The Wisdom of the Ages- or maybe just the Aged

Are We Bad or Good by Nature? - The Catholic Thing : "Catholics of the right are basically, whether they realize it or not, Augustinians; and Catholics of the left, whether they realize it or not, are basically Rousseauvians." What has this got to do with marriage?  Catholic couples who are on the same page in the Augustine vs Rousseau debate, will have less strife in their lives.  I would even argue that children raised under an Augustinian point of view will grow up to see a need for the Church and Religion in their lives- and children raised under Rousseau's point of view, leave the church to try to create their own Utopia, their own Heaven on Earth. So, dear imaginary couple I'm writing this blog for- who are you?  Have you discussed this with your spouse or your intended spouse?  Are human beings good, and evil just a bad coincidence?  Or are human beings bad, and good only comes by the grace of God and listening to wisdom?

The Archdiocese of Washington DC put forth their answer to Amoris Laetitia this week, and this review on The Catholic Thing  is well worth reading. It points out that the subjective conscience, being without full understanding of Church Teaching, is actually incompetent to judge morality. Moral Order exists for a reason.  Free will, while a great gift from God, is also a very dangerous gift from God,   Moral Order, when you enshrine it in your marriage and in your home, keeps your marriage safe from the very abuses I've written about in previous articles.  Far from being burdensome as most imagine, Moral Order frees us to truly love, as opposed to just "accept" and "tolerate" that which is wrong. And that, as you start your married life together, is an invaluable lesson- children need boundaries, and so does your marriage.

Circumstances do not change morality.   An easy way to tell true theology from fake, is to apply this rule.  If something is A True and Living icon , then it stays true regardless of circumstances.  Our marriage vows say In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do we part.  Those of us who hold true to those vows, no divorce is possible due to circumstances.

Part of my reason for starting this study is that, at least as of March 2018, I'm significantly more conservative on this subject than the rest of the Catholic Church.  This blog will either end up as a heretical view on marriage, or a catechism looking at the sad state of marriage in the 21st century and how to avoid your marriage bringing you a living hell. How do I know that marriage can end up in a living hell?  How do I know Divorce is intrinsically evil even though CCC 2383  says that in certain extreme conditions it is permissible?  Because in my country, over the last five generations, we've been running a living experiment in how to ruin families and destroy the sacrament, and we now know beyond any shadow of doubt that divorce causes hell in this life.   Even when done with the best of intentions, the best of reasons.  Even when you are certain that an abuser will kill you, divorce will make the situation worse.