{"id":4446,"date":"2010-03-26T11:12:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T18:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=4446"},"modified":"2011-10-08T11:29:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T18:29:48","slug":"funeral-homily-for-father-paul-marx-osb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/funeral-homily-for-father-paul-marx-osb\/","title":{"rendered":"Funeral homily for Father Paul Marx, OSB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Father Paul believed that life begins at the moment of conception,<\/em>
\nthat life is a sacred gift from God,<\/em>
\nand that healthy family life is the most important element of a functioning society.<\/em>
\nHe fought vigorously against abortion,<\/em>
\ncontraception, sterilization, euthanasia, and child abuse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Funeral homily for Father Paul Marx, OSB<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Today I put before you
\nlife and prosperity, death and doom.
\nChoose life, then, that you and your descendants may live….”
\nOver the last three decades
\ntheologians and bishops have tried to take these words
\nfrom Deuteronomy seriously
\nand have articulated a “consistent life ethic.”<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s
\nas the conference of bishops was developing the peace pastoral
\n\u201cThe Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response”
\nCardinal Bemadin from Chicago spoke out against nuclear war and abortion.
\nHowever, he quickly expanded the scope of his thinking
\nto include all aspects of human life.
\nIn one of the first speeches given on the topic at Fordham University, Bemardin said:
\n\u201cThe spectrum of life cuts across the issues of genetics,
\nabortion, capital punishment, modern warfare, and the care of the terminally ill.\u201d
\nAlthough each of the issues was distinct and different,
\nnevertheless, the issues were linked
\nsince the valuing and defending of human life were,
\nhe believed, at the center of both issues.<\/p>\n

As columnist Colman McCarthy has noted,
\n\u201cBoth the military ethic and the abortion ethic
\nare grounded in the same belief:
\nLife is cheap.
\nThe language of the war lobby and the abortion lobby
\nis from the same glossary of evasions.
\nNo one likes war, say the generals.
\nNo one likes abortions, says National Organization of Women.
\nBut let\u2019s keep the killing option, just in case.” (1)<\/p>\n

Even though the consistent lite ethic is attractive intellectually,
\nit raises the bar on our moral thinking and acting.
\nOverall, within the Church I think that it is accurate to say
\nthat it is not readily embraced.
\nCatholics have abortions at pretty much the same rate as the larger population.
\nForty percent of Catholics favor the death penalty.
\nI don\u2019t know how Catholics stack up statistically
\non the possession and use of nuclear weapons but my hunch is that many Catholics might say,
\n\u201cWhat’s the problem?”
\nThe seamless garment of this moral teaching on life
\nrequires profound conversion for all of us.
\nIf we are going to make the consistent life ethic truly ours,
\nin teaching and in practice, we have our work cutout for us.
\nFather Paul Marx put his considerable energy to this work.<\/p>\n

Benno William Marx was bom on May 8, 1920
\nas the fifteenth child in a family of seventeen.
\nHe grew up on the dairy farm
\nbut like others that I know,
\ndid not have any long-term interest in farming.<\/p>\n

At the age of fifteen, in the fall of 1935,
\nBenno went to the Prep School.
\nHis older brother, Father Michael,
\nentered the novitiate the same year.
\nWhile Benno found the school tough and demanding,
\nit is clear to me that he really found himself here.
\nHe excelled as a student, as a writer, and as an athlete.
\nHis 10.9 seconds record in the 100 yard dash in 1948
\nstood until 1971 and he still holds second place.
\nHe discovered his gifts for leadership
\nbecoming president of the student council
\nas well as captain of the football and track teams.<\/p>\n

He came to the university in 1939
\nand entered the novitiate in 194l, receiving the name Paul.
\nIt was the perfect name for him
\nwhen I think of the single minded missionary zeal of the apostle Paul.
\nHe made first vows as a monk on July 11, 1942
\nand was ordained to the priesthood in June 1947.<\/p>\n

While studying theology,
\nFather Paul served as a prefect and a teacher,
\nand coached both track and football at Prep.
\nThe track team won six consecutive state championships under his guidance.
\nStudents who violated the rules
\ncould easily find themselves shoveling snow off the track
\nso that it would be in tip-top shape for early practice runs.<\/p>\n

When at graduate school in sociology
\nFather Paul chose to write about the life and work of Father Virgil Michel,
\nthe monk of this monastery
\nwho made a singular contribution to the liturgical movement
\nthrough his creative integration of a liturgical spirituality
\nwith a commitment to social justice.
\nVirgil Michel had died on November 26, 1938,
\nwhen Father Paul was a senior at Prep School –
\nso Virgil was still a living memory for Paul and the community.<\/p>\n

He inspired Father Paul
\nand made him think about social justice in a new way.
\nIt is this social justice framework
\nthat Father Paul brought back to Collegeville
\nas he joined the faculty and began teaching courses
\non marriage and family life.
\nHe was a strong advocate of natural family planning.
\nIn the late 1950s he was also deeply involved
\nin the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue.<\/p>\n

January 22, 1973 was the day that marked
\na turning point in Father Paul\u2019s understanding of the purpose of his life.
\nOn that day, in the Roe v. Wade decision
\nthe Supreme Court overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law
\nand made abortion legal in the United States.
\nThe Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman,
\nwith her doctor,
\ncould choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction,
\nand with restrictions in later months.
\nThe decision was based on the right to privacy.<\/p>\n

Father Paul believed that life begins at the moment of conception,
\nthat life is a sacred gift from God,
\nand that healthy family life is the most important element of a functioning society.
\nHe fought vigorously against abortion,
\ncontraception, sterilization, euthanasia, and child abuse.
\nFrom his sociological study of the use of technology
\nand the way it seeps into a society,
\nhe was convinced that contraception leads to abortion,
\nand abortion ultimately leads to euthanasia.<\/p>\n

In his fight against these technologies,
\nFather Paul gave lectures around the world
\nand published many books along the way.
\nHe founded first the Human Life Center,
\nthen Human Life International,
\nfollowed by Population Research Institute.
\nHe also drew to him many dedicated and hardworking men and women
\nwho helped finance these efforts and also to lead them.
\nHe received many awards for his contribution to the pro-life movement
\nbut was the first to acknowledge his many coworkers.
\nHe was particularly proud of his personal audiences with popes, particularly John Paul II.<\/p>\n

One cannot take the kind of stance that Father Paul took on “life” issues,
\nwith his fierce intensity,
\nand not be controversial – the word was made for Paul.<\/p>\n

Community life was not easy for him because it,
\nlike marriage, requires the art of compromise.
\nI am sure that Paul knew conceptually what this word means,
\nbut it was really hard for him in practice.
\nFather Paul was a deeply spiritual man, a man of prayer,
\nwith a faithful commitment to Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours, and the rosary.
\nHe truly loved the Church and its ideals.<\/p>\n

In his last moments, he prayed the prayer of Jesus in his own.
\nHe stretched out his arms and said, \u201cTake me Lord.”
\nlt was his way of making the surrender
\nthat each one of us will make one day, trusting in a Risen. living Lord.<\/p>\n

Abbot John Klassen, OSB
\n3-26-2010
\n(1) Colman McCarthy, The Washington Post, April 11, 1992.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Paul believed that life begins at the moment of conception, that life is a sacred gift from God, and that healthy family life is the most important element of a functioning society. He fought vigorously against abortion, contraception, sterilization, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,251,324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john-klassen","category-paul-marx","category-virgil-michel","wp-image-borders"],"views":702,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4448,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions\/4448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}