too, was afraid of death. Even today, many charlatans come with various techniques and promises; we teach them to eliminate the fear of death. We don’t have to seek help from these frauds. Our faith gives us hope that death is not the downfall of life. We are aware of all this on today’s feast of the Assumption of Mary.
Homily.
The apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives after the Ascension of Jesus. They all prayed with one accord, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers./ Apost. 1,14/. The Holy Scripture does not remember Mary then. However, there is much in the Christian tradition. She participated daily in the Holy Mass and visited the places where her Son suffered and died. After the death of Jesus, she lived for 23 years. St. Paul writes that death is the punishment for sin. Since Mary was without sin, neither original nor personal, she should not taste death. But she wanted to be conformed to Jesus Christ, who also died. If we accept it as God’s will, death is the expression of great humility, the opportunity to gain great graces. Our death is often preceded by various illnesses, pains, and memory loss. This was not the case with St. Mary. With her, death came like a silent sleep in which her soul separated from her body. St. Jerome writes that he saw the body of St. Mary buried in the Gethsemane Garden. God called the apostles to Jerusalem when the time of Mary’s departure was approaching. They witnessed her death, and they buried her body. Only the apostle Thomas was absent. When he came on the third day, the apostles opened her tomb to show him Mary’s body for the last time. But in the tomb, the body was not. The apostles were convinced that Jesus had taken the body of St. Mary to heaven. This news also gives us the possibility to see further and deeper. Let us not see death as a ruthless, brutal law. Let us also see its second shore. Death is liberation only when a man is prepared for death, when he dies in peace, when he gives his soul to God. Who thinks that death lives well and dies well? At the world championship in parachuting, a French parachutist’s parachute did not open. He fell to the ground and died. His wife ran to him and called for a priest. Fortunately, among the spectators was a priest who spoke French. He gave the dying man absolution, the last anointing. The spouse was satisfied. She did not call the doctor because it was already in vain. She did not pull out the hair from despair. She did what was most necessary. Both of them were deeply believing people. That is why the dying man received the grace that opened the way to eternal life. We must not flee from death, but accept and prepare for it. Let us ask St. Mary to intercede for us with her Son, and so ask for many graces for us for the hour of our death.

God created the world. However, the Catechism adds: “He preserves it and governs it.” Theologians say that governing and preserving the world is a continuation of creation. But even though this is a human way of speaking, God is not in time. Therefore, it is not at all conceivable that he could first create the world and then walk away and leave it to its fate. On the contrary, he is in it constantly, present by his providence. But even this must not be imagined too humanly.
Primitive man is afraid of evil gods or spirits. He tries to appease them by sacrificing or avoiding them. Science and culture usually rid people of this superstitious terror of the unknown, mysterious beings. But it does inspire fear, a new one. It shows man his helplessness before the inexorable laws of nature. This certainty that governs the world has given rise to physics, technology, to all science. We don’t have to invoke the gods of the river to keep them from destroying our bridge; we need only calculate how much water it can take. The doctor assures us that we can live in peace. These laws make us, but they will convince us that we will die at a certain age, that it is impossible nothing can be done because it is a natural inevitability.

