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| OCTOBER 2005: |
THE GLORY OF HUMAN SEXUALITY
by Dave Sloan
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Our society careens between the extremes of seeming to be obsessed with sex, and then claiming that it's really no big deal. What gives? Which is it? It might come as a surprise to some to find that Christianity teaches that sex is actually far more important than anyone in the secular world would conceive.
When shared in fully, by a husband and wife, sex is actually a prefigurement of, even a participation in, the ecstasy of the nuptial union we are called to experience with our Lord in paradise.
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Ephesians Chapter 5 tells us that the union of man and wife is a sign of the union of Christ and his Church. Revelation describes the wedding feast of the Lamb with his Bride, made ready in her fine linens, bright and pure, for the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev. 19:7-8). The Greek term for Revelation, Apocalypsis, actually means "unveiling," and specifically refers to the moment when the Bridegroom removes the veil from his bride, at the moment of the consummation of their union.
It is the nuptial union of Adam and Eve from which we descend, and a nuptial union in Heaven toward which we tend. In between these nuptial mysteries is played out the entire saga, all of the beauty and the pathos, of every human life.
There are times in all of our lives when we find ourselves caught up in the wonder and awesomeness, even the fearfulness, of our very existences. At births, funerals, and other instances of particular tenderness or difficulty, this natural world is cracked open, and the supernatural comes flooding into our consciences. We confront the timeless questions--what is this life, after all, and what is my place in it? Who, when all is stripped down to the very nakedness of being, am I? How and why did I come to be?
This great wonder we all experience regarding our origins and our identities is bound up with sex. When we encounter all of the myriad mysteries pertaining to our sexuality, we are simultaneously encountering the mystery by which we were brought into being.Though much will remain veiled in mystery so long as we live in this world, much as well of what we long to know is revealed, many of our most profound questions answered, in the language spoken by our bodies, the language of our sexuality, written by the great author Himself in the very beginning. If we will but listen, we can hear and understand so much; if we will but look, we can receive from our creator the gift of a wisdom of surpassing beauty--and we too can learn to speak this language, the language of the love that can grow up between a man and a woman who recognize God in their longing for one another.
God's revelation of himself to us in scripture begins almost immediately by addressing the transcendent nature of our sexuality. We are not merely persons. We are men and women, sexual creatures from the beginning: "In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" [Gen 1:27]. Immediately after our creation we receive our first command from God, to give ourselves to one another so completely that we become one flesh, participating in the creation of new human persons with souls destined to live forever [Gen 1:28, 2:24].
Our Triune God is a life-giving communion of persons. We, as men and women, are called to submit our sexuality to God's plan in such a way that we too become life-giving communions of persons. In this way we are truly "his image" here in this world.
Clearly, both the unitive, or bonding, and the procreative aspects of our sexuality are given to us by God from the very beginning. It is God's plan that once he has made the first man, and the first woman, every single man and woman created will be a product of our sexuality. God has determined that through our sexuality we will image him not only in our oneness, but in our fruitfulness as well.
For any creature, there is no greater good than to be created. God in his unlimited love and wisdom has determined that sex will be the means by which our greatest good, our creation, is brought about. For this reason, when God's plan for our sexuality is violated, the damage can threaten our very beings. The shame felt over illicit sex can shatter our personalities, seemingly beyond repair--as when the psalmist exclaims, "I am like a dish that is broken." [Ps 31:12]
On the opposite end of the spectrum from this despair lies chastity, which I like to define as "submitting our sexuality to the Lord." The chaste person stands upon a sure foundation, knowing that his or her very existence at its core is in harmony with what the Lord intended at the moment we were brought into existence.
This is why people whose hearts are pure exude such loving-kindness. Charity is the virtue closest to chastity. Chastity is a participation in the Lord's gift of life to us. He gave us life through sex. When we live chaste lives (and I mean both in and out of marriage, according to the definition above), we are able most purely to receive and to give the life we have been given, both the natural life, and the supernatural life.
Love, real love, is always a life-giving communion of persons. We do well to remember this, given all of the confusion in our world today about what love really is. Real love is always giving, and what it gives is life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" [John 3:16].
Therefore, Catholics believe that licit sex is both unitive and procreative, and that every sexual act must be open to life.
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