It is a new year here in San Francisco, and the sun is shining between storms. I paddled out to Alcatraz yesterday in the driving rain and found it deserted for New Year’s Day—what a wonder to see the island inhabited only by seagulls and cormorants, as if God had just created it! Every time I get on the Bay in my kayak it’s as if I’m on the water for the first time. Life is ever new, and we must bravely resist the old man’s illness of world-weariness, of becoming a has-been, of succumbing to cynicism and boredom after a life of disappointments. With every dawn God creates anew the world, and all the waters, the heavens, and the earth that is within it. That includes world-weary travelers like you and me who must never tire of exclaiming with Jeremiah the prophet, through his tears, “God's mercies are renewed each morning” (Lamentations 3:22).
Twelve years ago I bought a new car, my first hybrid electric, a Toyota Prius. From the day I drove it off the lot with four miles on the odometer, it has not ceased to be a "new car.” It had that new car smell, along with bells and whistles I had never dreamed of. As the dealer said, “basically it’s a computer on wheels.” We have to give it to the Japanese: I’ve had no major problems over the last twelve years, and with all its dents and scratches (mostly caused by throwing kayaks on and off the roof), the car is still “new” to me. It’s funny how a man and a new car can grow old together but continue to regard each other with the same delight as on the day they met.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob commanded his children to save themselves for marriage. We are to marry a virgin and be faithful to her through thick and thin. The Messiah went further, elevating marriage to a sacrament for life, even declaring that by the power of God the two would become one flesh. In His great love for us, God established the unbreakable bond of matrimony, in which we find our true home, both here and hereafter. More than anything else, the human heart longs for “home,” found within the irrevocable bond between husband and wife, and their children, if God so blesses them.
For many in a “throw away culture,” a new year means a new woman or a new man: a resolution to get out of a troublesome relationship and find someone “better.” For others, a new year means a renewed marriage: a resolution to find God’s grace even in the troublesome aspects of an existing relationship. I recommend the second approach.
The Bible commands virginity before marriage. The Church teaches that God has made the human heart monogamous, happiest when we discover life and grow old together, faithful to the wife of our youth. Many, if not most, do not marry virginally, and for them there is “second virginity,” godly dedication to a second spouse. But for my eight-graders, who have not yet been disillusioned, I say: start with a brand-new car, and it will always be a new car. Be that unused vehicle for the woman you love, and she will love you all the more for being only and all for her. She will trust you, and you will grow old together, never having known anyone else. You will love each other more with each passing year. That is why God commands us to lie with no woman until we have committed ourselves, for life, all and only to her.
Twelve years ago I bought a new car, my first hybrid electric, a Toyota Prius. From the day I drove it off the lot with four miles on the odometer, it has not ceased to be a "new car.” It had that new car smell, along with bells and whistles I had never dreamed of. As the dealer said, “basically it’s a computer on wheels.” We have to give it to the Japanese: I’ve had no major problems over the last twelve years, and with all its dents and scratches (mostly caused by throwing kayaks on and off the roof), the car is still “new” to me. It’s funny how a man and a new car can grow old together but continue to regard each other with the same delight as on the day they met.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob commanded his children to save themselves for marriage. We are to marry a virgin and be faithful to her through thick and thin. The Messiah went further, elevating marriage to a sacrament for life, even declaring that by the power of God the two would become one flesh. In His great love for us, God established the unbreakable bond of matrimony, in which we find our true home, both here and hereafter. More than anything else, the human heart longs for “home,” found within the irrevocable bond between husband and wife, and their children, if God so blesses them.
For many in a “throw away culture,” a new year means a new woman or a new man: a resolution to get out of a troublesome relationship and find someone “better.” For others, a new year means a renewed marriage: a resolution to find God’s grace even in the troublesome aspects of an existing relationship. I recommend the second approach.
The Bible commands virginity before marriage. The Church teaches that God has made the human heart monogamous, happiest when we discover life and grow old together, faithful to the wife of our youth. Many, if not most, do not marry virginally, and for them there is “second virginity,” godly dedication to a second spouse. But for my eight-graders, who have not yet been disillusioned, I say: start with a brand-new car, and it will always be a new car. Be that unused vehicle for the woman you love, and she will love you all the more for being only and all for her. She will trust you, and you will grow old together, never having known anyone else. You will love each other more with each passing year. That is why God commands us to lie with no woman until we have committed ourselves, for life, all and only to her.
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