Genuflection – Artofit

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Genuflection

3 reasons why Catholics genuflect.
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Kids: A Right? A Curse? or a Gift? | culture, human history | For probably the first time in human history, the common perception of children as a gift has been under attack by our culture at large. | By Ascension | We've been kind of talking a little bit about marriage over the last couple weeks in some of these videos. In fact, you know, I live on a college campus and so I'm doing marriage prep with a lot, a lot of people. One of the things that sometimes people forget is that the point of marriage is children. Now, that that might be a weird statement right now. I mean, actually, it's a real, I think it's a really interesting statement. The point of marriage is children. Now, there the church has said there are two ends or two goods to goals of marriage. Uh the first is the procreation education of children. The other is the good of the spouses. Okay, so Mutual help, right? Mutual help not just to get through this life but also to get to eternal life. Wonderful but the primary end of marriage. This is kind of one of the things that goes all the way back to the very beginning. The primary end of marriage is kids which need lead to a person to to have to ask the question, if I'm not ready for children, I might not be ready for marriage. Now, at the same time, I understand, there are some reasons, there are some serious reasons that couples need to maybe delay pregnancy, delay having children but at the same time, at the same time it is incredibly important for us to understand that the primary end of marriage is not necessarily simply the good of the couple the good of the spouses although that's very important the primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children the point of getting married is because we want to raise children okay why do I need to say this well because I think there used to be a time when children were seen as gifts and now I don't know if children are always seen as gifts again this is coming from some who doesn't need to hold the baby but I love the fact that kids exist, right? I love kids and I love adults. I love people in general and people in particular but I think our culture has departed from the idea of children as gifts and we've gone to two other extremes. One is that children are curses. One is that children are are burdens that that children are unnecessary and that children are are to be to be avoided, right? Cuz they're not gifts. They're to be avoided. They're curses because what I want, I want to be able to to travel. I want to be able to be free to live my own life. I want to be able to be free to pursue my career. I want to be free to do what I want to do. And or or even this. You know some people even say that children are a detriment to our environment. And so children are are are curses. Children are burdens. Children are to be avoided. Um they might be necessary for the propagation of the species. But you want to avoid them at all costs almost. I mean that's a certain perception of our culture. But they about this for years, for centuries, for generations, maybe for all of human history, children were seen as gifts. That that was that was what that's why you got married. Wanna get married to could maybe because we love each other because this has been arranged but so that you and I whoever you know the husband and wife could have children That'll be a gift. And now here they are as burdens as a curse as to be avoided on the other hand there's another extreme and that extreme is from people who have really good hearts now a lot of people have good hearts we all have broken we all have broken hearts so keep this in mind we all have broken hearts we have good hearts that are meant to be good they're ontologically good but they're not always whole right we're all we're all wounded and so rather than seeing children as gifts their burdens or curses or their rights they might it's right and then again this is this is so painful to talk about because it's almost easier to say gosh can you imagine those people who see children as as curses children as burdens that's so I mean you can imagine because it's the children do I mean they are burdens let's be honest you have to sacrifice it cost you something cost people something to raise children but it's harder to talk to someone or to a couple who is saying I know actually we love children we want children more than thing in the world. And to say but that's that's good that the same time there's still gifts they're not rights you don't have a right to have a child again this is this is not to say that to desire a child is wrong not at all it is to say that my desire always has to be continually continually reshaped continually brought back to this place of I desire a child I desire children maybe even many children but not one of them is my right not one them is is owed to me. Every child is a gift. I mean, that's the crazy thing. If we keep saying this, we remind ourselves that every child is a gift. That means that they're not a curse. It also means that they're not my right. I can't assert the right to a gift and every single child is a gift. Does that make sense? And so again, it's just the mentality of course is not is is not the I need to avoid this at all costs. It also has to avoid temptation, the mindset is I have to get one at all costs. Did did it make sense? To keep our minds rooted on the truth that children are gifts means I can neither need to avoid them at all costs and also means I cannot need to acquire them at all cost or get one at all costs because every child is a gift. Neither a curse nor a right. We have that mindset then we're free. I mean, again, it doesn't mean our our it means that we're free to have our hearts broken. We sometimes we don't get the thing that we want more than anything and again, I started this whole video by talking about how I don't need a whole and you say well father so easy for you to say A because you're a celebrity priest and don't apparently don't want children secondly because you don't even want to hold little babies you're right I am in a different situation at the same time there are so many things in life that everyone of us are tempted to see as curses or as rights when they're simply gifts I mean think about this every single day you and I get up and we can either see that new day as a curse we can see that new day as a right or we can see that new day as a gift meaning okay I'm called to pick up this day whatever the burden of this day I'm told to pick it up at the same time I can't just demand the fact that like no or demand the idea that oh this is my right this is owed to me I have to see okay this day is a gift so Hannah in the first in the first book of Samuel she's a wife who wants a child more than anything she wants a son more than anything she's weeping in the temple in Shiloh at one point in the Eli or priest Eli sees her weeping and he but ultimately after the conversation he says well you'll have your son and he prophesies this over her the next year she has a son after he's weaned his name is Samuel name of the book after him after he's weaned she brings him back to the temple and she says Samuel was a gift to me now I am giving him to the lord so Hannah has the right mentality she wants a child not he's not he's not a curse but she also doesn't see him as her right she's able to see Samuel as pure gift and as pure gift she's able to receive the gift and then give the gift back to the lord again this is this isn't just about parents this isn't just about want parents who want to be parents this isn't about everyone else again always we need to apply these things these things to my our own lives and I apply this to my own life not because I want a child but because there are so many things in my life that I say that's my right or that's the curse that I need to avoid but I need to say no this is the gift that is being handed over to me what am I going to do with it it's a gift that at some point will be not will not be given to me okay what am I going to do then what am I going to do out it. I think great practice for that is is verse something very very simple. Something that maybe you'd like this is ridiculous Father. Why would you even say this? It's called the morning offering. To get up every morning and and see each day not as a curse and not each day not as a right but each day is a gift. You get up and basically pray to the Lord and say okay God I offer you this day. I offer you all the sufferings, the pains, the the work, the joys of this day for the will you have in your heart Lord for the betterment of other people for their conversions. For they're getting closer to you. But it it involves seeing each day not as a curse and not as a right but as a gift and when we do that we have a heart like the lord's again this isn't ultimately about children it's not ultimately about those couples who are in so much pain because I understand the pain I mean when I say understand the pain of what I'm saying is I understand as a human being I don't understand it as a dad who wants or a man wants to be a father more than anything I don't understand it as a woman who wants to be a mother more than anything but I do understand it as a human who I desire so many things that I'm not able to have. But I have to just like all of us I have to we have to refuse to see these things in our lives either as curses or as rights but to go back to the place where where we remember they're not curses they're not rights they're gifts what am I going to do with the gift and what am I going to do when I'm not given the gift because that moment what I do there makes all of the difference between a life where I say god my will be done and a life where I god thy will be done. It's a painful moment but it's moment that every single one of us have to embrace and enter into. What is our response when we're given the gift? What's our response when the gift is withheld? My will be done or father, I will be done. I'm praying for you because I know this is painful. For all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless. We are in the same boat even if they're different boats. Make sense? That doesn't make any sense. God bless. Hi,

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