Scott Hahn - Catholic for a Reason IV: Scripture and the Mystery of Marriage and Family Life

The nursery rhyme concludes that Humpty Dumpty couldn't be put together again. Some people today think that marriage faces the same situation. As they see it, no-fault divorce, serial marriages, long-term cohabitation, the normality of single-parent and blended families, same-sex unions, prenuptial agreements, contraception as a presumption, and promiscuous sex before and even during marriage have smashed traditional marriage beyond repair. Even some proponents of traditional marriage are ready to throw in the towel.

Fortunately, many people are willing to keep up the good fightand believe it is winnable, indeed, must be won. Among them are the contributors to Catholic for a Reason IV: Scripture and the Mystery of Marriage and Family Life.

The volume is replete with solid Catholic theology and idealism. Curtis and Stacy Mitch express them poignantly in the third article: Grace is poured out in superabundance to enrich married life and to make married couples living icons of God's unfailing love for the world. That marriage, specifically a permanent union between a man and a woman who are open to children, is an irrevocable part of God's design for His human children and an essential cell of human society is proclaimed unabashedly.

While reaffirming the natural law, the authors also sketch out the unique qualities of Christian, sacramental marriage. They cite frequently the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and recent popes, especially John Paul II. I found Regis and Libbie Flaherty's analysis of the revolutionary attitudes toward marriage among early Christians especially insightful. This way of life was possible only because it was part of the Christian vocation. It was a free response to the call to love God and neighbor. What an excellent, and promising, basis for matrimonial catechesis in today's Church and world.

Scripture and the Mystery of Marriage and Family Life is not all theology, however. In fact, it is filled with the concrete experiences of married couples who strive to live out their vocation day by day with God's help. Many of their examples of marriage and family life are touchingand very real.

I am blessed to know some of the authors personally. I have even been invited into their homes. Their commitment to marriage and their witness to its joys and struggles are authentic. They are true believers, and out of the gift of their own love they desire to help other married couples and parents discover, or rediscover, the joys of marriage and family life, as God intended it.

As the Mitches put it, Christians believe that Jesus Christ redeemed mankind, and, in the process, redeemed the covenant of marriage. The Lord came among us to pull marriage from the wreckage of human sin and restore its magnificence once again. The Lord is still at it. Humpty Dumpty canand mustbe put together again.

Most Reverend R. Daniel Conlon
Bishop of Steubenville