Let us continue our closer look at what God has revealed marriage to be in His divine plan. For help with this we will return to Christopher West's book
Good News about Sex and Marriage: Answers to Your Honest Questions About Catholic Teaching. (Quotes from his book will be in bold and my commentary will be in regular font.)
3. Indissoluble. Husband and wife are not joined by passing emotions or mere erotic inclination, which, selfishly pursued, fade quickly away. They're joined by God in an unbreakable bond of love through the firm and irrevocable act of their own consent?
What good is marriage if it does not unite a couple for "better or for worse?" How can people plan to build a life together if when the going gets tough you or your spouse can eject yourself from the marriage? As Catholics we believe the Sacrament of Marriage is one of those sacraments that changes the people involved. The couple goes from being bachelor and bachelorette to being husband and wife and this cannot be undone. One image from a movie I saw I think says its best. A man took a salt shaker and a pepper shaker and glued them together. He then went on to say something like now these things cannot be pulled apart without causing major damage to either. When we try to pull something apart that was meant to stay together may be it causes more damage than if the items were left together.
4. Entered by man and woman. The complementarily of the sexes is essential to marriage. There is such widespread confusion today about the nature of marriage that some would wish to extend a legal "right" to marry to two persons of the same sex. But the very nature of marriage makes such a proposition impossible.
Early on in the Church's history, she decided to embrace Greek Philosophical terms to help explain insights gained from divine Revelation. One term that they adopted that seems to confuse people is the Greek word which we translate "disorder". The word "disorder" in this philosophical context simply means that something that should be there is not. For example a person born missing his or her arm from the elbow down is considered to have a disorder. This does not mean that this person is evil or bad but simply that something that should be there "the arm from elbow down" is missing.
The Church uses the term disorder to describe people of same-sex attraction as having a disorder because we believe the person (through no fault of their own) is missing something that should be there namely the attraction to the opposite sex. We all have disorders in our life. A person with a temper has a disorder for he or she is lacking the ability to control their anger. This does not mean though that the person cannot live with their disorder in a holy way.
Catholics once again believe that sex is reserved for marriage whether you are attracted to people of the opposite or the same sex and that everyone is required to live a chase life and that everyone needs to the grace of God to do so.
The rise of homosexuality as a publicly accepted "alternative lifestyle" is yet another by-product of a culture that has severed sex from its inherent link with procreation? If you're a man, God created you to be man. If you're a woman, God created you to be a woman. There is inherent meaning to your sex? No one need be afraid to look deeply and honestly into his or her soul and admit the distortions and confusions found there, whatever they might be. We all have them. But no confusion, no distortion of our identity as men and women, goes deeper than the cross of Christ. The only tragedy is refusing to label them as distortions and seeking to "normalize" them for fear of the cross.
5. At the design of the Creator. God is the Author of marriage. He inscribed the call to marriage in our very being by creating us as male and female. Marriage is governed by his laws, faithfully transmitted by his Bride, the Church. For marriage to be what it's intended to be, it must conform to these laws. Human beings, therefore, are not free to change the meaning and purpose of marriage.
I do not think that the God who has gone into such detail in creating the Universe, for example if the earth was any closer to the sun it would be too hot for life and if it was any further away it would be too cold for life, did not also have a plan for human beings that included marriage. God's plan is for married couples to image be a sign of the interior life of the Blessed Trinity. We human beings always get into more trouble when we try to play god than when we follow God?s will.