The question that Jesus kept asking is: Who do you say that I am? That is always the question the Church must answer. After all, the entire Christian faith is centered upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the body. God who gave life at Creation, restores life to men who have fallen into death through the work of Christ, and breathes life out upon the world through the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The Church’s wisdom is always foolishness to the world, but to those who are called by the Gospel it is a breath of life-giving fresh air. So, what does our answer to the “gay marriage” question have to do with answering Jesus’ question? How are we who have died with Christ and been raised in Christ to speak to the world?

Jesus is the revelation of the Father’s Truth in the flesh. He becomes the Man to reveal that the Father’s act of Creation is Good and to atone for the sins of all the descendants of that first man. That first man could only plant the seed of death in the womb of the woman even though he called her Eve. Jesus calls His mother Woman at Cana and again from the cross to reveal a new Mother, not only for John but for all the living. His first miracle is done at a wedding and connected to the third day because He is the God of the living from whom all life comes. That language of life is given in the context of the marriage of one man and one woman that they might be fruitful and multiply. In fact, Jesus is the Promised Seed who was first planted in Mary’s womb by the Spirit and now must be planted in the Womb of our Mother the Church so that new life might come forth. The Church is drawn from the side of Christ as His blood and water spill forth for the sprinkling of the nations. All this is so that the children of the heavenly Father might be filled with life as male and female in the Body of Christ.

Now what does that have to do with the question of “gay marriage?” Marriage is defined by the relationship of Christ to the Church and not by an arbitrary definition of man that can be changed to satisfy a popular opinion of the time. Jesus is the faithful Bridegroom who gives life to His Bride so that having been born of water and the Spirit we might becomes sons of God as He is the Son of God. The marriage of Adam and Eve is defined by the relationship of Christ and His Church as one man and one woman from whom comes new life. Thus, the definition of marriage cannot be changed unless you change your definition of Christ who confirms what is given in Creation.

Marriage is intimately bound up with giving life and nurturing life, but homosexuality is not capable of producing life or nurturing life as God ordained with a mother and father. Yet, some Christians have been seduced by the call to love by permitting the sin. Others feel they should not impose religious faith upon a so-called matter of the state. Society has been turned to support a culture of death that stands in opposition to stable families, procreation, and a nurturing environment for future children. Such a culture of death requires a god/goddess of death that gathers his/her disciples and indoctrinates others in such idolatry. This new god is really the old one: the sinful flesh of an individual seeking to taste whatever seems good in his own eyes. In this “christianity” Jesus becomes a generic god who simply encourages a personal expression of love and commitment, rather than releasing men from the captivity of sin that death may have no power over them. This generic Jesus is not raised in the body to raise the bodies of His followers to new life, but would have them taste all the fruits of the tree of death. Thus, to support gay marriage is to deny the cross and resurrection, that is, that Christ is our Life who died for our sins upon the tree. This Jesus calls His Bride to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life in the Supper that we might be kept from sin and strengthened on the narrow Way that leads to eternal life.