Day by day, we are getting to know better and better the laws of nature. It is advantageous; we can avoid any necessity, as we can prevent water when we know where it flows. Daily,  we are discovering that there are more necessities than we have thought of. There are the laws of heredity, the influence of climate, diet, climate, environment, we compile statistics of mortality, development, and so on. What does an individual mean in these numbers? Where is human freedom? There seems to be no place in this world; it is too disciplined and scientifically rigorous. At the end of antiquity, when the ancients suddenly transformed Greek and Roman gods into natural forces, the world’s inevitability and lawfulness were given a unique name: fate, fatum (hence the word fatalism). It was popularly said that even the gods fought against it in vain. Fate is the law of the world, as immutable as the movement of the stars in the sky. There remains no other but to resign oneself to it (to submit to the direction of the heavenly bodies, as the astrologers thought).
The writings of the Church Fathers often treatises Against Fate (cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa) or On the Divine Providence (Theodore of Cyrus). For there are immutable laws in nature. There is no need to deny this fact. But somewhere behind them, deep in the mystery of God’s life, is the one from which they have their source and which we know to be our Father who is in heaven (Mt 6:9), who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the field (Mt 6:26 and 30), and who has even assured us: Ask, and you shall receive! (Mt 7:7). God’s providence is a profound mystery; without revelation, it would hardly be solvable. It is, however, a positive message that transforms the evil fate, the alien and harsh law of the world, into the warm fatherly hand that guides us. Spiritual writers, however, do not engage in speculative explanations of dogma. Full of enthusiasm, they proclaim its practical implication for life: to entrust ourselves to God’s providence and to trust it fully.
Similarly, they speak of perfect “union with God’s will.” “Perfection is in this,” writes St. Vincent of Pauly, “that we unite our will with God’s will in such a way that his will and ours will are nothing but one will and unwillingness.  St. Augustine says it is easy for a rational man: ‘No-‘ For nothing happens in the world that the Almighty does not will; either he admits it, or himself does it.” St. Cassian adds that
we cannot even pray to the Father if we do not believe that everything that meets us is for our good. Faith in Providence, however, must not lead to passivity or inactivity. On the contrary, it should be an expression of inner freedom and trust so that we may cooperate more and more effectively with the God who guides and helps us. Bossuet writes that in devotion to the will of God, two elements. One is ” Believing that God takes care of everything.” But the other says: “Therefore we must act and be vigilant not to tempt God.” Similarly, P. Surin advises, “Let us let God act when he acts! But it is not right to leave everything to God when He wants us to do something ourselves.”

I read about a dog that also died after his master died. They found him at the grave of his landlord. Indeed, reading/listening to this news made many smiles. But this dog can be a role model and example to us in loyalty.

The word “loyalty” has not lost its meaning even today. We see loyalty being paid to those who have worked in one company for a certain period, etc.
But recently, we have seen the unpleasant thing that the word ‘fidelity’ is losing its beauty and meaning, whether in fidelity to marital or parental love. It would seem as if the terms we heard in the Gospel from the mouth of Christ Himself no longer apply or were “reserved only for the elect.”

What did the Lord Jesus mean to say to the Apostles when He said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me” (Mt 19:14)?

It is a severe problem. Even the Pharisees realized this, which is why they raised this question to Jesus, whether a man may put away his wife.
Jesus answered historically, but also theologically. Let’s try to catch the flow of his explanation.
First, let’s dwell on the historical question. The Pharisees appealed to Moses and his permission regarding the bill of divorce. But they interpreted it in their way. They reminded Jesus that there were cases where it was done quickly – the case of adultery. Jesus affirmed this but emphasized that these were the exceptions. Moses, burdened by the unusual circumstances of his life, especially while wandering in the wilderness, allowed the man to release the woman. However, the Lord Jesus immediately pointed out this was not the case initially. It was different from the beginning. When God created man and placed him in paradise, He then instituted a single marriage between a man and a woman, that is, one man and one woman, and this could not be abolished; therefore, He said: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Eph. 6:31), and he adds the explanation, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6).

The historical explanation of the Lord Jesus can be understood along the lines that something else is God’s commandments and human frailty and weakness. The Lord Jesus does not condemn human weakness, but if to say that man is only man but cannot change the eternal law of God. This binds all men for all time. Through this law, He wants to teach us that marriage is one indissoluble union.

The Church looks with great sorrow at broken and unhappy marriages and tries to help them as far as possible. However, it cannot change what God Himself has decided in His love and grace. He asks God for love and mercy for those who most need this reinforcement.

Theological response: The Lord Jesus sees the cure for this problem in the practice of only one virtue, and that is: LOVE.
Love is the perfect form of marriage. Those who seek strength in this virtue strengthen the marriage. Whoever is faithful to this love will be happy. Like everything in the world, love in marriage is subject to an inevitable evolution.
We distinguish four stages in love:

1. Love fiery as a volcano hot
This love wants more than it can and must always be at the beginning of a marriage. It is on it that marriage can be consummated. Such love is not just looking at oneself, but looking into oneself. It means knowing how to give of oneself.
St. Augustine expressed it beautifully with the stanza, “He who loves, gives. He who gives more loves more, and he who loves most gives most because he gives himself.” If spouses give of themselves, that is when they genuinely love each other.

