Fr. Jerry Pokorsky: The Bonds of Blood

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Cultuture, April 29, 2024

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. 

Natural human love finds its pinnacle expression in marriage. A child is the outward sign of love—a bond of human blood. Marriage is the foundation of families, tribes, and nations. The infusion of God’s grace purifies and uplifts marriage and all human love. The infusion is real, not symbolic.

God commands our first parents: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28) Husbands and wives fill and subdue the earth, beginning with the love of the marital embrace. Jesus refines our understanding of marriage: “He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’ So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mt. 9:4-6)

Marriage is the communion of a man and woman with an exclusive and unbreakable bond of fidelity, open to children. The union of man and wife and their love is not abstract. An unborn baby shares the blood of its mother and the DNA of both mom and dad. A baby becomes the incarnation of their love. Families expand and form tribes, sharing the bonds of blood. Tribal groupings form nations. The bonds of blood hold nations together. But without the rule of law and God’s grace, the same bonds may tear nations apart. …

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