On relativism

I was able to watch the Holy Father's address to the UN and found it stirring in its call to return to our sources. Europe has been asked to consider anew its Christian origins, America has been encouraged to revisit its founding principles, and here the UN has been reminded about its original declarations.

And each Christian has been invited by this gracious man to seek the Living Font, who is Jesus, the one who has loved us before we were knit within our mother's womb. "The rights recognized and expounded in the declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high point of God's creative design for the world and for history." In a single stroke this brilliantly pastoral academic has drawn the world's leaders to a fundamental Truth.

Speaking of brilliantly pastoral academics, my friend Mark John has left a comment which deserves to be pulled up for your consideration:

With all respect and compassion for the difficult situations in which many people find themselves, a good end can never justify an evil means, nor can the principle of tolerance of the lesser of two evils be applied when the act to be undertaken is itself evil. And this (that the act of contraception is immoral) is precisely what is being taught and argued by the Church. Perhaps a careful reading of Humanae Vitae, and Familiaris Consortio (par. 28-35) would be helpful here. One of the ideas I am thinking of here is that of our eternal destiny: that because human sexuality and procreative capability is a personal--not merely biological--reality, it is tied up in the human person's orientation to eternal life, and can not be submitted merely to earthly considerations of utility, but must bring in its ultimate reference to God, whose image is revealed in natural human sexuality.
A second, and related idea, is that it is a truly odd thing to think that to deliberately frustrate through technology (not to assist) our natural bio-spiritual realities could be thought to ultimately satisfy us or be for our good. Of course, concrete situations can often make human nature a burden--sometimes we feel sunk under the weight of our humanity--but that is no reason to seek to sidestep it, but rather to live through it in faithfulness to its demands, thereby to find its true and divine meaning. In other words, God rewards faithfulness to his design, his plan. He will not abandon us to crushing calamity if, following the right way, we trust in him.

Do please read the rest of the dialogue below, with the post contra-Contraception. The message I needed to hear at this moment in my life, Mark has expressed eloquently: "God rewards faithfulness to his design...he will not abandon us...if we trust in him." Thank you, Mark. I am not always faithful, I feel burdened by my own humanity, and I need to trustfully surrender.

May God bless us all~