God's Loving Design
8. Married love particularly reveals its true nature and nobility when we realize that it takes its origin from God, who "is love," (6) the Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." (7)
Marriage, then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives.
In a nutshell, the Pope is saying that marriage is not created by blind chance, but it is part of God's design, and therefore said marriage will result in a perfect and inseparable union. Unfortunately, if this was the case, I don't think both of my parents would be on their third marriage. In fact, such statistics that suggest that divorce is higher and marriages are decreasing undeniably lessen the credibility of God's design.
I strongly disagree with this passage for several reasons. First, it is declarations like this one that give divorce a terrible reputation. Indeed, divorce is not a good thing, but many times it alleviates a really bad situation and allows all involved parties (the parents, the children) to move on. Second, this passage indirectly states that if two people are to divorce, all they are really doing is abandoning God's design, which is supposed to be inherently flawless. With so much divorce these days, is it really us or God's design? In fact, I would even claim that we have become a culture of divorce. A successful marriage is seemingly more rare these days, which makes me believe that this 'design' has been miscalculated.
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ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. It's a proven fact that 50% of marriages end in divorce. People change, the newlywed or "honeymoon phase" ends, stresses are added, and real life resumes. A marriage may seem perfect at the time, but it's not until a divorce that an individual is sometimes able to realize just how wrong that person really was for them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I really believe in this aspect of a soulmate or master plan. I feel like there are a lot of people out there that one could be compatible with and potentially fall in love with, but there's no way to meet them all.
Essentially, there is no such thing as a flawless design that the pope keeps referring to in marriage or procreation. No situation, person, or relationship is without faults and they certainly aren't guaranteed to endure.
I did the same message from the Pope as well and the reason why I did it was because I did not understand why divorce rate is this high while it's claimed that marriage is perfection and is God's plan. After reading this message and a website I found that talks about the divorce rate and that it is still increasing every year, I questioned what God's plan really means, but I guess we will never be able to understand. However, I do think that there is flawless design, and I think it just depends on how we look at it. For instance, just because a couple get divorced, it does not mean that it's a bad thing to both of them, I don't know, I do not have any example to back my point and I am assuming.
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