This is the first half of Part Five in a six-part series. Click on Part One, Part Two, Part Three or Part Four for previous columns. The second part of this essay will appear in this space tomorrow.
The words “Behold, I make all things new” (Rv 21:5) from the 6th Sunday of Easter's reading are something of an invitation, are they not? Every day presents us with untold opportunities to unite our will with the Lord and allow Him to renew our lives.
The public policy debate now raging on same-sex marriage provides us as Catholics with one such unprecedented, albeit narrow, window of opportunity. When the familiar fabric of life is torn, as we see with the institution of marriage today, we are afforded glimpses into the deep structure of reality " that is, if we dare to open ourselves to what we see.
A similar phenomenon often occurs after near-fatal accidents " the person who narrowly escapes death awakens to a new-found awareness of what they had, what could have been, and what they now have. Gratitude and purpose reshape their life. They hear “Behold, I make all things new” (Rv 21:5) as if for the first time. At least for a while, they are conscious of their every breath in this life as a gift, best lived if poured out for others.
Those of us receiving life " by God's grace " in the Catholic Church find ourselves at an historic moment when a chorus of voices in our society asks, “Why are you Catholics against " and not open to " homosexuality and same-sex unions? Don't you worship a loving and accepting God?”
Before responding, we might do well to weigh St. Peter's words to the early Church in exile, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15). One way of giving an answer and an account to the pressing questions above might be to begin by laying out " gently, reverently and courageously " what we as Catholics are for with regards to sexuality and the human person.
As with the survivor of an accident, we as Catholics are " or at least called and reminded to be " intensely aware of our life as a gift, which we receive from God and which we return to Him by selflessly loving others as He loved us. As men and women made with dignity in the “image of God” (cf. Gen 1:27) and moreover in the “imago Trinitatis” (the image of the Trinity), we are called to live a communion of life-giving and life-receiving love which mirrors the love and communio personarum of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We hold dear a belief foreign to many in our individualistic society " we find ourselves by intentionally giving ourselves, “for whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25). Pope John Paul II has called this the “law of the gift.”
This is radical love. “Do we worship a loving God?” Yes "“ as men and women created in His “image,” we not only worship a God who is love (1 Jn 4:8), but we are commanded to love one another as He has loved us (cf. Jn 13:34). But just how extraordinary is this love?
To answer this question, we must return to the first story. In the Book of Genesis, we read, “[I]n the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gn 1:27). Pope John Paul II invites us to reflect on the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve found that there are “two complementary ways of being conscious of the meaning of the body”(1) " male and female. In their complementarity, they " and indeed all men and women " are called to reflect the inner unity of the Creator. In this unity, the “nuptial meaning of the body” is respected, and the human body becomes a “sign” that is “capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine.” (2)
Notes:
1. Pope John Paul II, General Audience, November 21, 1979.
2. Pope John Paul II, General Audience, February 20, 1980.
