Those faithful to Christ are constantly assailed by the aggressive secularist/liberal movement that is around us.
As committed followers of Christ we will naturally respond to their silly claims, in doing so we tend to allow such groups to set our agenda. This is happening on many fronts and can be common ground for some serious debate, at least in this country, between Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics. In the questions of trying to admit women to Holy Orders, or Marriage, or Sex, or respect for life, why do we allow these innovators to set the agenda?
Yesterday Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap has preached in Mexico about families. He started by saying that Christians should not focus all their energies on combating a secular concept of marriage. Rather they should rediscover its beauty for themselves and propose this ideal to the world. He explained that Christians need to rediscover the biblical ideal of marriage and family so they can promote this ideal to the world.
The Christian idea of matrimony and family does not need defending. The most important thing is the task of Christians rediscovering it and living it to the full, such that they again propose it to the world with their actions, more than with their words.
He explained how in marriage two people who love each other -- and the case of the man and the woman in marriage is the strongest -- reproduce something of what happened in the Trinity; human marriage is therefore a symbol and reflection of the love of God for his people. Human love is a reflection of the love of God.
By living the calling to be a Christian family one stands for the concept of family as given to us in Revelation without allowing secularists to set any agenda for us. And surely this is so also true in other areas in which we find the secularist/liberal ire. Who sets the agenda?
As committed followers of Christ we will naturally respond to their silly claims, in doing so we tend to allow such groups to set our agenda. This is happening on many fronts and can be common ground for some serious debate, at least in this country, between Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics. In the questions of trying to admit women to Holy Orders, or Marriage, or Sex, or respect for life, why do we allow these innovators to set the agenda?
Yesterday Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap has preached in Mexico about families. He started by saying that Christians should not focus all their energies on combating a secular concept of marriage. Rather they should rediscover its beauty for themselves and propose this ideal to the world. He explained that Christians need to rediscover the biblical ideal of marriage and family so they can promote this ideal to the world.
The Christian idea of matrimony and family does not need defending. The most important thing is the task of Christians rediscovering it and living it to the full, such that they again propose it to the world with their actions, more than with their words.
He explained how in marriage two people who love each other -- and the case of the man and the woman in marriage is the strongest -- reproduce something of what happened in the Trinity; human marriage is therefore a symbol and reflection of the love of God for his people. Human love is a reflection of the love of God.
By living the calling to be a Christian family one stands for the concept of family as given to us in Revelation without allowing secularists to set any agenda for us. And surely this is so also true in other areas in which we find the secularist/liberal ire. Who sets the agenda?
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