2. Parental love
This love occurs when a baby comes into the family. Then follows a more effortless transfer of love from self to the child. The spouses look less at themselves and more at their love fruit. Then the object of unconditional love is the family. It will be lasting if it is built on this virtue.
Therefore, the question must be asked before marriage: am I in love with my fiancée? Do I genuinely love my family? Do I long for her? Do I want to have a family of my own? If so, then stay happy.

3. Love a man
We must expect that at that time, difficulties will come, and disagreements and inconveniences may reach, but if there is true love, it will overcome everything. At that time, we need to pray more for perseverance in love. God will surely hear such a prayer.

4. Mature love
We can compare this love to the setting sun. The sun is weaker, but it is there and continues. Then love shows great concern for the other partner’s good health and happiness. Such love anticipates thinking ahead and stops at how it would make the other party – the partner’s life easier. This is evidence of most healthful love in the fullest sense of the word.

Imagine a spacious Rex Hall in Turin that is crowded. A public debate on divorce is taking place. Several speakers have already taken their homes on the platform. The audience is divided into two groups: some favor divorce, others against it.
The Catholic speakers refer to the Gospel. One of the speakers speaks sharply against them. He says, what does this Jewish thinker of two thousand years ago think of imposing his outlived ideas on the people of the atomic age?
The assembly’s chairman interrupted the passionate speech: “Please, ten minutes have passed! I beg to speak next.”
Albert Prima, a young university student, has entered the debate. With a firm voice and shining eyes, he declares, “I believe in this Jesus Christ who came two thousand years ago to bring the message of truth! And I also believe in his Gospel because this truth is from God. Without it, our world would have long ago become a huge madhouse or a cage with wild beasts. As for divorce, I ask everyone here, “If you were to get married, would you rather marry a divorced woman or a woman who believes in Jesus Christ?” The roaring applause of the congregation rewarded the young student’s courage.
Would I also have the courage to witness Christ in this way?

Love is the best cure for all the ills and imperfections of married life. Therefore, when there is genuine love between spouses, there is no place for the word divorce. When there is a lack of it, a lack of the glue that binds families together, the cement that binds it together, the warmth that warms it, the twilight of family life sets in. And it is a matter of honor for every member of the family, partners, children, friends, and society to do everything we can to avoid such hopeless situations, prevent them, and fight against them.

The Church gives a proven and effective remedy for this: prayer. For we pray: … forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespasses…
In an address to newlyweds, the Holy Father John Paul II said: “If your love is to come to a happy conclusion, pray daily for one another.”

Let us pray fervently to God today that there may be as few families as possible in our neighborhood where the sun of love will set, where the cloud of self-love and selfishness will overshadow them, so that our nation may always enjoy the happiness and love of our Christian families.

