Pastor’s Corner — June 26th, 2022
Gone this Weekend
This weekend I’m in Boston for the East Coast Encounter Conference. This is one of our regional conferences that is kind of like our big national conference in January but on a much smaller scale. Please say a prayer for all the attendees and thank God ahead of time for his gracious provision of transforming love.
The Sexual Revolution and the Fall of ‘Roe’
In my homily on God’s mercy and abortion about a month ago I stated that the change of laws around abortion will not change hearts about abortion. We need to be sober minded about this. We must also acknowledge that abortion is the rotten fruit of the sexual revolution, which at its root is sustained revolt against and rejection of our human nature as made in God’s image and likeness. At the root of abortion is the attempt to completely separate sex from babies in such a way that if a baby is conceived as a result of sexual activity, then we must be able to kill the baby. Abortion, in a sense, functions as backup contraception; sex must not lead to babies.
In our desire for abortion to cease, the overturning of Roe v. Wade (which might happen this week or next) must start with frank admission that for abortion to cease we need to work to change hearts about the God-given purpose of sex (babies and bonding) and the beauty and power of life-long marriage between a man and woman. (Most people probably don’t know that 85% of all abortions involve unwed mothers). If people respected and honored our human nature and waited to have sex until they were in a stable and loving marriage, most of the conditions for abortion would cease, and so would abortion. But that’s not the world we live in. We all struggle to some degree with internal disintegration and sin, that’s part of the result of the Fall. And so I say all of this not to condemn, much less judge anyone, but to help us simply acknowledge what’s really going on. Most of what’s needed in addressing social problems is honestly acknowledging their causes and that’s very hard to do with a guilty conscience. As I like to say, only when we know God’s mercy can we face the truth and not live in denial.
Either way it’s important for us as Catholics to be thinking clearly about these issues. This short article The Sexual Revolution and the Fall of ‘Roe’ powerfully articulates a Catholic realist’s approach to what is likely going to happen if ‘Roe’ overturned because of this ingrained sexual revolution. He also hopefully describes how embracing the profound truths in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is a way forward in accepting and celebrating our human nature, as made in God’s image. The only way to reverse the body-rejecting and God rejecting revolution is to embrace our bodies and live according to the love we were created and redeemed for.
Calling God ‘Papa’ or ‘Daddy’: How Seeing God Properly Helps Us to Trust Him
One of the graces of baptism in the Holy Spirit, the mysterious effusion of love unleashed in the soul when the graces of our baptism and confirmation are realized through faith and repentance, is coming to experience and know that God is our loving Father. This is not a superficial abstract grace, but a deep knowing that changes you. This is what we prayed for at the Pentecost Prayer Service at the Parish. Suffice it to say, it happened!
If Jesus calls God, ‘Abba’, (‘Papa,’ ‘Daddy’), then we can too. If God really is Daddy, then how we view our lives, especially in the midst of challenges and trials, completely changes. I would go so far as to argue that perhaps the greatest gift Jesus gives to us is a sharing in his divine sonship with God the Father.
Marcellino D’Ambrosio explains in this very brief article, “Why Jesus Called God “Abba”—and What It Means for Us” that because of who we are in Jesus we are to approach God as little children who can entrust our lives to him with confidence. Therefore, as Jesus calls God Daddy, we can too. If our image of God is false and poor, then how we interact with God (prayer and life) will also be poor. There’s a lot more to explore and read on this topic. But if God is our loving Father, our real ‘Papa’, ‘Daddy’, let us approach him and trust him accordingly.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias