CHANGING WORLD
Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas
(Part 1)
I have only the greatest admiration for couples who, despite all the logistic and other technical difficulties, were determined to get married during the pandemic. Whenever I was one of the few invited to be present at a wedding physically, I always made it a point to attend. Looking for a venue, finding a priest willing to officiate the Sacrament of Matrimony, and organizing a COVID-19-safe reception requires real grit and determination. I would like to use this column to congratulate these brave souls and to share with them, together with many other young couples of today, some sound advice that can be found in what I consider the most complete spiritual guide to a blissful marriage ever written by the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. I am referring to the Apostolic Exhortation that was written in 2016 by Pope Francis entitled “On Love in the Family.” Through this message that I address to the recently married couples, I also would like to reach all those who have been called to the holy state of matrimony.
I am especially pleased to see millennials (those in their twenties and thirties) taking the plunge to respond courageously to the calling that they received from God to tie the knot in marriage despite the increasing difficulties of raising a family during these times of uncertainties. Dealing with numerous graduates from the university where I have been teaching for more than 50 years, I have seen how couples now tend to marry at much later ages than during the generation of baby boomers or even Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980). It is more common for males today to get married at the age of 30 or over and for females when they are in their late twenties. This may be a healthy trend since those deciding to marry may be more mature and financially stable than the former generation who married in their early twenties. There is, however, the danger that those who are called to matrimony by a divine vocation may become too calculating as they succumb to the more materialistic environment prevailing in our society.
For those with the Christian faith, there is the belief that it is God who calls a man and a woman to be united in marriage. I still remember the famous preacher in the 1960s and 1970s, Bishop Fulton Sheen, saying categorically that “It takes three to get married.” In fact, this was the title of a best-selling book that he wrote. According to him, In any marriage, there is a man and a woman and God in between them. He also was wont to stress that “Marriages are made in heaven.” In the Old Testament, in the very first book of Genesis, we read that God instituted marriage when He gave Eve to Adam as his spouse and gave them the command “to increase and multiply.” God could have created us human beings individually without the intermediation of a married couple becoming one flesh to procreate and educate children. He decided instead to depend on a man and a woman united in marriage to be His co-creators to bring into existence the countless souls with which He wanted to populate Heaven. God in His love for us His creatures wanted to share His bliss with as many souls as possible. He never creates a human being for hell. It is the individual human person who decides to go to hell by refusing to fulfil his purpose for his existence, which is to love God with all of his soul, mind, heart, and strength.
Thus, we can truly speak of marriage as a divine vocation, a calling from God. Because of his desire to populate heaven, God calls the majority of human beings to this state in life. This calling is as serious as a calling to the priesthood or any other state of life requiring apostolic celibacy, such as those who are called to a religious order or congregation and in modern times to a secular institute or a Personal Prelature like Opus Dei (among whose members are some who are called to apostolic celibacy). I remember that in the generation of the baby boomers in the 1950s or 1960s, a “vocational crisis” used to refer to the difficulty faced by an individual to respond to a clear calling from God for him or her to embrace a life of apostolic celibacy, especially if the person has already a girlfriend or boyfriend. Today, there is an increasing number of individuals God called to the marriage state who, despite the attraction of romantic love, still hesitate to get marriage. This, too, can be referred to as a “vocational crisis.”
Pope Francis exposes the reason for this phenomenon. In “On Love in the Family,” he wrote (Par. 40) “At the risks of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they are dissuaded from starting a family. In some countries, many young persons postpone a wedding for economic reasons, work or study. Some do so for other reasons, such as the influence of ideologies which devalue marriage and family, the desire to avoid the failures of other couples, the fear of something they consider too important and sacred, the social opportunities and economic benefits assosciated with simply living together, a purely emotional and romantic conception of love, the fear of losing their freedom and independence, and the rejection of something conceived as purely institutional and bureaucratic. We need to find the right language, arguments, and forms of witness that can help us reach the hearts of young people, appealing to their capacity for generosity, commitment, love, and even heroism, and in this way inviting them to take up the challenge of marriage with enthusiasm and courage.” With these astute observations of Pope Francis, the reader can better understand why at the beginning of this article, I was all praises for couples who decided to get married during the most trying and uncertain times of the pandemic. They should really be considered heroic, as Pope Francis wrote.
As an economist concerned about the demographic suicide committed by so many countries in Europe and Asia that are suffering economically from rapid ageing because of very low fertility rates, often brought about by State-sponsored population control programs, I would also like to refer to what Pope Francis considers a human tragedy resulting from a distorted understanding of marriage and the marriage act. Not only do persons unwilling to respond to God’s call to marry frustrate God’s will to populate heaven with numerous souls, they also can cause the economic ruin of many developed or developing countries. As the Pope observes in the same Apostolic Exhortation (Par. 42j), “the decline in population due to a mentality against having children and promoted by the world politics of reproductive health, creates not only a situation in which the relationship between generations is no longer ensured but also the danger that , over time, this decline will lead to economic impoverishment and a loss of hope in the future. The development of bio-technology has also had a major impact on the birth rate. Added to this are other factors such as ‘Industrialization, the sexual revolution, the fear of overpopulation, and economic problems…Consumerism may also deter people from having children, simply so they can maintain a certain freedom and lifestyle.’ “
From these words of Pope Francis, we can better understand the wisdom of those who framed the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines when they categorically stated that marriage is an inviolable institution. This means not only that the state should not legalize divorce or the dissolution of a valid marriage but it should also respect the purpose for which God instituted marriage itself, i.e., for the procreation and education of children. Thanks to a pro-marriage and pro-life Constitution, the Philippines is one of the few emerging markets in Asia that can still boast of a young and growing population that is the strongest engine of growth for long-term sustainable economic development. Thanks to a young and large population, the Philippines has a large domestic market which is the main engine of growth. It also can afford to send abroad millions of Filipino workers who remit their incomes that account for more than 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. This young English-speaking labor force is also the source of 1.4 million workers for the BPO-IT sector that contributes also significantly both to income and employment.
To be continued.