Bishop on World Marriage Day

Bishop Robert J. Brennan
Church recognizes importance of marriage, family life

When I came to Columbus to serve as your Bishop nearly two years ago, I was happy to learn was that St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of our Diocese. His book, Introduction to the Devout Life, first published over 400 years ago is a classic that is still being published and read today by men and women of all ages and all walks of life who desire to draw themselves closer to God and to grow in holiness and grace. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read this book, I would encourage you to do so.

At the conclusion of Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales writes:

Look upon Jesus Christ, and do not renounce Him for all the world. And when the labors of a devout life seem hard to you sing with St. Francis of Assisi: “Such are the joys that lure my sight, all pains grow sweet, all labors light.”

On our journey through this life that God our Father has given us, His Son, Jesus Christ, invites us to follow Him as He shepherds and guides us through all aspects of life – the joyful, the sorrowful, and everything in-between. And throughout our life’s journey, Jesus is always there reaching out to us, calling each of us by name. What joy we experience, what comfort we find, and what hope we discover by encountering Christ and embracing His teachings in the Gospel!

With this in mind, I invite you to join with me and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in celebrating National Marriage Week (February 7-14). The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) marks it as “a great prompt for everyone to reflect on the gift marriage is to our Church and our country, as well as an opportunity for couples to build up their own marriages.” Indeed married couples, living faithfully the vows of their marriage in the context of  real life challenges and struggles, transform the world. Their free, total, faithful, and fruitful love, expressed in their vows and lived out every day, is a sign of God’s love within the Trinity and His love for us all. Marriage is a gift that demonstrates sacrifice, fosters hope, manifests mercy, and creates new life. With gratitude for this profound witness to the Joy of the Gospel as described by Pope Francis and the Splendor of Truth as proclaimed by Pope St. John Paul II, the Church seeks to honor, encourage, and support couples in married life.  The USCCB provides many great resources for all men and women on their website ( www.foryourmarriage.org) in observance of this week, as does our own Marriage and Family Life Office (www.columbuscatholic.org/marriage-enrichment).  

It is important for all of us to remember – especially during this week – that life is never as simple and clean as we would like it to be as we walk this journey together. Marriage can be difficult and many marriages are under stress or in need of healing. This is not something to be ashamed of, but rather an opportunity to seek assistance and support. There is always hope! We also recognize individuals who have experienced the trauma of civil divorce and we desire to provide pastoral guidance, accompaniment, opportunities for healing, and above all, encounters with our Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, we can never underestimate or undermine the heroic sacrifices that single-parents make each and every day because of various circumstances they have experienced in their lifetime. For all of these situations – and many others – our Marriage and Family Life Office offers resources and support and our Tribunal stands ready along with our parishes who may seek an annulment and regularize marriages.

During the past several years we have witnessed many groups that devoted their efforts to legally redefine marriage. By and large during this legal process, regrettably, the outcome of their efforts has distorted or mischaracterized the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage as lacking respect, with some describing our faith and our teaching as a form of “hatred.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

The church’s teaching on marriage as a faithful, committed, life-long, life-giving union between one man and one woman is rooted both in natural law and divine revelation.  The consistent teaching of the Church on every moral teaching from the protection of all human life from conception to natural death, to the dignity and respect of every person, and the outright rejection of racism and anti-Semitism, to the commitment to care for the poor and the vulnerable, to the teachings on sexuality and marriage all rest consistently on the pillar of faith that from the very beginning God made the human person in His own image and likeness. (Genesis 1:27)

As a Church, and as Catholic institutions, we faithfully and authentically teach that which Christ has revealed to us in the Gospel.  Joyfully, boldly, faithfully, and lovingly, we proclaim the fullness of His teachings.  His overarching teachings are twofold – love God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Love is at the core of Christ’s teachings, which entails a profound respect and love for every person.  However, love does not mean shying away from the truth, for it is love, and with respect, that we speak and convey the timeless truths of scripture.

Numerous questions around human sexuality are felt and experienced in our towns and cities and in many of our own parishes and homes. We read and hear that many in our contemporary and progressive society disagree with the teachings of the Church regarding marriage and gender identity. But on this subject two points need to be made. First, it is wrong to dismiss Church teaching as being disrespectful or even hateful. In proclaiming and living the Gospel of Christ there is no hatred, but only the constant call to follow Him and to live our lives according to His way, not the way of the world. And therein lies the rub because, secondly, when we identify ourselves and society as “progressive” we have to ask ourselves what are we progressing toward and what are we progressing away from? When we turn to our civil and legal system to change the definition of marriage, there may be a cheer by some for having achieved a civil recognition and legal outcome, but nothing changed from the perspective of moral teaching nor natural law. Thus, we must ask, whom do we follow and why? 

Jesus Christ invites us to follow Him. But competing voices in our world invite us to do the same and follow them. “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

Hear me out, because a major part of this discussion must include the fact that we are called to love one another as Christ loves us. We cannot, as faithful followers of Christ, stop walking alongside those who experience same-sex attraction. In doing so we are not condoning any lifestyle that does not embrace a chaste expression of love. Rather, it is a reminder that we are on this life’s journey together. Thus I want to state, unequivocally, that the Church wishes to walk with and demonstrate respect for every person in this position with support as well.
Remember, too, that the labels of “liberal” or “conservative” get tossed around and applied rather loosely at times to advance one’s arguments against the Church. How can the Catholic Church be categorized as liberal or conservative when we adhere to and proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is truth personified; His teachings are neither liberal nor conservative and, thus, are timeless and stand firmly on their own. 

Friends, living a life in faithful witness to Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church can seem challenging at times when we are presented with any number of contemporary issues concerning faith and morality, but this sense of being “challenged” occurs only if we allow the complexity of contemporary issues and arguments to cloud the clear and consistent teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospel and those of His Catholic Church. 

My prayer for you and your families is this: during National Marriage Week we may together take time to explore the depths of the sanctity of marriage and the authentic joy of family life so that we may live it to the fullest and, in doing so, continue to walk our faith journey together in the footsteps of Christ who leads us on the path of eternal salvation. May God bless you and your families!