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What is God’s radical love? He gives it to us and we pass it on to others. This video is a sampler from Terry Modica’s presentation on “Radical Love” about family life and the vocation of marriage. And below it is the full 2-hour seminar as podcasts.
What is Radical Love?
Radical Love (Good News Ministries style) is first knowing how deeply and unconditionally God loves you. This is the root of all successful love (the word “radical” means “root”). Then we rely on that love to share it with our spouse (and others, too, of course).
In the Vocation of Marriage, couples are empowered by the Holy Spirit to love each other with the love that comes from God.
We have come to know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. By this, love is perfected within us. (1 John 4:16,17a)
What is the Vocation of Marriage?
The word “vocation” in marriage is similar to what we think of for the vocation of the priesthood, which is evangelization. Our primary and most important calling as couples is to help each other grow closer to Christ and then to evangelize our children. Everything else is secondary to this, because only this is eternal.
To understand the Vocation of Marriage, we have to first look at a vocation as the fulfillment of the calling to continue the mission of Christ. How are married couples to do this mission? We call this “radical love”. Jesus called it laying down one’s life for the other. Saint Paul called it (in Ephesians 5) submitting to one another while explaining that husbands are to love their wives the way Christ loves, which means laying down his life for his wife. And why did Christ lay down his life? To bring us to heaven. So, the vocation of marriage is – at its root (radical) level – helping the spouse reach heaven. This in turn evangelizes those around us to help them reach heaven, too.
The following podcasts on “God’s Radical Love in the Domestic Church” reveal God’s design for family life and the Vocation of Marriage. It was recorded live at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 2013. The handouts mentioned are available along with the complete video version @ gnm-media.org/gods-radical-love-part-1/.
