Archdiocese of Philadelphia<\/a>:<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/archphila.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/8x10_Black-Clerical-320x400.jpg\")
Writing in the mid-First Century to \u201call God\u2019s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints\u201d \u2014 and despite the dangers and frustrations he himself faced \u2014 St. Paul said \u201cI am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed . . .\u201d (Rom 1:7, 16-17).<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s Letter to the Romans became a key text of the New Testament.\u00a0 The Church has always revered it as part of the inspired Word of God and incorporated it into her thought and practice.\u00a0 The books of Scripture, even when they\u2019re morally demanding, are not shackles.\u00a0 They\u2019re part of God\u2019s story of love for humanity.\u00a0 They\u2019re guide rails that lead us to real dignity and salvation.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0 Much of human history \u2013 far too much \u2014 is a record of our species\u2019 capacity for self-harm.\u00a0 The Word of God is an expression of his mercy.\u00a0 It helps us to become the people of integrity God created us to be.\u00a0 As Paul reminds us, we\u2019re \u201ccalled to be saints.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes Scripture\u2019s lessons toward that end can be hard.\u00a0 But God cannot lie.\u00a0 His Word always speaks the truth.\u00a0 And the truth, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, makes us free.\u00a0 This is why Christians must never be ashamed of God\u2019s Word \u2013 even when it\u2019s inconvenient.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to the heart of my comments this week.<\/p>\n
In Romans 1:21-27, speaking of the men and women of his time \u201cwho by their wickedness suppress the truth,\u201d Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
.\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>. . for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.\u00a0 Claiming to be wise, they became fools . . .<\/em><\/p>\nTherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.<\/em><\/p>\nFor this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.\u00a0 Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.<\/em><\/p>\nIf reading that passage makes us uneasy, it should.\u00a0 Many of Paul\u2019s Roman listeners had the same response.\u00a0 Jesus didn\u2019t come to affirm us in our sins and destructive behaviors \u2013 whatever they might be \u2014 but to redeem us.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s message was as resented in some quarters then as it is now.\u00a0\u00a0In an age of sexual confusion and disorder, calls to chastity are not just unwelcome.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0They\u2019re despised.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t diminish the truth of the words Paul wrote, or their urgency for our own time.<\/p>\nWhat we do with our bodies\u00a0matters.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Sex is linked intimately to human identity and purpose.\u00a0 If our lives have no higher meaning than what we invent for ourselves, then sex is just another kind of modeling clay.\u00a0 We can shape it any way we please.\u00a0 But if our lives\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0have a higher purpose \u2013 and as Christians, we find that purpose in the Word of God \u2014 then so does our sexuality.\u00a0 Acting in ways that violate that purpose becomes a form of self-abuse; and not just self-abuse, but a source of confusion and suffering for the wider culture.\u00a0 The fact that an individual\u2019s body might incline him or her to one sort of damaging sexual behavior, or to another very different sort, doesn\u2019t change this.<\/p>\nThis can be a difficult teaching.<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to see why so many people try to finesse or soften or ignore Paul\u2019s words.\u00a0 In a culture of conflict, accommodation is always the least painful path.\u00a0 But it leads nowhere.\u00a0 It inspires no one.\u00a0 \u201cFitting in\u201d to a society of deeply dysfunctional sexuality results in the ruin that we see in so many other dying Christian communities.<\/p>\nIn his recent book\u00a0Building a Bridge<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne), Father James Martin, S.J., calls the Church to a spirit of respect, compassion and sensitivity in dealing with persons with same-sex attraction.\u00a0 This is good advice.\u00a0 It makes obvious sense.\u00a0 He asks the same spirit from persons in the LGBT community when dealing with the Church.\u00a0 Father Martin is a man whose work I often admire. \u00a0Building a Bridge,\u00a0<\/em>though brief, is written with skill and good will.<\/p>\nBut what the text regrettably lacks is an engagement with the\u00a0substance<\/em>\u00a0of what divides faithful Christians from those who see no sin in active same-sex relationships.\u00a0\u00a0The Church is not simply about unity \u2013 as valuable as that is \u2013 but about unity in God\u2019s love rooted in truth.<\/strong>\u00a0 If the Letter to the Romans is true, then persons in unchaste relationships (whether homosexual or heterosexual) need conversion, not merely affirmation.\u00a0 If the Letter to the Romans is false, then Christian teaching is not only wrong but a wicked lie.\u00a0 Dealing with this frankly is the only way an honest discussion can be had.<\/p>\nAnd that honesty is what makes another recent book \u2013\u00a0Why I Don\u2019t Call Myself Gay<\/em>\u00a0by Daniel Mattson (Ignatius) \u2013 so extraordinarily moving and powerful.\u00a0 As Cardinal Robert Sarah writes in the Foreword, Mattson\u2019s candor about his own homosexuality, his struggles and failures, and his gradual transformation in Jesus Christ \u201cbears witness to the mercy and goodness of God, to the efficacy of his grace, and to the veracity of the teachings of his Church.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the words of Daniel Mattson himself:<\/p>\n
We cannot remain reluctant to speak about the beauty of the Church\u2019s teaching on sexuality and sexual identity for fear that it will appear \u201cunloving,\u201d \u201cirrational,\u201d or \u201cunreal.\u201d\u00a0 We need to love the world enough to speak about the Christian vision of sexual reality, confident that God\u2019s creation of man as male and female is truly part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we are called to proclaim to a lost and confused world.\u00a0 We need to be a light for the world and speak passionately about the richness of the Church\u2019s understanding of human sexuality.\u00a0 We can\u2019t place the Good News of the Church\u2019s teaching on human sexuality under a bushel any longer, for the world desperately needs the truth we have (p. 123).<\/em><\/p>\nSpoken from experience.\u00a0 Spoken from the heart.\u00a0 No one could name the truth more clearly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Archbishop Chaput: You are Called to Chastity not Sexual Confusion and Disorder source: http:\/\/www.courageouspriest.com\/archbishop-chaput-called-chastity-sexual-confusion-disorder?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=catholic_controversy&utm_term=2017-07-18 Archbishop Chaput Addresses Fr. James Martin\u2019s New Book By Archbishop Charles [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions\/2476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}