St. Paul would not meet our politically correct
standards. And this, for the use
of one word—sodomites.
In
a list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God Paul lists:
fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, boy prostitutes, sodomites, thieves,
greedy, drunkards, slanderers and robbers. Among all of these, one reflects a particular hot-button
issue today—same-sex relations.
As
Catholics, we must be careful in approaching hot-button moral issues. Remember that same-sex acts are not the
only sin Paul condemns. He also
includes fornication, adultery and boy prostitutes. Yet how often do we bring cohabitation or adultery under
scrutiny in public or private?
While same-sex relationships have been a focus of our morality in recent
times, they are certainly not the only sexual sins out there.
At
the same time, we don’t back down from maintaining the objective sinfulness of
certain acts. With respect to
human sexuality, any sexual act outside of the marriage between a man and a
woman is wrong.
And consider this: fifty or sixty years ago,
cohabitation was almost nil and adultery an unspeakable breach of
fidelity. Ten years ago legalized
same-sex unions would have been unheard of. Now all three are all too common and all too commonly
acceptable practices. While our
society abhors sexual acts with children (as rightly we should), there is
precedence for a free-for-all in sexual morality within societies who took God
out of their legal system. Indeed,
boy prostitutes were commonly accepted in Greek and Roman culture and it scares
me to think what could be acceptable here tomorrow.
On
this rainy day, you may be thinking, “What a depressing topic!” But let’s keep reading St. Paul’s
letter: “That is what some of you
used to be; but now you have had yourselves
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
Paul’s
desire is for the Corinthians to know sin in
order to be freed from sin. We,
too, must know what is right and be cleansed when we fall. As sinners, we must never judge another
person, but we do stand with Christ and his Church knowing there is right and
there is wrong.
May
we continue to present our sins to the Lord, and seek his mercy every day, even in a society in which almost anything goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment