Lisa Simpson speaks to the Catholic understanding of sex

The majority of political disagreements between Catholics and everyone else in some way comes down to sex.  You won’t hear many arguments on whether we should feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, or visit the sick.  Those are issues everyone agrees on, no matter their religious beliefs.  However, when it comes to sex, Catholics and non-Catholics agree about as well as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  The Catholic understanding of the purpose and nature of sex touches on abortion, contraception, Planned Parenthood, same-sex unions, gender confusion, and many other hot-button topics in our modern news cycle.

The Catholic understanding of sex starts by observing its purpose.  We can study our digestive system – mouth, throat, stomach, intestines – and observe that its purpose is supplying food for our bodies.  While eating is often pleasurable (especially Taco Bell for me!), it’s actual function is fuel for us.  Likewise we can study our reproductive system and observe its purpose.  The first and most obvious purpose is for making babies.  The second purpose is related to the first, but not quite as obvious.  Humans take a long time to mature.  In the US we consider someone an adult once they reach the age of 18 years.  Children have the best chance of success when raised in stable families.  So the second purpose is the strengthening of the union between the Mother and Father.  Although sex is pleasurable, it’s real purposes are babies and bonding.

It is possible to abuse our bodily systems.  If we eat nothing but ice cream and candy, it will be pleasurable, but our bodies will quickly break down.  This is because we’re not using the digestive system for its proper purpose.  Rather we are exploiting it to increase our pleasure.  Similarly, we can suppress one or both purposes of our reproductive system, through contraception or fornication, but this will also cause harm to ourselves.  It is because of this that Catholics believe that sex only belongs in a marriage and must be open to life every time.  This isn’t easy, but by the grace of Jesus Christ it is possible.

To our modern society, sex is meaningless – it’s just a way to have fun.  But from the Catholic perspective, sex is a message you tell with your body.  The message says that I love you so much that I give myself to you completely – fertility and all.  Likewise, I receive your gift of yourself completely – including your fertility.  Even if you don’t intend it, that is the message your body is communicating during the sexual act.  When a mental health professional finds out a teenage girl is sexually active, the psychologist/psychologist automatically screens her for depression.  This is because teenager girls who are sexually active are much more likely to be depressed than their non-sexual counterparts.  From the Catholic perspective, this makes a lot of sense.  If sex has such an inherent message of selfless love built right into it then who wouldn’t feel depressed when it treated as an empty method for fun or pleasure?

I love watching the Simpsons, and I noticed the other day that this message of meaning behind an affectionate action is taken for granted by our society.  In one episode, Lisa had discovered she had a crush on Nelson, the school bully.  He won’t change his bad behavior for her, but does enjoy the affection that the relationship brings.  The clip below shows what happens when Lisa realizes that Nelson’s feelings for her are mostly selfish.

Nelson: Alright, alright, I lied, I’m sorry, let’s kiss.

Lisa: No.  You don’t understand Nelson.  A kiss doesn’t mean anything if it’s dishonest.

Nelson: Uh, there’s a niceness to it.

As Lisa points out, even in something as innocent as a kiss, there is a message being communicated.  When we try to ignore sex’s message or pretend it doesn’t exist, we harm ourselves and our society.

Book Review: The Apostasy That Wasn’t by Rod Bennett

A while ago I read Rod Bennett’s Four Witnesses book, which told the story of the Catholic Church from about 50 AD through about 200 AD.  The story was told through the eyes of four early Christian figures – Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Iranaeus of Lyons.  Rod Bennett writes non-fiction in a very unique style, by creating vignettes interspersed with actual letters from historical figures to present history in an interesting, very readable format.  I absolutely loved Four Witnesses!  Anyone who reads that book would get a very relatable vision of the Church from right after Jesus ascended to heaven up to the beginning of the third century.

