Strict Truth About Sex and Gas Planets

[written 2/14/20]

Clouds on the planet Jupiter, viewed from Juno space probe

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You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery. (Matthew 5:27-28)

Economic revolutionaries, social revolutionaries: They can claim to find inspiration in the words of Christ. The Lord wasn’t exactly a “capitalist.” And He never endorsed any particular aristocracy. But sexual revolutionaries? When they look for justifications in the gospels, they run into a brick wall. Because Jesus of Nazareth was death on the sixth commandment. [Spanish]

Better to pluck out your eye than look at someone lustfully. Better to cut off your hand than use it to sin. Lord Jesus made it crystal-clear: when God spoke from Mount Sinai condemning adultery, He condemned every sexual escapade—everything except the one, honest act that makes marriage marriage, through a lifetime of fidelity.

We Catholics do not think ill of sex. After all, our churches would be empty without it. The Lord’s severity on this subject did not proceed from prudishness on His part. He was celibate, but no prude. To the contrary, when He spoke about sex, He evoked the Garden of Eden. Be fruitful and multiply!

But: When it comes to the union of man and woman as one flesh, the holiness of Christ utterly prohibits anything cheap, anything fleeting or libidinously selfish. He chose us for ecstasy and communion that lasts forever. He offered His celibate body on the cross to consummate our everlasting marriage with God. There’s no room at the foot of His cross for anything other than chastity and fidelity in marriage.

Doesn’t mean He won’t forgive our falls. He knows what original sin has done to our human powers of self-control. When we succumb to temptation, He picks us up and gives us a fresh start, helping us to pursue again the serenity of perfect sexual honesty. Christ never gets tired of pardoning us weak sinners when we repent.

But the idea that any fruitless, short-term sexuality could peacefully co-exist with the holiness of Christ? His own words utterly anathematize this. Following Jesus means believing wholeheartedly that sex is only for marriage, and marriage is for life.

Now, the whole drama with the bishop and myself has brought the sexual-abuse crisis in the Church back into our minds. I think the most important thing about this is: We need to hear the Gospel of the victims who have spoken out.

Let me explain what I mean. To know the difference between Good and Evil, you have to know what Good is. Otherwise, Evil doesn’t seem evil; it just seems normal.

If we lived on the gas planet Jupiter, we wouldn’t know what a sunset on the Blue Ridge even looked like. But when our eyes catch a glimpse of something beautiful, then we can say to ourselves: We prefer this to endless acid rain.

Jesus Christ gives us the vision of genuine sexual integrity and freedom. We see the selfless chaste love of Jesus. We see the endless fruitfulness of that love. We grasp that Jesus of Nazareth is our brother, Who lived in the true love of our heavenly Father. When that vision of Christian faith penetrates our souls, we can say to ourselves: When it comes to sex, I deserve Blue-Ridge sunsets, and nothing less.

Anyone who ever got lied to, manipulated, or abused, but who then managed to distinguish evil from good, and say: I do not accept this! That person has proclaimed the Gospel. That person has purified the world.

Honest, committed marriage, consecrated by God: That is the true realm where sex can occur with genuine mutual respect. Not counterfeit love, but a friendship, a partnership, a holy bond.

Everyone deserves that, when it comes to sex. That, and nothing less. Jesus was death on the Sixth Commandment not to interfere with our happiness, but to guide us out of the acid rain and into the sunshine.

Death on the Sixth Commandment

We read at Holy Mass: A man shall cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…No human being must separate what God has joined. (Mark 10:7-9)

Such ringing clarity about marriage comes as a wonderful antidote to news reports about transgender bathrooms. Economic and social revolutionaries can and do find inspirations in the words of Christ. But sexual revolutionaries run into a brick wall. Because Jesus of Nazareth was death on the sixth commandment.

Better to pluck out your eye than look at a woman lustfully. Better to cut off your hand than use it to sin. Lord Jesus revealed that when God spoke from Mount Sinai condemning adultery, He condemned every sexual thing—except the one, honest act that makes marriage marriage, through a lifetime of fidelity.

Now, we would be fools to think ill of sex. Our churches would be empty without it. The Lord’s severity hardly proceeded from fussy prudishness on His part. He was celibate, but no prude. To the contrary, when He spoke about sex, He evoked the Garden of Eden, where the original divine command resounded: Be fruitful and multiply!

But when it comes to the union of man and woman as one flesh, the holiness of Christ utterly prohibits anything cheap, anything fleeting or libidinously selfish. He chose us for ecstasy and communion that lasts forever; He offered His celibate body on the cross to consummate our everlasting marriage with God. There’s no room at the foot of His cross for anything other than chastity.

Doesn’t mean He won’t forgive our falls. He knows what Adam’s sin has done to our human powers of self-control. When we succumb to temptation, He picks us up and gives us a fresh start, helping us to pursue again the serenity of perfect sexual honesty. Christ never gets tired of pardoning us weak sinners when we repent.

But the idea that any fruitless, short-term sexuality could peacefully co-exist with the holiness of Christ? His own words utterly anathematize this. Following Jesus means believing wholeheartedly that sex is only for marriage, and marriage is for life.