Christians know that “Our Father” is their most ancient and purest prayer. Biblical studies confirm this. This is not to say that in other religions, we don’t encounter the idea of divine fatherhood. For example, the supreme god of the Romans is named Jupiter, which comes from Deus Pater, the father god. The prayers that are addressed to him in Virgil’s poem address him: “Father of gods and men!” Some have wanted to make this fact explained this fact by an ancient cult of dead ancestors or mythologies of the divine origin of rulers. Finally, all peoples believed that the dead were alive and would be raised in the religious world if their memory were sacred. And so, it can be said that according to primitive beliefs, the deities are integrated into the life of the tribe or family by the titles they had before they died. According to the Old Testament, even the God of Israel behaves to the chosen people as a father (cf. Psalm 89:27; 63:15; 64:7). The Jews are called upon to respect and obey him as a father. Yet they dared not to invoke him directly with the prayer “Our Father” until late in the period. And from a Hellenistic background comes the invocation we read in Sirach (23:1,4), “O Lord, Father, and Ruler of my life!” The prayers of the Palestinian Hebrews in Jesus’ time, who were not so Hellenized, remained anciently – Hebrews confessed divine fatherhood to their people. Still, they did not call him individually by the title “Father.”
The Gospel texts, however, make it abundantly clear that Jesus himself still invokes God as his Father. St. Mark (14:36) preserves the word in its original language – Abba, as uttered by Jesus in his anguished prayer in Gethsemane. It was a vernacular expression in the children’s language; it was how children called their fathers. The Hebrews would dare not use this word in prayer. It is a new revelation of how Christ still refers to his heavenly Father. It is the teaching that Jesus has to God a special relationship with God, different from other people. The Pharisees were offended at this, seeking to “kill” Jesus: not only for breaking the Sabbath but also for calling God his own Father made himself equal to God” [John 5:18].
If he also encourages us to say “Our Father,” he introduces us to a mystery hidden for centuries, into the heart of the divine life in which we are beginning to participate. Did the disciples understand this? In the beginning, they had little awareness of it. And when they did.
Faith in God the Father
Jesus himself explained it very clearly in his speech after the Last Supper (cf. John 14:8ff.); it is thought that the profound meaning of the mystery was grasped by St. John, who rested on the breast of Jesus. Indeed, the consciousness of this ineffable privilege is attested by the letters of St. Paul to the Galatians and Romans. They also preserve the original Aramaic expression: Abba! (cf. Ga/4:6; ihm8:15). Christians coming from a Hellenistic background did not understand it; therefore, probably the double word “Abba, Father.” When Christians pray like this, they are aware that their relationship to God is no longer “fatherly” in the indefinite, in a purely metaphorical sense, but expresses an unheard the privilege of divine sonship in which he shares who is his own Son and who gives us his Spirit into our hearts. And the voice of the Holy Spirit unites with our prayer and provides power that human nature does not know.
It is said that the son of a French king was his tutor and rebuked him with stern words. But the boy, however. was aware of his dignity and protested, “He dared not to speak to me like that if you knew I was the son of your king.” But the tutor was not to be disconcerted: “And you would not dare to protest if you were aware that I was the son of your God and that I call him ‘Our Father’ every day.” The true originality of this Christian invocation is even more evident when compared to the religious notions of Greco-Roman cultural concepts into which the Gospel message began to penetrate.

A few years ago, many of us stood at the box office of movie theaters to see a film that received a lot of attention from film critics; after all, it was awarded five Oscars, the highest honors. This film has been praised for its content and timeliness, yet, even after seeing it, many have chosen the other path: divorce!

The Pharisees came to Jesus and ended his answer by saying, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mt. 19:5-6).

Divorce has been, is, and will be a social and legal problem in every age, among all peoples, and thus among the Jews at the time of Christ.
The Pharisees came to Jesus to tempt Him. They thought they would provoke him to make unpopular statements about the cause of divorce. Those who oppose marital divorce invariably win many opponents and detractors by their stance. Christ, however, does not look at the hearers and speaks clearly and distinctly:
“Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to put away your wives; but from the beginning of creation, it was not so… God ordained marriage. It is not good for a man to be alone. Therefore, I will give him a help meet like unto him” (Mt. 19:8).
Christ here declares man and woman to be equal. To remarry a divorced woman, or to marry a divorced man, is to commit adultery. Christ is defending before the Pharisees the God-originally minded order of marital cohabitation. The most profound mystery of marriage lies in the Savior, elevating it to a sacrament.
St. Paul warns the Ephesians, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her….” (Eph. 5:25).
The love between spouses is the foundation of marriage and the family.

The conciliar document Joy and Hope say that marriage and conjugal love are directed toward procreation and the education of offspring. Children are precious gifts! But the role of parents is not only to give children physical life. Above all, parents must contribute to the healthy development of the spiritual life that begins with the child’s baptism. True love and offspring, however, require the indissolubility of marriage. The indissolubility of marriage is the primary mark of Christian marriage: what God has joined together, let not man put asunder!
This is how we must look at marriage, and this is how we must think about it. Today, however, we observe something else. There are many mistakes and misconceptions about marriage. Among them are those that claim that marriage is a private affair where anything goes. A child is considered a burden; therefore, every possible means is promoted against conception. It goes so far as to regard marriage as a shackle and therefore seeks to escape in free love, idolizing unchaste sex and nudity.