So it was with great enthusiasm that I began his second book, The Apostasy That Wasn’t.  The main premise of the book is to demonstrate that the Roman emperor Constantine didn’t corrupt pure Christianity as so many people today believe he did.  You see, much of Protestantism believes that the Church created by Jesus and the twelve apostles was corrupted beyond repair some time between Jesus’ Ascension into heaven and Martin Luther’s rebellion in the 1500s.  This belief is fundamental to Protestantism; if the Church had not been corrupted then the Reformation was simply a rebellion against the one true Church.  Since Constantine’s endorsement of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire in the 300s was the first time that Christianity was made an official governmental religion, it is a popular target for those seeking a source of corruption.  In the end, Bennett proves the opposite to be true.  Despite a focused and deliberate campaign to change Christianity for political purposes, in the end orthodoxy prevails and the true faith handed down from Jesus to the Apostles and their successors is preserved.

Bennett begins by plunging us into the environment of the times.  It has been a while since Christianity has suffered from the infamous Roman persecutions.  Much of the Church has grown comfortable and weak.  Then a new persecution breaks out, far more vicious than any of the previous.  Many lukewarm Christians quickly apostatize rather than face torture or death, leaving only the most zealous Christians in the Church.  Finally, after the persecution ends, Constantine not only legalizes Christianity but makes it the official religion of the empire, ending centuries of paganism.

Bennett does a good job of showing how this new political environment was used to try to advance the Arian heresy.  It was decided against decisively at the Nicean Council, but again politics forced almost the entire Church to turn toward Arianism.  Constantine’s successor, Constantius, used the disagreement as a political tool to root out dissension to his rule.  He appointed his own Arian bishops to most of the empire, and suddenly the Christian world found itself to be mostly Arian.

Enter Saint Athanasius, the heroic defender of orthodoxy.  Through his perseverance and stubbornness, the truth as taught by the Apostles and handed down by the bishops was preserved against the political meddling.  He passed on his mission to Saints Basil, Gregory Nanzianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa, and eventually to Saint Jerome himself.  Through these great men the truth of the gospel was preserved during a rather difficult and overly political age.

So what is Arianism?  It’s the belief that Jesus – God the Son, was not really God, but another created being who was made of the same substance as God.  To be sure, it’s a rather fine theological point, but the ramifications are enormous.  If Jesus were just another creature, then God didn’t really die on the cross for all of us – rather, one of his creatures did.  If Jesus isn’t part of the Trinity, then God can’t be love because love requires a lover and a beloved.  Arianism was really just an attempt to introduce a Christianized version of paganism, where we continue to worship a creature instead of the Creator.

To be sure, no Protestant today would deny the Trinity, yet they blame the era of Constantine for the introduction of paganism into the Church.  In fact, the opposite was true, despite many persecutions in its defense of orthodoxy.

One thing that struck me while reading the book was how similar today’s Church is compared to the one back then.  In both cases there are members of the Church hierarchy who are more concerned with worldly comforts than with being disciples of Jesus.  In both cases their are heresies that are being promulgated by priests and bishops, much to the detriment of the faithful.  The main difference is that today’s heresies surround anthropology, family, and marriage, while those in Athansius’ time surrounded the identity of God.  It’s disappointing the Church isn’t perfect, but it’s somewhat reassuring to know it’s been this way since the beginning, all the way back to Judas and Peter.  It’s also great to know that despite any bad Christians, even Christians in powerful positions, we have a deposit of faith that comes straight from the Jesus through the Apostles and Bishops.  We can be confident that we know the truth about God and humanity as long as we cling to the teachings of Jesus’ bride, the Church.

I rate the book as 3.5/5.  I didn’t find Bennett’s storytelling quite as effective as Four Witnesses.  He did still provide a great landscape of the Church during the fourth century.  The message was repeated and over-described at times.  This book was not nearly as heavy with quotes as his previous book, but instead relied on footnotes (215 of them!).  Yet it still decisively makes the point that those looking for a Great Apostasy, when the Church falls away from the truth present by Jesus to the Apostles, won’t find it in the fourth century.  And as Bennett describes at length in his Journey Home video here, you really can’t find it ever.

