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The “culture of life” and the “culture of death”

Author: Fr. Mieczysław Piotrowski S.Chr.,
"Love One Another!" 34/2016

“We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, between death and life, between the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life’, said St John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae (28).

There is no rational explanation for all the efforts and attempts to impose on all mankind the deviant behaviours and attitudes which are contrary to the natural law established by God and inscribed in human nature.

The culture of death

The main target for the ideologists of the “culture of death” who promote gender ideology is the family. They seek its destruction. Where does this irrational hatred aimed at the family and Christian civilisation come from? The answer to that is given by the founder of Marxism and the precursor of the ideology of gender, Karl Marx, who wrote: “After discovering that the earthly family is the mystery of the Holy Family, it needs to be destroyed, theoretically and practically” (Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach” (1845), in Marx-Engels- Gesamtausgabe, vol. iii, p. 6; quoted in Marzena Nykiel, Pułapka gender [The gender trap], p. 56). Hatred of God led to hatred aimed at the family. Hatred of the family stems from the rejection of the Christian system of values and hatred of Christ and His Church. According to Marx and Engels, women must liberate themselves from the slavery of monogamy, be sexually liberated and become common sexual property. This will be possible only if the Christian system of values and the Catholic Church are destroyed, which can be achieved most effectively by promoting sexual promiscuity. That is why the main target for attacks by Marxist atheists was the traditional model of the family and the Christian education of children and youngsters. They introduced sex education in schools with the same programme that gender ideologists are proposing today.

Marriage in the mind of God is to be a unique friendship, which combines what is human with what is divine

The leading ideologists of Marxism have always been convinced that the destruction of Christian values would succeed through their capture of culture. The idea was for the atheistic ideology to permeate all areas of life: culture, schools, colleges, social organisations and the media, which should be the most important weapon in the fight against Christianity.

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), Sigmund Freud’s assistant, the main instigator of the sexual revolution in 1968, claimed that all restrictions in the sexual sphere needed to be abolished, that children should be subjected to widespread sexualisation and that the belief that man was created “in the image and likeness of God” should be removed from all people’s consciousness. He wrote: “With the release of genital muscle contraction, the idea of God should disappear” (W. Reich, Psichologia di massa del Fascismo, Milan 1974, p. 139), and he proposed a “religion of orgasm” and “sexual mysticism”. “Love in the loins and sweet consuming pleasure during intercourse – that is the real god” (W. Reich, L’assassino di Cristo, Milan 1972, p. 229; quoted in Nykiel, Pułapka gender, p. 66). Man, devoid of an immortal soul, has thus been reduced to the level of a thinking animal, which ceases to exist at death. These are the main aims and objectives of the moral revolution led by ideologists of gender, by the founders and propagators of the “culture of death”. The main obstacle for them is the Catholic Church, which is therefore hated and persecuted by them.

The culture of life and love

The Lord God reveals to us the very joyful truth about each and every human being, created in the image of God and His likeness and called to become “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). When calling man into existence, the Creator gives him something from himself, bestows him with reason, free will and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. This enables man to know the truth, to be free and to learn to love God and his neighbour. All people have an immortal soul, and so “the image of God himself shines in them” (St John Paul II, EV, 34). God gives man the gift of life that transcends existence in time: “for God created us, and made us in the image of his own eternity” (Wisd. 2:23). After man’s sin, the love of God goes even further. In order to save us, the Son of God becomes a true man and unites himself with all people, assuming all their sins and suffering. In his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus Christ achieves the final victory over sin, Satan and death. He wants all people to take part in this victory, to liberate them from the slavery of sin and teach them to love as He loves. The call to love is the most important task of every human being. It is realised most often in the sacrament of marriage, and also in virginity.

“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24). The sexual act in marriage is more than just a union of bodies. It is the physical and spiritual union of two complementary personalities, which expresses the richness of the human person created by God. The sexual organs of woman and man are a physical sign of their spiritual complementarity. Marriage in the mind of God is to be a unique friendship, which combines what is human with what is divine. “Therefore it definitely surpasses purely erotic inclination, which, being selfish, fades quickly and miserably.” Marital love “is expressed and completed in a special way with the honourable marital act”, through which the spouses “unite together in an intimate and pure way”. Marriage acts lived out in this way “are a sign sustaining reciprocal self-giving by which spouses enrich each other with a joyous and grateful heart” (Gaudium et Spes, p. 49). They give each other the love with which Christ loves them, present in the sacrament of marriage. Erotic sensations only accompany the spouses’ most important spiritual experience, which is their unity in the love of Christ. Sensual pleasure is not the most important thing, and it should not be the main purpose of sexual intercourse. The most important thing is love, that is, the total and sincere gift of self to spouse in Jesus Christ. The right to sexual intercourse is given by Christ only in the sacrament of marriage. Therefore, pre- and extramarital intercourse belongs to the heaviest category of sin. All activities aimed at achieving sexual experience outside the sacrament of marriage are mortal sins which kill love, deepen selfishness and make the person a slave to the forces of evil.

The most important thing is love, that is, the total and sincere gift of self to spouse in Jesus Christ

Only Satan and gender ideologists propose the “religion of orgasm” and “sexual mysticism”, in order to drive man to complete bestiality, dependence on sexual feelings and absolute selfishness.

The Movement of Pure Hearts

Jesus wants to shape a pure heart in each of us, because only then will we be able to love. The ability of selfcontrol over our feelings and over the whole sphere of sensuality and sexuality is attained by hard daily work on ourselves in union with Jesus. The Lord Jesus says: “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He invites you to completely entrust yourself to Him, so that He can heal you, set you free from all sins and make you capable of loving. The most important task in your life is maturing to love, that is, following the simplest way to heaven. For this purpose, the Lord Jesus invites you to the community of the Movement of Pure Hearts. Who can join? Anyone who wants to give Jesus their heart, so that He can heal them, free them from selfishness, from all sin and refill them with the gift of pure love. What are the requirements? Sincere willingness to fulfil all the obligations contained in the prayer of entrustment to the MPH.

When and how can you join the Movement of Pure Hearts? Any time! First, go to confession and, when you receive Jesus in Holy Communion, give yourself to Him as His exclusive property, saying the MPH Prayer of entrustment.

Let us know about your joining the MPH, so that we can put your name in the Book of Pure Hearts and send you a special blessing. Remember to pray daily the MPH Prayer of entrustment and that Love One Another! is the formative magazine for MPH members worldwide (we now publish it in twenty-one languages). Therefore read the magazine regularly and feel jointly responsible for the evangelisation of your milieu through prayer, your life’s example and Love One Another! Share your experience of faith with others on the pages of our magazine. Please write and send your testimony to our editorial team. Here in the publishing office, we remember you in the rosary prayer and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I bless you with all my heart in your daily effort of maturing in love.

Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2016/2016-34/the-culture-of-life-and-the-culture-of-death

The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in September 2020.

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