True Love | PadreCast First Sunday of Advent

The PadreCast - Faithful Catholic Homilies

Since during this Advent season we reflect upon the coming of Christ and we prepare ourselves to celebrate His birth, I think it's a good time to be reminded of the way in which our God has chosen to bring new life into the world. Obviously when Christ came into the world, it was a totally supernatural event. The Blessed Mother conceived Him virginally. Even gave birth to Him virginally. So it was a miraculous birth, a miraculous conception in this regard. Our Lord was very careful however, to preserve the structure if you will, by which this Child, the very Son of God, would be brought forth. It was in a natural family. He had a biological mother and a foster father. We know as Christians that it is God's design that new life - new human life, those made in God's image and likeness - are brought forth into this world through a family. The family is designed around the core of the father and mother, their relationship as husband and wife. In the beginning, God made them male and female. And He said to them: be fruitful and multiply. It is important to remember that the "image of God" as it resides in our human nature is not something that we individually posses as humans. We only posses it as a collective. What I mean by this, is that our God is a Trinity of Persons. He's a single God - a single being or entity, if you will, and yet He's three Persons. If you remove one of those Persons, you have no God. Human beings made in His image and likeness were made in a similar way. The "image" as it resides in our nature is not in me solely as a male, or you ladies solely as females. It's actually in the family. . . . When God first created human nature, He designed it unique and distinct: masculine and feminine, to be united in a holy union called matrimony. The first command He gave them: be fruitful and multiply. So the bringing forth of children completes the Trinitarian image. In order to have a family, you need at least three people: a father, a mother, and at least one child. This is the means by which our Lord has designed for us to participate with Him in creating human life. . . . In the bond of marriage, there are three goods that each husband and each wife should pursue.

• The good of the love of the other - the joy that it brings to have this person in your life,
• Your responsibility to help them get to heaven, which is clearly important to us, especially as Christians,
• and the bringing forth of new life into this world, new human beings.

Of these three goods, or "ends" of marriage, the first is not getting your spouse to heaven. The primary end, or reason, of holy matrimony is to bring forth new life into the world. . . Your marriages, your spousal unions, are an analogy of the true marriage of Jesus Christ and His Church. Your marriages participate and share in that glorious and sacred union. And they are only made sacred and sacramental by Christ's love for his Church. Is 2:1-5; Ps 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44 You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 17:42