Our society is sick with frivolity in sexual life, the accumulation of divorce, and a general decline in morals. Selfishness, self-indulgence, and promiscuity are the enemies of marriage.

The ideal begins with. The young tell themselves that they have fallen in love at first sight. All it takes is an opportunity, a meeting, some fun, a little service / and they are already dreaming of each other, they are in love… Marital and family duties seem like a fairy tale to them, and woe betides anyone who would want to challenge this dream. Then marriage becomes a tragedy. The causes are many. Those concerning everything around them: housing, eating, concern for family traditions, maladjustment, lack of respect for the other, egoism…. are often severe cases, but usually petty ones, and not least there is a third.

Let’s let the survivors of this talk about it: I got married at 17. Today I am 47 years old and have had many sad experiences. I suffer terribly because I was deceived. I lost faith in people. I see in every man a slob, an alcoholic, a thief…

Life brings worse cases: in January 1973, in Preston on the road, a married couple and their 12-year-old son met for the last time. Both were doctors. After the divorce, the child was awarded to the mother. By the time of the conversation, the end of the misunderstanding had taken place. It ended with the shooting of the woman. The mother is in the grave, the father is in jail, and the drama has remained in the little boy’s heart forever.

There are many similar dramas and tragedies. They do not arise suddenly but gradually. It starts with dancing and conversations. He is unhappy, she is disappointed, and behold – they have found each other! Outwardly, as if nothing has changed. And innocently, the tragedy of a woman and children slowly rises. The children often sue and have the right to sue! Society, the Church, and God have a right to sue too.

Marriage is not a toy. It is a sacrament and a social institution. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mt 19:6).

Indeed, none of us is perfect. There will be crises in married life, so it is necessary to be aware of the pillars that can protect marriage. Someone has likened marriage to a sanctuary. Every temple is built on a foundation, a foundation. Marriage must be a unity of two persons, not of bodies. A person is not only a body and senses but also a mind and a will. This unity must be based on patience, benevolence, and kind love. “Love is … … does not turn off … is not selfish … does not rejoice in iniquity…” (1 Cor. 13:4-6).

The second pillar is mutual service. All true love becomes service. Service to the Father is true patriotism. Service to God is true religion.

Service is the love of a mother in the upbringing of a child. Christ Himself came to earth to serve and not to be served. When two egoisms meet, that is when it is wrong. That is why I both urge and encourage you to divorce, but not one that destroys the smile of the children, the spouse, and the one we have loved, but divorce with illusions and aspirations for a third person! There is no ideal person! It is only in our vision, but it can be approached by accepting the other person as they are!

A scholar said: “If you can’t build a palace, at least build a house. But remember, you won’t be comfortable in it if you don’t let go of your palace dreams!”

The writer Štefan Králik wrote a play called T r a s o v I s k o, which we have also seen on television: The Childless Marriage. Both parents long to have children. The husband, however, often asks his wife: “What have we done, how have we sinned, that God has not given us a child of our own?” The wife, almost in despair, experienced anxiety; she knew the actual cause, which she eventually told her husband. As an unmarried woman, she was expecting a child, but it could not be born. They forcibly stopped his life at that time. And the aftermath? She couldn’t have any more children!

Do you think this is just a fictional invention? No! Life writes many such tragedies. And do you think that those physically and mentally disabled children in institutions are a testimony and proof of a restrained life? No! Parents should examine their consciences. Some, for pleasure and vitality, convenience, and free love for life, have stolen and impoverished their children!

The world must understand, and those who want to marry must understand, and those who live in marriage must also understand that marriage is a great grace, a sacrament! Marriage is not an animal fusion that is already over when it no longer suits one. Marriage only acquires beauty and value when sacrifices must be made for its sake when they see each other more than themselves.

“Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to put away your wives…” (Mt. 19:8) Jesus said to the Pharisees as He reproached them for their meanness, falsehood, and pretense.

Harshness in our families must be replaced by first love, zeal, and tenderness, and not by hatred, calculation, and malice.

Let us all see a film about our family today. Would it deserve an award, an Oscar? Could it say something good to the world?