|
"Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth." God speaks in the form of a commandment, an order. But we are told that God blessed Noah and his sons when he spoke thus. There is a deep insight here: God's words may sometimes take the form of a commandment but they are always a blessing. By refusing to keep the commandments, then, a person forfeits God's blessing. Refusing to keep the commandments leads to sin and increasing sin inevitably brings suffering, disaster and pain.
God's blessing for Noah is a repetition of the blessing for Adam already given in Genesis, chapter 1 and 5. Thus, this blessing is the most fundamental blessing for all humanity: to cooperate with God in the creation of humanity. Participation in God's great enterprise of life is a basic call inscribed in the human heart of human beings. Celibacy in the Church does not contradict this call and does not forego that blessing, for it is an answer to a further divine call: Jesus' call to give up everything for the Kingdom of God. Jesus sets His call to the service of the Kingdom above the fundamental blessing of family, not in order to deny or cancel that blessing, but in order to offer a different, and equally powerful, blessing. Every call to serve the Kingdom is a call to promote a "gospel of life."
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life: You have the message of eternal life.
|
|
DAILY OFFERING
|
Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen.
|
|
PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH
|
INTENTION
That the Pastors of the Church may always be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit in their teaching and in their service to God's people.
Elaboration
|
|
