“You Shall Not Go Into The House Of Feasting With Them”

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

“ You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride­groom and the voice of the bride” ( Jer. 16: 8ff).

In recent days in Washington, D. C., Maryland, and elsewhere, moral corruption has found a greater foothold as elected officials circumvent the democratic process to push through special legislation enshrining same- sex genital activity in the effort to label such unchaste violations of human dignity with the name of marriage. In the wake of these legal novelties, same- sex “ cou­ples” are rushing to city hall to obtain for them­selves a piece of paper which is supposed to re­assure them that they now possess approval for their unnatural associations. Contrived legal sta­tus and government- generated paperwork can­not achieve this and no human effort will ever succeed in doing so. The unnatural abomination of same- sex genital activity rightly arouses the condemnation and disgust of Christian individ­uals and families and men of women of good­will, and always shall.

In the meantime, practicing Catholics are be­ing invited to celebrate these “ nuptials” and some are even rushing to join in raising a cham­pagne toast. Those who wish to remain in com­munion with Christ and His Church may never “ go into the house of feasting” with those who pursue such same- sex legal unions, and they also cannot sincerely be of one voice with those who confer the name of marriage upon such as­sociations. Marriage will ever and only be what God has made it to be: a lifelong and exclusive relationship exclusive to one man- husband and one woman- wife.

“ The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an inti­mate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament [ cf. CIC, canon 1055 § 1; cf. GS 48 § 1]” ( Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1660).

Openness to conceiving and bearing new life is not something added on to marriage, as if an afterthought, but rather arising nec­essarily from the complementarity proper to one man and one woman through their natu­ral potential to procreate as they become “ one flesh” in the marital act.

“‘ By its very nature the institution of mar­riage and married love is ordered to the pro­creation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory [ GS, nn. 48 § 1; 50].’

“ Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God Himself said: ‘ It is not good that man should be alone,’ and ‘ from the begin­ning [ He] made them male and female’; wishing to associate them in a special way in His own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: ‘ Be fruitful and multiply.’ Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to dis­posing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich His family from day to day” ( CCC, n. 1652).

God’s charity does not require us to support special legal status for any particular species of unchastity, to include sodomy of any kind, whether between same- sex or opposite- sex cou­ples. God’s love in fact calls us to provide any and every means of support for those who are struggling to overcome unchaste attractions of whatever manner and at the same time to pro­claim the truth about love: The marital act is sa­cred and is shared only in an authentically lov­ing way in the Sacrament of Matrimony as al­ways understood by the Church because revealed by God and never admitting of change or dis­tortion.

Society owes Christian families and indi­viduals, at the very minimum, a neutral atmo­sphere in which to raise their children accord­ing to their beliefs, including the desire to provide an atmosphere of sexual purity.

Practicing Catholics who want to remain Catholic Christians in good standing cannot participate in or approve of the efforts of some of our elected officials who seek to en­shrine unnatural and unchaste acts in a “ le­gal” status, cannot participate in activities which entail going through the motions of simulating a marriage, or congratulate or re­joice in such deception.

“ You shall not go into the house of feast­ing to sit with them…. And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘ Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘ . . . behold, every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me’” ( Jer. 16: 8ff).

+ + + ( Teachings of the Catechism of the Catho­lic Church paired with the Scriptures of Holy Mass for every day of the week are available at Meeting Christ in the Liturgy)

This column by Father Cusick appeared in the 18 March issue of The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper. Subscribe to the print or e-edition of The Wanderer by visiting the paper's website here.