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Mike Aquilina, Executive Vice Director of the St. Paul Centre for Biblical Theology, has given an inspiring presentation about the Sacrament of Marriage, on EWTN's Franciscan University Presents show.
Mr. Aquilina has worked on over 40 books dealing with Catholic history, doctrine and devotion. This knowledge has helped him in his latest research on the transforming witness of Christian marriage from the time of the Early Church; a witness which we need to recover today to bring our civilization back to God.
In a summary paper, Mr. Aquilina recalls that the early Catholic Church emerged in the context of a civilization which was collapsing through the widespread acceptance of abortion, abortifacients, infanticide and narcissistic selfishness. The cultural acceptance of these sins led to low fertility rates, high maternal mortality, a shortage of marriageable women, and an absence of familial care for the elderly.Â
Mr. Aquilina writes: 'People had grown accustomed to unmoored, leisurely life, drifting from pleasure to pleasure, without the encumbrance of children... We face a similar crisis today. Christianity's critics say they want to promote a tolerant, welcoming, inclusive society. What they usually mean is a society that gives free reign to vice, lust and sin. But a growing number of people are dissatisfied with the societal consequences of these sins.'
Mr. Aquilina demonstrates how the Church in our time can draw again from the rich wisdom passed down from the Early Church to transform our present culture through the graces of the Sacrament of Matrimony.
'We Christians have answers... Christians created the first truly tolerant, welcoming, and all-inclusive society - with a remarkable social-welfare system. They did this because they, unlike their rulers, not only tolerated the poor and weak, and even loved them with human affection, but saw the least of the human family as the image of God, as Christ who must be welcomed, as angels requiring hospitality... from such reverence came true social security, true stability, and prosperity.'
In a key section of his presentation, Mike Aquilina made an inspiring call for Christian families to transform the present culture with the love of Jesus Christ.
Noting that Catholic married couples and their children have a vital part to play in the New Evangelization, Aquilina enthused: 'So much love is being poured into families through the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony, we've got to open the floodgates and let that love flow into our neighbourhoods. That's what the early Christians did, that's how they evangelized the world and changed the culture and we can do the same thing today. God's arm has not been shortened.'
This is a great encouragement to Catholic families to build their domestic church in faithfulness to Jesus Christ and the Magisterium, and to spread the Faith from that solid base to those around them in charity.
