Tag: sexuality

Marvel at God’s compassion

This morning I came across a quote taken from the works of St. Peter of Damaskos (a 12th century) that I think begins to open a new window for our spiritual life. I think the mature Christian is a person who understands that the life of grace is a continuum: sometimes we live fully in the illumination of God’s life generating a virtuous life. Other periods of life we may struggle with a particular way of thinking and acting. I will say we can’t cave to thinking that we are hypocrites if we work on conforming our lives to the love, compassion and wonder of God’s Way. True conversion is neither THAT immediate nor lasting. To me, those who claim otherwise are fooling themselves and shallow and their spiritual advice not worth the paper it is written upon. The spiritual life takes time and it’s a deliberate work that is very tough-going and heart-wrenching. Whether the spiritual work is fully engaging in what is said in Matthew 25, or believing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Bread of Life, or to love our enemies, not stealing, murdering, or breaking (bending, stretching?) one’s promises and vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We can’t reduce or empty the real questions which make life meaningful. Any reduction of the heart’s needs is too severe and unreasonable and therefore not of God.

The spiritual life is proposed to be an ascesis (an intentional work of the mind, heart & body). It is not always self-evident nor is it fully realizable without real, lively attention to grace. The fruit of grace is an openness and freedom to be the self. As one person taught, we are a mystery, and this constitutes this very self. What is veiled and unveiled takes intellectual, spiritual and affective maturity. And from my experience not too many of us have the required maturity. A periodic author that I have consulted has said, “It does not merely aim at the satisfaction of human understanding, it must “deepen” it. Thus, to replace the word “mystery” with the word ‘Father’ in relation to God renders an extremely comprehensible term which at the same time identifies God’s uniqueness and intensifies the mystery. The religious sense prepares us for such a revelation but revelation intensifies the depth of this religious sense” (A. Spencer).

In the end, we have to rely not on the negative to define who we are, and what we want to become. We are more than our “sin.” It is not the negative that will make us free in Christ. It may take to the end of our life to truly be what we are made to be. What we want may be illusive if we don’t do the work of conversion. We are more than our sin, we are more than the pathologies and our ideas that live rent free in our heads. Why is it that we allow toxicity to reign in the heart that tend to become unhealthy? I can say that I have personally struggled for years with defining myself and others by their actions without looking honestly at personal history and reality and the true desires of the human heart.

All this brings me to think about what it means to be in-relation to another person in a deeper way even if it breaks the convention, and challenges what has been proposed as the door to be a true son or daughter of the Lord of Life. I’m thinking of what it may mean to deal with humanity sexuality between consenting adults. I wouldn’t want to get into details here since that would be indiscrete. But I know first hand how certain religious superiors have not assisted the brethren well in dealing with matters of sexuality in a way that leads to greater freedom. In fact, the religious superiors have too readily adopted the world’s standards, in either a permissive way or in a way that does not allow for redemption. As Cardinal George said, our society now permits everything but forgives nothing.

All too often sexuality is feared and reduced to bromides. Human sexuality is supposed to be life-giving, generative, and beautiful. But it doesn’t have to be that way if we consider the perspective and way of proceeding of Eastern Christianity.

St. Peter of Damaskos writes:

Even if you are not what you should be, you should not despair. It is bad enough that you have sinned; why in addition do you wrong God by regarding him in your ignorance as powerless? Is he, who for your sake created the great universe that you behold, incapable of saving your soul? And if you say that this fact, as well as his incarnation, only makes your condemnation worse, then repent; and he will receive your repentance, as he accepted that of the prodigal son (Luke 15:20) and the prostitute (Luke 7:37-50). But if repentance is too much for you, and you sin out of habit even when you do not want to, show humility like the publican (Luke 18:13): this is enough to ensure your salvation. For he who sins without repenting, yet does not despair, must of necessity regard himself as the lowest of creatures, and will not dare to judge or censure anyone. Rather, he will marvel at God’s compassion.

As Christians we seek the hundredfold: our true happiness in this world, and our true happiness in the next (Mark 19:29). We live and act for the sake of Jesus and are promised one hundred times to inherit everlasting life and to be happy in this life. We forget that Jesus wants and begs for our happiness in this life!!!!  Why is it that we forget this point in biblical revelation? How we get there takes time, love (concern for another’s well-being and destiny), and prudence. I can’t fall off the ground. So far my relationships are electric on a certain level. I am aware of my sinfulness and know my need for happiness and for redemption. Jesus tells us so. Amen.

Christian Courtship in an Oversexed World: A Guide for Catholics

The Catholic Fellowship of NYC is sponsoring a
Theology on Tap Event this Thursday… January 20, 2011 starting at 7:30pm
discussing the topic of


“Christian Courtship in an Oversexed World: A Guide for
Catholics.”

Location: At Cathedral Basilica of St. James Lower Church, Corner of Jay
Street & Cathedral Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201.


Father
Thomas G. Morrow is the featured speaker. Father Morrow is a priest of the
Archdiocese of Washington, DC; he earned the STD in moral theology from Pope
John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in 1999, the
co-founder of the St. Catherine Society and the St. Lawrence Society,
respectively for women and men seeking spiritual growth. Morrow is an assistant
priest at the Church of Saint Catherine Labouré, Wheaton, MD.

Don’t trivialize sexuality Vatican urges












Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith

On the trivilization of sexuality regarding

certain interpretations of Light of the World

Following the
publication of the interview-book Light of the World by Benedict XVI, a
number of erroneous interpretations have emerged which have caused confusion
concerning the position of the Catholic Church regarding certain questions of
sexual morality. The thought of the Pope has been repeatedly manipulated for
ends and interests which are entirely foreign to the meaning of his words – a
meaning which is evident to anyone who reads the entire chapters in which human
sexuality is treated. The intention of the Holy Father is clear: to rediscover
the beauty of the divine gift of human sexuality and, in this way, to avoid the
cheapening of sexuality which is common today.

