Omnes Sancti et Sanctæ Coreæ, orate pro nobis.

Now Blogging Afresh at Ad Orientem 西儒 - The Western Confucian



Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Family
Korean Buddhist Monk Beopjeong (법정 法頂), quoted in Find Buddha in the Family, Revered Monk Urges:
    Because of broken homes, there are many cold houses that are just shells, while the warmth of families has disappeared. Don’t look for the Buddha or bodhisattvas in temples. We must gather our thoughts and through studying our hearts bring them inside ourselves and into our families.
Some might find it strange of me to quote a Buddhist monk on this page. There is, of course, just one true religion*. But reverence for the family does not belong to just one religion, or even to religion in general. Like marriage from which it springs, family is a natural development that has spontaneously come into existence in all human societies. Thus, when Cultural Marxists and their allies sneer at the very idea of family and marriage** and bemoan societal recognition of them as interference of religion in secular life, they are dead wrong. The family, not the individual, is the basic unit of any society. To reject this is to reject human nature.

*Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about other religions:
    843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."

    844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:
      Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.
**I wish I had a dime for every time one of my generation uttered such trite nonsense as, "I don't believe in the institution of marriage." The amazing thing is that whenever I heard someone recite this cliché, the speaker seemed convinced that it was a demonstration of originality and intelligence.