Guilty but not Condemned

We have reached the time of year when we study with singular focus the holy death of Jesus Christ.

Of old, these opening weeks of spring meant focusing on the death of the Passover Lamb, whose blood marked the homes of the chosen ones. The people of the Passover marched across the bed of the sea, to freedom. Then, the water swallowed up their enemies, to the glory of God.

That was the annual rite in the days of the Old Covenant. But we hear the prophet exhort us, in the name of God: Remember not these old exploits of mine. Don’t dwell on what I did for your ancient fathers. After all, I will do great things for you! I make a way through the desert for you to walk, and the very jackals and ostriches will chant like a choir as you pass down the highway I have laid down, to the Promised Land.

The highway opens before us. It invites us, beckons us, with beautifully obscure clarity, with shimmering darkness, with enticing terror. Because the highway to heaven is the cruel and agonizing death of Christ.

Meditating on a Few of the Commandments…

You shall not have other gods besides me.

If Sunday (or Saturday evening) finds us in church, then, thank God, the Lord will not catch us off worshiping the almighty god of I-get-to-do-whatever-I-want-with-my-weekend.

But: Am I ever guilty of worshiping the god of I-get-to-do-whatever-I-want-with-my-[fill in the blank]?

You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.

Do I take the name of Christ in vain by calling myself a Christian and not behaving like one?

Does “you shall not kill” give me peace? Seems like the commandment aims at peace.

God wills the peace and harmony that comes from honest, humble, generous hearts. Selfishness kills peace. Grasping fear kills peace. Faithlessness, or too much drinking, or driving too fast, or distracted—they all kill peace. Impatience kills peace. Rash judgments, tale-bearing, backbiting, and gossip kill peace.

Maybe I am not as innocent of breaking this commandment as I thought I was.

The sixth commandment obviously pertains only to adults. Do we adults commit adultery—just be being adults? Well… “If you look in the wrong way, you have committed adultery in your heart,” saith the Lord.

Did I mention that I sit in a little room every Wednesday evening and every Saturday afternoon? Many of my brother priests likewise keep such weekly vigils.

You shall not steal.

This one would be easier to obey if it read, “You shall not steal when you can’t get away with it.” But the Lord makes it a sin to steal even when we can get away with it. Even if there is no law per se against the particular stealing that we do. Like calling in a favor that cheats a worthy person out of an opportunity. Or giving a golf ball, or a basketball, the attention that I really owe my wife.

Which brings us to “you shall not lie.” What standard of truthfulness must we uphold?

For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

Who said this, and when? Then He spread out His arms on the cross, rather than leave any doubt about how pure our witness to the truth must be.

Wednesdays at 6:15. Saturdays 3:45. (Check local listings for Confession times in your parish.)

You shall not covet anything belonging to your neighbor.

Why should I want anything belonging to my neighbor? I only want God and His hidden and mysterious kingdom.

I don’t care that people might like my neighbor more than me. I never give a second thought as to whether my neighbor looks better in his or her outfit than I do in mine. The question of whether my neighbor has more clout in this town, or in this parish, than I do—such a question would never cross my mind.

When my neighbor gets more attention, or affection, or appreciation, or admiration than I do, I really do not care. All I need is God and His mysterious, hidden kingdom. I just want to live in the kingdom that we reach by being misunderstood, unappreciated, maltreated, and neglected—like the King was.

Whenever my neighbor wrongs me, I pray quietly and say, “Father, forgive him. Forgive her. He doesn’t realize. She doesn’t know.”

Whenever some great effort or substantial accomplishment of mine goes unmentioned and ignored, I rejoice inside and say, “All the glory belongs to God anyway.”

6:15 Wednesdays. 3:45 Saturdays.

Remember when we started Lent, and we set out to learn God’s ways? God has given us six luxurious weeks to crack our minds on studying His ways. Then on the seventh week, we get to rest.

Well, one thing we know for sure: God does not forgive people who are not sinners.

We could read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and we would not encounter a single passage about the Lamb of God suffering for the perfect people. God concerns Himself with blessing, understanding, loving, pardoning, and healing sinners.

In fact, the Lord seems strangely preoccupied with forgiving sins. He became man, wandered the land, taught, healed, suffered, died, rose again, founded the Church and gave us the sacraments—all for the sake of forgiving sins. He appears never to take a day off from the sin-forgiving business.

In four weeks, a few of us—our Elect—will receive the sacrament which washes sin away by a spiritual bath, namely Holy ___________.

A person can only be baptized once, of course. So, if, once I have been baptized, I commit a sin, I might as well give up, because I will never get to heaven, because no one can ever go back to the cleansing power of the baptismal font…

No?

Right! God has given us a sacrament of “second Baptism.” Let’s make an appointment for it! Wednesday evenings at __________. Saturday afternoons at _________. (Check local listings.)

Courtroom Drama

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery.

They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.

Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

She replied, “No one, sir.”

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” (John 8:2-11)

Let’s step into this gospel passage. Let’s get into it ourselves, like a scene on a stage. Where do we fit into the scene? Let’s find ourselves in it. The Lord Jesus, the Pharisees, the adulteress, the bystanders…where are we?