Letter #39, 2014: A message that should go "viral"

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Letter #39, 2014: A message that should go "viral"

[2014-11-24]

[Engleză]

November 23, 2014, Sunday — Final Message of Humanum Conference

"Why do weddings still move us?" —Rev. Dr. Eugene Rivers and his wife Dr. Jacqueline Rivers, speaking together in a moving statement at the close of a Vatican conference on the complementarity of men and women, on November 19, 2014

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A New Affirmation on Marriage

In this letter, I would like to bring your attention to a remarkable video, which merits going "viral" (that is, to be seen by tens of thousands; up until now there are only about 700 "views" on the Youtube version I am linking to here: New Affirmation on Marriage.)

This was the final speech of the three-day November 17-19 Vatican conference on The Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage, entitled Humanum (the word refers to the human essence, in which male and female are complementary).

The conference gathered speakers from many religions: Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, from around the world.

Clearly, this is part of a larger effort by the Vatican to begin to form a global pro-family alliance, and to make that alliance more effective by extending it beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.

(Click on this link for a video on marriage prepared by the conference itself: Humanum video on marriage)

We will have a full dossier on the Humanum conference in our December issue of Inside the Vatican magazine. (Click on this link if you would like to subscribe to our magazine — which would be helpful, of course, as print publications are costly and many are going out of business(!): https://insidethevatican.com/product/magazine)

This Vatican colloquium ended, not surprisingly, with an affirmation of marriage.

One observer called this closing statement "pure poetry." (Link: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/kathyschiffer/2014/11/no-surprise-here-vatican-conference-ends-with-affirmation-of-marriage/).

The statement explains why wedding celebrations are joyful.

This final talk was in two voices. Rev. Dr. Eugene Rivers, pastor of a Pentecostal Protestant Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Rivers, together read a text they had composed.

Here again is a link to a video of their common address: New Affirmation on Marriage.

Here is a transcript of the text:

A NEW AFFIRMATION OF MARRIAGE

By Dr. Eugene Rivers and Dr. Jacqueline Rivers

Why do weddings still move us? We do not become emotional when business partners strike a deal. We shed no tears at a friendly handshake. We feel no such joy to hear of “casual” mating.

A wedding is different. Here stand a man and woman, entering together into a new life.

And yet it is more than this. They are about to enter the generations. Their union proclaims life: their parents and grandparents still live within them. Humankind lives within them. The cultures and creeds of the world live within them. They are there—in the blood. Those bearing witness know this truth. They too have been born from a union of man and woman.

See the grandmother who looks on, now frail. She was once that bride, and the memory of her own mother and father dwells within her still.

See the brother who welcomes guests—he will one day be that bridegroom, and he too will enter in a new way the long history into which he was born.

See their friends and neighbors. They are more essential than any might guess. For it is they who will help make this marriage flourish. Their investment will return to them, for marriage is a cup that runs over.

See the mother of the bridegroom, hugging her son amid smiles and tears. He was once a helpless baby whom she nursed at the breast. Now he stands tall above her, and his voice is deep, and his shoulders broad. She remembers his birth. He who was once her child will one day be a father.

See the father of the bride, holding her by the hand. He recalls when her mother bore her, and he envisions in her what is so hard to believe, the mother-to-be. She is the bearer of a future. She is irreplaceable.

See man and woman together. They are not just two people. He is for her, and she for him; it is inscribed in their bodies. Their union will bring life that binds and mingles families, encourages faith to flourish, and brings humankind and the world’s diverse cultures to flower again.

Both are eager to undertake their new responsibilities—their gift of self to the other—and think little about what is owed them. They know nothing yet of the difficulty of the years ahead, only of their desire to travel it together.

It is hard now to speak of such obvious and beautiful things, but they are there. All the witnesses know it. It is the music of man and of woman. Man with woman brings out the finest in him, directing his blood and his mind toward what makes life possible; and woman with man brings out the finest in her, directing her love and her care toward what makes life sweet.

Today, however, the homes that marriage makes are exposed to an army of distractions, and to the thief and the enemy who comes to steal and destroy. Weddings are rarer and children fewer. Where poverty erodes, marriage feels out of reach. Where war afflicts, families are crushed. Anywhere marriage recedes, we lose the transcendent and material goods that all human beings should enjoy.

And we too are at fault, for when marriages are exposed to the wind and the rain, we have paid little attention. When the needs of children succumb to the wishes of adults, we have often remained silent. Love is reduced to a consumer item, an airbrushed image, or a slogan to export. It will not work. We will not flourish.

For marriage is no mere symbol of achievement, but the very foundation—a base from which to build a family and from there a community. For on earth marriage binds us across the ages in the flesh, across families in the flesh, and across the fearful and wonderful divide of man and woman, in the flesh. This is not ours to alter. It is ours, however, to encourage and celebrate.

And so it is that we rejoice at weddings.

This we affirm.

—Rev. Eugene Rivers, Pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife, Dr. Jacqueline C. Rivers, Director of Harvard's Seymour Institute for Black Church Studies

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Other Reflections on the Humanum Conference

"The secular world and press have convinced themselves that Christians in the West are surrendering on marriage. They are not." —Erick Erickson, redstate.com

The Humanum conference was important. Therefore, here are a couple of further reflections on an "event" which was a key first step in the Vatican's effort to build a global alliance in favor of the traditional family.

In America, writer Erick Erickson wrote on the redstate.com political website:

While You’re Distracted, Humanum is Happening

By Erick Erickson (Diary)

November 19th, 2014

(Link: http://www.redstate.com/2014/11/19/while-youre-distracted-humanum-is-happening/)

There are more important things in life than politics. One of those things is happening as I write. Most of the world is oblivious to it. The press corps has completely ignored it. But it may be one of the most consequential events in the early twenty-first century. It is called Humanum.

In Rome, at the Vatican, an interfaith gathering is occurring to discus marriage. Leading voices in the Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, and Christian communities have gathered to support and strengthen each other in the struggle against growing anti-faith norms toward marriage and family. Pope Francis opened the gathering with a strong speech. Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention spoke as did Rick Warren of Saddleback, whose speech earned a standing ovation.

The secular world and press have convinced themselves that Christians in the West are surrendering on marriage. They are not. While the mainline churches members of the press may attend are caving on the issue, the ever growing population of evangelicals in Europe and the Americas continue to hold firm on the definition of marriage. They are being joined globally by other Christians, the Church in Rome, and even other faiths.

Humanum is an exceptionally big deal largely ignored by the press. You should not ignore it. And if I could urge you to listen to one speech on the importance of heterosexual marriage and the nuclear family, it would be this from Dr. Rick Warren.

(Link: Rick Warren address at Humanum)

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Archbishop Chaput on the World Meeting of Families in September, 2105, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Archbishop Charles Chaput also spoke toward the end of the Humanum meeting on the preparations for the World Meeting of Families which will be held in Philadelphia in September 2015.

That meeting will be the last and most important forum prior to the second part of the Bishops' Synod on the Family, which will follow the following month, in October 2015, in Rome.

So all of us should watch closely as that meeting is prepared and held.

Here is a link to a video of his talk: Archbishop Chaput talk at Humanum

And here is an interesting interview with Archbishop Chaput, done by a friend, Diane Montagna, and published on the Aleteia website, which is the work of another friend, Jesus Colina, and his team.

Archbishop Chaput: The Church Needs to Say Any Kind of Extra-Marital Sex is “Disordered"

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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