Gaudium et Spes
Reflection Paper One of the main foundational attacks affecting the family today outlined in Gaudium et Spes is social and political dimensions. Gaudium et Spes says, “The well-being of the individual person and of the human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family...Yet the excellence of this institution is not everywhere reflected with equal brilliance, since polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love and other disfigurements have an obscuring effect.” (Gaudium et Spes, 47). Marriage is a sacred bond meant to be between one man and one woman only. By that bond, they are able to create life and form a family, but in some societies, marriage is viewed differently. In…show more content… Because human beings are finite and imperfect creatures their societies and laws are finite and imperfect unless they are established by God. The sanctity of marriage and its dignity is universal, something that cannot be changed or limited by finite beings. When a human society tries to change the meaning of marriage they no longer see the beauty and the dignity of marriage because they fail to recognize that the infinite laws of marriage cannot be changed. If we are to believe that in marriage a man and woman give and share every part of themselves with each other (as the Church states) then how can it be reasonable for a society to allow a man or woman to marry multiple people? since they would no longer be able to give themselves fully to one person, they would be divided. Part of giving yourself fully to another human being means that you will not give yourself to someone else, but in polygamy, divorce, cohabitation, and fornication you are dividing yourself amongst multiple people. The proposal in Gaudium et Spes
