St. Joseph as Every Father

There is a Truth in which we are all like St. Joseph. While unlike him, our children are conceived naturally, nevertheless there is an aspect of their nature that is a miracle - that is, both the actual creation, but especially their immortal souls.

Looking at my newborn baby, a profound mystery strikes me: this is my child, and yet he also has an immortal soul given by God, his Father in Heaven.

Just like St. Joseph, this child is also to be obedient to us in so far as we teach it the good, but he may have a higher mission from God.

My duty is to protect and raise the child, keep him healthy, but ultimately his purpose is infinitely above me, it is His purpose.

God's Sacrifice and Number of Elect

There are a lot of debates on "who gets to go to Heaven," or "how many are elect?" but I think, before considering anything else, we need to keep in mind Christ's sacrifice. That is, the sacrifice of God is, by His very nature, infinite and all encompassing. Christ has already suffered all our sins.

That is, the basis of everything, is to acknowledge and accept this sacrifice. To thank God for this sacrifice and accept it as our own to have an effect.

We seem to understand intrinsically though that this can't be done hypocritically - we can't pretend to accept it, but should seek to love God with our whole being, to repent of our failing even in this regard.

Because of this, and God's great mercy, it is wrong of us to assume God would not extend His love to those who have not heard of Him, or been told lies of Him - surely he will ask "forgive them for they know not" and seek even that lost sheep and rejoice should it return. We must then necessarily assume that a great many people must chose to accept Christ after death, but before the resurrection - as in during those "3 days" when Christ descends to the dead and brings them the Gospel. Is that a period act, or an eternal act?

Based on this simple understanding, I don't want to go further. It seems, at that point, to accept revelation as given to one church or the other. If to the Catholics, then purgatory answers the role of meeting the remaining deficiency. If Mormon, then the levels or "rooms" of the mansion answers the role - as "few are chosen" either for direct sainthood or to the fullest celestial glory.

I can testify though that God wants us to love Him, that He seeks us out for us to love Him as a most perfect Father who desires His lost son or daughter to come home and embrace Him.

A Catholic Argument for the Eternal Nature of Marriage

Many Catholic argument that marriage is *the only* sacrament that is not eternal in nature. That is, baptism, etc. are all focused on the supernatural life, but not baptism.

This is fundamentally flawed, and essentially flawed from the Catholic's own arguments on the purpose and nature of marriage and sexuality. That is, all sex acts must intrinsically be ordered towards creation and birth.

If we accept this argument, and understand the mystical nature that is of marriage is one-and-the-same with the sex act of marriage. That is, the uniting of two flesh to become one, and the product of that love as a child.

Catholics and Christians must acknowledge that:

1) The child, the living embodiment of the love and unity of marriage, has an eternal soul.

2) The child has a body that will be resurrected, perfected, and eternal.

3) That child has a unique nature that is specific to the body that his parents gave him - a physical manifestation of their love which is, by the grace of God, an eternal, sub-created nature.

Therefore, at the very least, a fruitful marriage is by God's will eternal in its physical manifestation of the divinely sanctioned union. This is reflected in the Holy Spirit as an eternal person of the Godhead made manifested by the Father and Son's love for each other.

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As a necessary corollary, abortion is, by its very nature, an anti-sacrament or evil act which purposely inverts that of God's will.

"Serve the least"

A Father serves all, his labor is to provide for his family, nurture, protect, and watch over them. And so Our Father did the same, and His Son did the same here, by demonstrating. "The least" as in one's children, the father, the head of a family does the same, acts as God and the Son in his own small way.

Why Christ Came Poor

The Jews were scandalized that Christ appeared as a poor man, but that he should appear as a King.

Christian tradition teaches that God is infinitely above man, and that by descending to be born as a man, Christ raised humans to the possibility of divination and become gods (Sons of God) through Christ.

Christ came as the humblest of men, poorest, born in a manager among animals, to represent this miracle - the miracle of raising even the lowliest of human nature to the status of child of God. If Christ has come as a wealthy man, or King, even those states would still be infinitely below and the glory but a poor reflection of God's own glory - so he descended not just to be born as any man, but the humblest of men.

What Marriage Is and Isn't

Marriage isn't an institution. Marriage isn't a legal contract. Marriage isn't a ritual, or a celebration, or anything of the sort.

Marriage is the creative sexual union of man and woman sanctified by God and recognized as valid by the community. Marriage is an act of sub-creation by God's own creations, in the universe God created, elevated to an immortal and divine creation when He blesses the child the parents created with an immortal soul God created.

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From this you can extrapolate almost every error and sin of man with regard to marriage, and every recent secular misunderstanding - why everything that is wrong is wrong - and what we truly need to recognize and protect.

Dreaming About Marriage

I had a dream about marriage where it seemed revealed knowledge to me why sexual intercourse may not be present in heaven, at least not as we think of it.

I was bothered by the idea that something which seems joyful or sanctified shouldn't be present, and perhaps misunderstood some of the Fathers writings that appeared to suggest it wasn't good.

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It was revealed to me that the union between two lovers is so elevated in Heaven, so complete and joyful beyond any possibly earthly imagining, that the sexual act itself but seemed a pale reflection. That which was good and divine about sexual relations were so joyfully fulfilled that there was no question or desire of merely having the earthly state.

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This sort of understanding simply can't be comprehended by those living in a sinful state, because those sinful states specifically are excluded from this joy. They are misdirected abuses of the true understanding of marriage's divine purpose and union. Sinful states are actively separating people from God. They are sad degradations of beauty and truth. A sinner must lose himself, and what he thinks he desires, to turn and embrace true joy and understanding - the joy is beyond imagining and so to the depths of sorrow caused by sin and error are beyond realization.

If a man is so blinded that they can't see the truth, they must simply have faith and hope that something far greater exists. He must love God and trust God that His Father knows what is good, that His Father is good and truth, and let go of the lies and deceptions.

(A child may not understand why a thing is dangerous, and so the parent must simply forbid it, put it out of reach, and even punish the child. The child must obey until they can understand and know.)