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LaRee speaks to America |
Ten years ago, my wife, LaRee, and I delivered a keynote address to a U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfast. I’ve written about this before. At one point in LaRee's speech, she quoted Victor Hugo:
“To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. To love is a consummation.“
I have often used this quote since. But what did Victor Hugo say leading up to these immortal words? He wrote about the sacredness and beauty of the marriage bed.
“Upon the threshold of wedding nights stands an angel smiling, his finger on his lip.”
“The soul enters into contemplation before this sanctuary, in which is held the celebration of love.”
“There must be gleams of light above those houses. The joy which they contain must escape in light through the stones of the walls, and shines dimly into the darkness. It is impossible that this sacred festival of destiny should not send a celestial radiation to the infinite. Love is the sublime crucible in which is consummated the fusion of man and woman; the one being, the triple being, the final being, the human trinity, springs from it. The birth of two souls into one must be an emotion for space. The lover is priest; the rapt maiden is affrighted. Something of this joy goes to God. Where there is really marriage, that is where there is love, the ideal is mingled with it. The nuptial bed makes a halo in the darkness. Were it given to the eye of flesh to perceive the fearful and enchanting sights of the superior life, it is probable that we should see the forms of night, the winged strangers, the blue travelers of the invisible, bending, a throng of the shadowy heads, over the luminous house, pleased, blessing, showing to one another the sweetly startled maiden bride, and wearing the reflection of human felicity upon their divine countenances. If, at that supreme hour, the wedded pair, bewildered with pleasure, and believing themselves alone, were to listen, they would hear in their chamber a rustling of confused wings. Perhaps happiness implies the solidarity with the angels. That little obscure alcove has for its ceiling the whole heavens. When two mouths, made sacred by love, draw near each other to create, it is impossible that above the ineffable kiss there should not be a thrill in the immense mystery of the stars.”
“These are the true felicities. No joy beyond these joys. Love is the only ecstasy, everything else weeps.” (Les Misérables)
And then we read those immortal words that my wife quoted.
Victor Hugo’s passage held up the sacredness of the wedding night, the marriage bed, and a marriage blessed by God. “Authentic love is caught up into divine love.”
Sex is to be reserved for marriage. I know it sounds hopelessly old fashioned of me, but there it is. Sex taken casually is destructive to the individuals involved and ultimately to society. In a hook-up culture, people give away their most intimate gift to strangers, someone they met at a bar or party, or acquaintances they may not even be sure about their last name. When something so beautiful as our sexual self is given away so casually, what is left for the exclusivity of true love expressed in marriage? (I won’t get into the prospect of unwanted children that may result from a fling, affair or one-night stands. They [the children] often pay the highest price with their lives.)
Marriage was created and instituted by God. Catholic marriage is a sacrament. Many Protestant denominations consider marriage a covenant between a man and a woman before God. Marriage was instituted by God. Man can not meddle, alter or redefine it. We have tried and all we are left with is mockery or counterfeit marriage. Marriage must not be taken lightly. It is an indivisible, intimate, indissoluble union between a man and a woman.
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