Sunday, June 26, 2016

Galatians 5: 1, 13-18

Brothers and sisters:
For freedom Christ set us free;
so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.
But do not use this freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh;
rather, serve one another through love.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement,
namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you go on biting and devouring one another,
beware that you are not consumed by one another.

I say, then: live by the Spirit
and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh has desires against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh;
these are opposed to each other,
so that you may not do what you want.
But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

After my morning prayers and before this reflection I started the day by reading a number of blogs by gay Christians. All of them had the same basic story. They were all Christians who opposed gay marriage even though they themselves were gay. They all eventually relented to their same sex attraction and are now married. They see it as their task to change the hearts and minds of church leaders to get them to see God’s change of heart and remove the rules and doctrines against same sex marriage.

Their arguments were logical, compassionate, and honest. Taken as they are stated they make perfect sense. It is difficult to disagree with them. They make you want to change your mind. They make you want to support their cause. But it flies directly against Church teaching. It goes against everything I have come to believe is true. Questions, conflict, turmoil swirl around my brain. But, if I have learned anything I have learned that when I disagree with Church teaching I have been wrong, every single time. All I have to do is look deeply into Church teaching to understand it better. Accept first and then strive to understand. Why should this issue be any different?

Open up to today’s readings and what do I find? The first part of the reading seems to support exactly what these blog writers were trying to say. Christ set us free. Stand firm and do not submit to the yoke of slavery. You are free to love whomever your heart has a desire for. Do not submit to the yoke of Church teaching on same sex marriage. God supports you in this and by your witness you can change opinion.

Isn’t that the truth? So many Catholics stand in support of same sex marriage and demand that their Church get with the times and stop the fearful resentment of people with same sex attraction from receiving the same Sacraments as everyone else. Stop discriminating against women and allow them to be ordained deacons and priests. The old Levitical laws of the old, white, Jew were abolished by Christ who came to make all people equal.

And then we get to the second part of the reading. You will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. You may not do what you want. Desires of the flesh that go against the spirit are bad. This is at the heart of Catholic teaching. Anything that goes against the nature of God is not good. God instituted marriage as one man and one woman. Jesus affirmed this during his ministry. He didn’t change what the sacrament was. He never said that marriage is a covenant between two people who feel a strong desire for each other be they male and female or male and male or female and female. He cemented what God created. Marriage is between one man and one woman for as long as they both shall live.

But didn’t he free them from the yoke of slavery? Yes, he did but they have misunderstood exactly what that yoke of slavery really is. The yoke of slavery is not man’s law that they cannot marry. The yoke of slavery is slavery to desire. It is slavery to self. Do not use this as an opportunity for the flesh.

Every person has to walk down the road of life. On that road you will have to pass through one of two gates. The first gate is the gate of self gratification, the gate of pleasure. This gate is wide and easy to pass through. The other gate is the gate of the way of the Lord. It is the gate of self denial. It is the gate of sacrifice. This gate is narrow and difficult to pass through. Few will pass through this gate.

If you wish to follow me you have to deny yourself and pick up your cross. Those who lose their lives will save it and those who try to save their lives will lose it. Everything in Holy Scripture tells us to deny our selfish desires and search for pleasure and to live a sacrificial life according to the teaching of Jesus. Everything in the world tells us to cast off the demands of man and embrace our desires and live a pleasurable life. In the end I would rather stand with Jesus and suffer from the judgment of the world than give in to the desires of the world and suffer the judgment of Jesus.