Tuesday, April 5, 2011

encounters: Culture of Life vs. Culture of Death

Media_http3bpblogspot_ghiqu

Bishop Pat Alo of the Philippines Has some powerful pro-life words:

Statements from the Church opposing the RH Bill are certainly in connection with a culture of life. The concept of Christian marriage is in itself ordered to the procreation and education of children. Thus it goes against contraception and abortion. Can you imagine the scenario where everyone is making use of contraceptives? That will result to a sin against life and humanity because no children will be born anymore. It will be an aging, decaying society on its way to extinction.

Some want to question why the Church is interfering in legislations of this sort. It is because the morality of sex is not just purely for physical satisfaction but also connected to family unity and procreation and education of the children, as the normal fruit of marriage. If you read the Bible, like in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 8 and 9, Ephesians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5, you can see his thoughts on sexual morality and purity. Check that. Such sections of the Bible, including the sections in Genesis chapter 19, on the plight and punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, contain advices against abnormal uses and exploitation of the sex faculty contrary to the purposes decreed by God originally (e.g. fornication, masturbation, abortion). Let’s remember that there are punishments God inflicts on those who violate His laws. A warning that St. Paul echoes in his letter to the Hebrews: “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). As to why sexual ethics (in thought, word and deed) is of importance brings us to a reminder from the Virgin Mary’s apparitions in Fatima where she asked for penance and reparation for the sins of impurity because “many souls are falling into Hell’s eternal fires because of the sins against purity.”

Precisely, for the sake of man’s eternal salvation, Jesus left this last instruction to his disciples: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Mt. 28:19).