Struck

"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."

-St. Francis

Sometimes a thought blind-sides you. 

At church today, Father Ben was doing on homily on marriage, in response to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court on Obergefell vs Hodges.  He was talking about the difference between legal and moral.... ever-increasingly, these are not the same thing at all.  And how we as Christians have an obligation to know what true marriage is, and live it to it's fullest, as a beacon to our ever-darkening world.  The family is being attacked from all angles.   He mentioned how the Supreme Court once upheld slavery as constitutional.  Obviously, the Supreme Court can be immoral and wrong, as it was also in Roe vs Wade.   Father Ben read a short message from the Bishop, which stated the following:  "We will continue to proclaim the truth about marriage. God created men and women to be different but complementary; this fact is at the heart of marriage. It is through the one-flesh union of marriage that children are brought into the world to, preferably, be raised by their own parents. Marriage is the safeguard of families, which is the smallest, but most important unit of society".    The Church needs to be strong.  Christians need not be afraid to live according to the only law that really matters.

So, later, we said the Nicene Creed, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. We were taking an oath. All of us together, in unison, standing firm.  Together, against the gathering darkness of the secular world.  WE BELIEVE.  It felt like that moment in Dead Poet's Society, where the kids all stand on their desks saying "O Captain, my Captain".  Something like that - only more profound.  I felt such unity, such a sense of brotherhood with my fellow Christians, who all over the world, were professing on this very morning this same Creed.  We are children of God.  We have not forgotten.  We know to Whom we belong.  We are not afraid.    I was so struck by the thought, it hit me so hard, that I cried through the entire creed.  I've said the words thousands and thousands of times.  Today, I felt the words like never before.  We are followers of Christ, and we will stand strong. 

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;  begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven,  and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried;  and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life;who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
 and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

 Amen.