St. Paul and Marriage

Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson, Bishop of Yakima

Peace be with you! Today I’d like to address the series of second readings we are hearing on these consecutive Sundays between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent. They come from the Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians Chapters 5 through 11. The topic he addresses – in a nutshell – is marriage and family life.

But I’d like to begin by using the image of snow. I love snow! In fact my favorite place to cross country ski is Icicle Creek outside Leavenworth. It’s also one of my favorite places to go mountain biking in the spring. Why? In the spring, the trees are a solid block of dark evergreen and you can hear the creek flow through the trees. But in the winter, the trees look different. Each branch is outlined in snow and the snow reveals animal foot tracks that would otherwise be concealed by the earthen floor. The point here is that the world is the same – even with snow. Same trees! Same path! Same creek! But snow highlights and charges those everyday features so that they stand out in bold relief.

Grace – God’s grace – Grace is like snow. It helps us see our everyday lives differently. This is what’s behind the words of our second readings from St. Paul to the Corinthians these consecutive Sundays between Christmas and Lent. From chapter five through eleven in the first letter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul lays out in rather strong language how the Christians in ancient Corinth can live permanent and eternal values in a passing and changing world. In these chapters we hear him instructing the Corinthians on how they are to live their faith in a very secularized and pluralistic urban culture.

Even more we hear St. Paul’s insistent voice pushing the Christians to become witnesses to a good and happy life – not based on sex, or wealth, or power, or material possession – but to the eternal values – values about love – who to love and how to love and how to respect the male and female body – the very physicality of one another. This is the basic vision that St. Paul uplifts – not only for his followers in Corinth – but for all of us today.

Friends, this is what we are uplifting today too. You are all aware – not doubt – about the legislative actions coming from many of our state leaders in Olympia that would redefine marriage. Those leaders would even have you think that the current definition of marriage between a man and a woman is an imposition of religious teaching upon civil society.

It is not! The Church did not invent marriage anymore than St. Paul’s teaching invented marriage. What the Church assures is that the grace of Christ’s sacrament of matrimony descends – like snowfall – and highlights this most basic and foundational human bond, strengthening the man and the woman to become the very best people they can be – for each other – and for the next generation. The Church builds up, blesses and strengthens this essential and life-giving bond of nature known in every age and every culture.

Marriage between a man and a woman is the most basic building block in our society. Men and women who come together in a committed relationship take on the unique risk -- for us all -- of bringing forth the next generation by providing society with children. That’s why the state – not only the Church – but the state traditionally has had a vested interest in the stability and support of marriage between A MAN and A WOMAN.

If the state can redefine this most basic relationship – this bedrock of society – then we surely are on the road towards the governmental interference of other basic relationships: parent/child, doctor/patient, therapist client, and priest/penitent. The state – in redefining the most basic relationship in society – places the most basic civil rights – your rights – at risk.

Now I am keenly aware that we are in a culture that defines human identity as “gay” and “straight” and that – because of this – there are those who consider the state’s definition of marriage discriminatory.

It is not. To name our marriage laws as “discriminatory” runs the risk of distorting the actual history of discrimination in our country as well as the actual legacy of César Chavez and Martin Luther King. Our marriage laws are not the equivalent of “Jim Crow” laws against black African Americans in the South! They’re not the equivalent of our complex and cumbersome immigration laws that keep our Hispanic families unfairly separated and our struggling fruit growers’ as second-class employers with unstable workforces. No! Our current marriage laws are not discriminatory.

NEWSFLASH! We are all here on this planet because A MAN and A WOMAN came together and brought us into this world. This is WHY marriage is defined – civilly – as a contract between A MAN and A WOMAN. That does not make marriage discriminatory. It makes marriage UNIQUE! It makes marriage unique among all other types of friendships, family ties and human bonds in our society.

In a culture that insists on reducing human identity to categories of “gay” and “straight” the Church’s proposal for our society is that human identity is based on the self-evident truth that human identity is based on “male” and “female.”

Given this very basic fact of life, what’s the best way to live out our humanity as male and female? Isn’t it best when society uplifts moms and dads who ensure the flourishing of future society through their gift of children? Isn’t human happiness the greatest when the biological connections of parenthood can be preserved and strengthened? Isn’t society most stable when we all – regardless of our marital status or way of life – work together to ensure that those men and women bringing forth life into our world are also uplifted in parenting and nurturing that life? This is certainly what objective data shows about the best way to nurture the gift of children.

Why not the best? That’s not only the Church’s proposal for men and women in marriage. That’s also the response of the Church to this particular legislation. We can do better! Why not the best? Why not propose the best! By proposing our teaching we are not imposing anything on our state or society. As a Church we are kind of like the gentle snowfalls here in Central Washington. We are helping everyone – believer and non-believer – better see the basic outlines we’ve always had as a society.

My request of you today is quite simple: Read the joint letter we bishops of Washington State have written. Look for opportunities to propose – not impose – not argue – but to propose the difference marriage makes – the uniqueness of marriage between a man and a woman. Be like St. Paul in Corinth! And know that grace of your faith can be like snow – God’s grace helping those around to see the contours of their own lives differently! Peace be with you!