June 10, 2009

BEING A MAN – BEING A FATHER

Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo

There are basically two ways to understand ourselves, as human beings, and our surroundings:    

A- To use our intellectual capacity, thus noticing:

1) Planet earth and the universe were formed a long time before we existed; the Natural Law does not depend on us, but we should discover it, given the fact that at some point of the cosmos’ history, humans appeared on earth in the form of a family.

2) Our human constitution follows a design that is not of our own making, in which common and similar organs and systems are installed for a specific function and goal. A fundamental diversity between male and female is obviously observed, as well as a structural correlation between them, for the clear purpose of reproduction.

3) We also observe a connection, continuity of composition, and similar systems of functionality, between our human constitution and the world around us, and may recognize, therefore, the laws and rules of our existence and finality, which direct us to our Maker and to our own fulfillment.

B- To abdicate the use of our rational capacity to observe and connect the phenomena of the universe in their marvelous design, thus adopting such positions:    

1) Our existence and that of the cosmos is an accident of happenstance. No transcendent Maker, no primordial design, no ultimate purpose, no finality. Most of all: no sin there, nor virtue. We are born and die as dumb matter, the result of blind forces.

2) In regard to the human race and family: to be or become a male or female is a matter of personal elective choice, so is the composition of the kind of family to be formed by two persons, so is the kind of marriage that establishes that kind of family.

3) No laws rule us or precede us; we freely establish the rules that govern society and morality without restriction from any natural or divine law.

The summary result: Either we acknowledge God, the universal Father, fountain and final destiny of our being, and act accordingly, as exposed in proposition A, or adopt proposition B in which we end up choosing ourselves to be our own factual god. Ourselves, being no gods at all, end up most miserable and a destructive force for our society.  

Family and Fatherhood:

In our time and country, which is a rich and mighty Superpower, basic choices are presented to us, similar to those presented to the citizens of the Roman Empire, in comparable position of wealth and might. Healthy reasoning, the collective conscience and wisdom of human generations, confirmed and enlightened by divine revelation, should guide us to recognize and abide by natural and divine laws, in which the right order of society, the wellbeing of community, and the fulfillment of individuals is based. The Maker made the human family male and female, man and woman, husband and wife; so they are made in their own constitution: biological, psychological, and spiritual. Based on that individual constitution is each one’s personal call and mission in this world. Fatherhood is where the initiative of new human life resides with a principal responsibility for the whole family and a rewarding blessing of achievement and fulfillment.