Prime
God loves us all and wills our healing
What you need to know:
- Did you know? What did the Pope say about gay people? Msgr John Wynand Katende enlightens us.
Human sexuality plays a major role in everyone’s life. Next to sleeping and eating, it seems to be one of the most important drives we have to deal with as humans. On the other hand, homosexuality happens to be a controversial issue. For some it is an equal rights issue, inviting legalisation of same-sex marriage. For many it is a cultural, religious and moral issue.
Genesis 1:27 says, God made people in His image with an in-built complementary design in the marriage of male and female (Genesis 2:22-25). To commit actions clearly opposite God’s plan constitutes rebellion.
The gospel
The Church of Christ is recognised as an expert in humanity, especially in matters pertaining to faith and morals. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2357 says, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”
They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
But the Catholic Church goes on to oppose criminalisation of homosexuality. She emphasises that homosexuals be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Combining these two positions calls for meditation and application of God’s own spiritual intelligence.
In his capacity as Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis has expressed this position on a number of occasions. In 2013, he commented: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” On January 12th 2023, the Pope openly declared that laws criminalising homosexuality were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is a sin, but not a crime.”
Every crime is a sin, but every sin need not be a crime. Sin is an offence against God’s love. It is punishable by God. Crime is a wrong against the laws of the state. It is punishable by the state. For example, adultery is a moral wrong and is considered a sin. At the same time, adultery is not a crime because it is not made punishable under any state law. In John 8:1-11, the woman accused of adultery was a sinner, but not a criminal. God calls us to purity. He forbids adultery in thought, word and deed (Matthew 5:28). The remedy for sin is penance.
Jesus warns against the judgement of condemnation, being unnecessarily harsh in punishments or conclusions. “Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned” (Luke 6:37). Christian attitude towards homosexuals should be grace and love, rather than violence, insults or mistreatment. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them”, says St Mother Teresa.
Keeping in mind that we are all sinners, in condemning the sin of others we actually condemn ourselves (Romans 2:1-5). Psycho-analysts say that homophobia against homosexuals is sometimes a defence mechanism triggered by the homophobia’s own latent homosexual desires.
God loves homosexuals and wills their healing. His love calls us to challenge exclusion with inclusion.
“No-one must feel condemned, no-one is scorned.” says Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia (The joy of love) paragraph 297. God’s grace is not limited by this or any other sin “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20-21). Like other sins, homosexual behavior may be forgiven. Jesus is the only way of delivering us from this predicament (John 3:16).
Gentle art of correction
St Paul educates us on the gentle art of correction. It requires waiting on the Lord and applying biblical wisdom to know when it’s right to correct or when to remain silent. God expects us to correct people we know and who are in sin, but to do it in humility and with love (2 Timothy 23-26). If we love others we cannot suffer sin to be upon them because sin promotes suffering and endangers salvation. Thus, in correcting the sinner, we are concerned not only for him/her, but for the community and the common good as well.
Some countries, especially those under Sharia law, criminalise same-sex sexual activity, and impose the death penalty; rationalising it as a necessity to maintain public morality, traditional values, cultural or social norms. They also claim that such laws would prevent the spread of the vice and deter homosexuals from recruiting children.
Observations indicate, however, that such laws are inherently difficult to enforce, because they concern acts by consenting individuals, done in private. They contribute to harassment, stigmatisation, violence against offenders and extortion of money by corrupt police. This has also been identified as an exacerbating feature of the HIV epidemic because it dissuades many people at risk of HIV infection from disclosing their sexual behaviour to healthcare providers or seeking preventative care, testing, or treatment.
Pope Francis views homosexuals as wounded people, and the Church as a field hospital after a battle. “The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful”. This the pastoral spirit of Jesus: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Luke 5:31).
Echoing Matthew 7:1-2, the Pope has repeatedly argued that the Church’s purpose was more to proclaim God’s merciful love for all people than to condemn sinners for having fallen short of strictures, especially those having to do with gender and sexual orientation. We do not judge a person’s salvation. Only God can do that. Nurturing this attitude calls for education and counselling services. Parents must excise it as their inalienable right and duty.
Don’t confuse paradigms
In her book: The new global ethic: challenges for the Church, Marguerite A. Peeters observes that ignorance is always a bad adviser, and recommends discernment. She cautions Christians against confusing the paradigms of the new culture with the social doctrine of the Church. Marguerite expresses fears that society, in general, and the Church, in particular, have alerady been lured into the “Gender” concept or ideology and other secular values, as a conditio-sine-qua-non for accessing funding from global donor agencies.
Christians end up preaching human rights, sex education in schools, sustainability and the Millennium Development Goals instead of the gospel of God’s love, human dignity and salvation (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus experienced the struggles of this life. He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. He can truly sympathise with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15).
FYI...Nugget
Jesus paid with His precious blood, for our salvation, including our sexuality (Galatians 3:13-15). “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”, He calls (Matthew 11:28). We may dedicate this Lenten season to praying for the conversion and healing of homosexuals.