Mourning Our Abandonment of Beauty

I love Wisconsin, but living here can be a real pain sometimes.  Winter is bleak and frigid; we can often go a week or more without seeing the sun and without temperatures above 0.  Spring isn’t much better.  After a long winter we wait eagerly for warm, dry days that are teased in extended forecasts but often don’t arrive.  As if someone flipped a light switch, summer will make its presence known by ushering in weather so hot and humid that it’s unpleasant to be outside.  But as the long, stifling days of summer finally roll to a close, the weather turns as close to perfect as we’ll get on this side of heaven.

I especially enjoy hunting and fishing in the fall.  I no longer have to worry about being cooked in a boat where there is no shade, or constantly harassed by mosquitos who managed to all hone in on my secret tree stand location.  In Wisconsin, fall is the best time for taking in the beauty of nature.  The leaves slowly change from green to yellow to brilliant reds and oranges.  Big fish and deer are on the move and can be seen more easily than any other time of year.  The air even smells better, as if the fragrance of life is somehow being carried on the crisp, cool breeze.  The pleasure boaters whose only goal seems to be sloshing up as many artificial waves as possible have left the cooling water for the comfort of their homes.

Sitting in a tree stand and watching nature around me, or standing in a boat and looking around a mostly vacant lake gives me such a great appreciation for God our creator.  What an awesome God we have who has created such refreshing beauty for us to enjoy!  I believe the beauty of nature pushes us into a reflective state of mind, where we can immerse ourselves in gratitude and humility before our Lord.  It’s free of distractions; it’s free of mindless and inane political arguments; it’s free of malice; its free of people-using.  Like seeing a shimmering landscape reflected in the surface of a not-quite-still lake, the beauty of nature is a fuzzy reflection of the beauty of God.

Nature isn’t the only thing of beauty that reflects God’s grandeur.  Everyone has experienced amazing music that lifts their minds and hearts.  Or maybe instead of music it is a breathtaking painting or sculpture that they could stare at for hours.  Maybe it’s the beautiful simplicity of a complex mathematical proof.  Or maybe it’s the performance of an amazing athlete who has spent hundreds or thousands of hours training and practicing to make a play just like that.  I think another great place to find beauty is in the joyful life of someone who really knows and loves Jesus.  I’ve found I can notice that in people, even if weren’t to speak of Him.  The love they have is bursting forth in their smile and demeanor, in the way they care for those around them and the way they make everyone around them feel happy.

This beauty is the reason we decorate our churches with gold and great works of art.  Many complain that these riches could be sold and the money given to the poor.  While taking care of the poor is very important, we need beauty to remind us of the greatness of our God.  I’m reminded of John 8:1 – 8, the story where Mary took expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus.  Judas was indignant that the perfume hadn’t been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  Jesus rebuked Judas, telling him that Mary’s love for Him was just as important as her love for the poor.

A beautiful Church draws us closer to God.

As I consider this, I look with regret upon how our culture has seemed to lose its sense of objective beauty.  I look at the movies coming out and I see very little that draws us up to God.  So many of the new movies and TV shows are profane and depressing.  I can remember finishing movies and feeling icky afterward.  I see sculptures around our city parks that look like nothing more than bizarrely shaped hunks of metal.  Most of the new music being created is full of sexual graphic language, profanity, and cursing.  Even music that has traditionally been more “family friendly”, like country music, has grown increasingly irreverent.  I often remember something I heard Fr Rocky, head of Relevant Radio, say one time – find entertainment that will inspire you.  Inspire you to become a better version of yourself, or inspire you to love God more.  We have very few entertainment choices that give us that option.

The last thing I want to touch on is our children.  As a father, raising children is one of my primary vocations.  Raising virtuous, well-mannered children in an increasingly hedonistic and materialistic world is difficult.  I often lament the lack of inspirational entertainment available to kids these days.  Instead, we’re given things like these:

 

Although these children’s games aren’t immoral, they certainly are vulgar and tasteless. They certainly don’t encourage children to think about God’s transcendent beauty.  We need to push our children to discover objective beauty and use that experience to help them see God in a world that shouts ever louder “God’s not relevant”.