Some interpretations have
presented the words of the Pope as a contradiction of the traditional moral
teaching of the Church. This hypothesis has been welcomed by some as a positive
change and lamented by others as a cause of concern – as if his statements
represented a break with the doctrine concerning contraception and with the
Church’s stance in the fight against AIDS. In reality, the words of the Pope –
which specifically concern a gravely disordered type of human behaviour, namely
prostitution (cf. Light of the World, pp. 117-119) – do not signify a
change in Catholic moral teaching or in the pastoral practice of the Church.


Continue reading Don’t trivialize sexuality Vatican urges

What the Pope really said about condoms…

If you want to know what Pope Benedict XVI really said about AIDS and condom use, you will want to read Chapter 11, of Peter Seewald’s interview of the Pope in Light of the World,  “The Journeys of a Shepherd,” pages 117-119:

On the occasion of your trip to Africa in March 2009, the Vatican’s policy on AIDs once again became the target of media criticism. Twenty-five percent of all AIDs victims around the world today are treated in Catholic facilities. In some countries, such as Lesotho, for example, the statistic is 40 percent. In Africa you stated that the Church’s traditional teaching has proven to be the only sure way to stop the spread of HIV. Critics, including critics from the Church’s own ranks, object that it is madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.

The media coverage completely ignored the rest of the trip to Africa on account of a single statement. Someone had asked me why the Catholic Church adopts an unrealistic and ineffective position on AIDs. At that point, I really felt that I was being provoked, because the Church does more than anyone else. And I stand by that claim. Because she is the only institution that assists people up close and concretely, with prevention, education, help, counsel, and accompaniment. And because she is second to none in treating so many AIDs victims, especially children with AIDs.

I had the chance to visit one of these wards and to speak with the patients. That was the real answer: The Church does more than anyone else, because she does not speak from the tribunal of the newspapers, but helps her brothers and sisters where they are actually suffering. In my remarks I was not making a general statement about the condom issue, but merely said, and this is what caused such great offense, that we cannot solve the problem by distributing condoms. Much more needs to be done. We must stand close to the people, we must guide and help them; and we must do this both before and after they contract the disease.

As a matter of fact, you know, people can get condoms when they want them anyway. But this just goes to show that condoms alone do not resolve the question itself. More needs to happen. Meanwhile, the secular realm itself has developed the so-called ABC Theory: Abstinence-Be Faithful-Condom, where the condom is understood only as a last resort, when the other two points fail to work. This means that the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves. This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also a part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being.

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?

She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

Seminary and Sex

Creation of Eve Michelangelo.jpgSexuality is a beautiful part of being human and it is a gift from God that needs to be known, understood, appreciated and embraced (no pun intended). Sexuality is a holy part of being a man or a woman. Unfortunately, that’s not the message we receive in secular society and it is infrequently heard from the pulpit in Catholic churches and very likely not in other Christian communities. Unheard of from the pulpit, that is, until Pope John Paul II introduced his monumental work, Theology of the Body. But that’s a topic for another time. Sexuality is not just a religious issue, it is a human issue and everything human is of our interest.

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly ran an interesting story on sexuality. I will say it makes some good points BUT there are some views that are inconsistent with Catholicism. OK, but that’s a not a good reason not to watch the story! Familiarize yourself with the issues –watch the video and read something on the Theology of the Body. AND don’t be scared.
At places like St Joseph’s Seminary there’s a course on human sexuality taught by Father John Bonnici, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. Father Bonnici deals with the physiological, psychological, relational, spiritual and theological aspects of human sexuality viz. priestly ministry. AND I am glad to have the class. It is a forum for us to intelligently speak about human sexuality matters while considering the pastoral issues at hand that we will encounter in the parish setting. Learning on the job is not an adequate response any longer… sorry….

A pope and a dirty magazine: Humanae Vitae & our true destiny

 

On the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae last week I observed the prophetic nature of Pope Paul VI’s work and the gift it is to the Church and the world. Below I am adding a recently published article on the same subject by a scholar and friend, Don DeMarco.

 

Paul VI versus Playboy

By Donald DeMarco

 

In 1986, Brother Don Fleischhacker of the University of Notre Dame wrote a letter to Playboy protesting that magazine’s fragmented view of human sexuality.

 

Citing “Humanae Vitae,” this intrepid Holy Cross religious reasoned that once “the contraceptive mentality is accepted, there can be no coherent objective ground for opposition to homosexual activity.” If the unitive aspect of sex becomes an end in itself, he went on to explain, “There is no essential reason why sex should be restricted to couples of different sexes.”

 



Paul VI PP.jpgRecent events have proven that Brother Don was as prophetic as was Pope Paul VI when he penned “Humane Vitae” back in 1968. For Playboy, however, the letter was treated as an object of ridicule and its content irreverently dismissed: “Brother, you sound like St. Thomas’ lawyer,” wrote the Playboy editor, who went on to bless “both kinds” of sexual relations.

 

This holier-than-thou posture of Playboy explains why its founder, Hugh Hefner, has declared that he is the most moral human being he has ever met. From the perspective of Playboy, it is far ahead of the church in the sheer number of wonderful things it deems good, including marriage for same-sex partners. Playboy has surpassed Genesis in its generosity, and outdistanced mother church in its magnanimity.

 

Continue reading A pope and a dirty magazine: Humanae Vitae & our true destiny