BONUS HOMILY 3 of 5: What is human sexuality?

To fully understand the human person, and to understand more deeply sin, it is crucial to understand human sexuality. This homily is the third of five attempts to provide a foundation to guide interpretation of Pope Francis's supposed comments in the documentary, Francesco.

The following is the full text of the homily:

Continuing with week three of my attempt to answer fundamental questions about the human person and human sexuality, this week I will build upon our understanding of the human person and sin as I strive to answer the question: what is human sexuality?

First, some brief review. We know that the human person is the body and soul that is created, loved, and redeemed by God. We also know that sin is the brokenness of the world, chosen by each person, but forgiven by God.

To answer the question, “what is human sexuality?”, it would be useful to acknowledge that the meaning of sexuality is huge, and perfectly addressing it is, as I have said before, beyond the scope of all the homilies that I will preach in my, hopefully, long life left.

Sexuality is so complex because it has at least two crucial ways that every human person interacts with it—first, from an individual perspective and second, as the collective group of humanity.

First, there is a complementarity of the sexes that reveals something about how the human person is created in the image and likeness of God. “In his likeness he created them; man and woman he created them” is what the Book of Genesis says. The sexuality of the human person, whether that is a male or female sexuality, is somehow tied to how each person is an image of God in the world. Man is not more or less an image of God than woman who is not more or less an image of God than man, but they are different from each other. Since we are body and soul, we know that our sexuality is not manifested just in physical and bodily differences, but there must also be a difference between the man’s and the woman’s spiritual existence. 

Second, the clearest sign of the complementarity of the sexes is how their differences work together in the sexual act. In fact, the differences between the sexes is what makes the sexual act possible in its most complete form. The sexual act is not simply a physical act because the people doing it are not simply physical. Like all acts that a human person takes, in his or her body and soul, the sexual act is both physical and spiritual. The physical and spiritual differences between men and women “each cooperate in a unique way in the Creator’s work” (GS 50.1).

The Church has always understood that the sexual act must always be procreative and unitive. It might be tempting to understand procreative and unitive strictly within the difference between physical and spiritual that these characteristics seem to suggest. That is to say, procreation is clearly physical, and unity might be most clearly realized in the spirit. However, just as there is unity between the human person’s body and soul, physical nature and spiritual nature, there is something inherently spiritual in the procreative aspects of the sexual act and something deeply physical in its unitive components as well.

Our Gospel this week talks about marriage, which lends help to the undeniable point that the fullest expression of sexual act happens within the context of marriage. Sexual ethics are not the main point of Jesus’s parable, however. Instead, His story about the wise virgins keeping their lamps lit for the soon-to-arrive wedding party tells us something about how we wait in anticipation for our judgement by Christ. We must be prepared for the inevitable judgement of Christ that comes at an uncertain time. In that sense, then, perhaps this parable does reveal something about sexual ethics: that is, it is important to do good always. Every act that a human person takes is either good or bad, with varying degrees that are subject to intent, freedom, and the gravity of our actions. Leaning on our definition of sin, how we live our sexuality either participates in the good of the world or the brokenness of it.

In our second reading, St Paul reminds the faithful in Thessalonica that our actions are to be judged by the Lord, and so we must remain steadfast, informed, and hopeful in the midst of trial. In the first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, we learn that the Wisdom of God is a great gift; this Wisdom is commonly compared to logic or reason. Thus, we can be sure that the Lord always judges us within our ability to use reason to discern the truth that our conscience challenges us to realize.

The life of Jesus, and especially His passion, death, and resurrection reveals to us something about the fullness of sexuality within the person and within God Himself. Jesus is Man, and He is also a man. He is not married, and so he remains celibate; that is to say, He abstains from the sexual act. His masculinity is also lived in how He gives; He gives His life, He gives salvation, and He also gives away His mother. The women of the Passion story also reveal something about femininity. St Veronica comforts the suffering Jesus; St Mary Magdalen is the first to receive the good news of Jesus’s resurrection and she shares that news with the Apostles; Our Holy Mother Mary receives a new family in faith when the whole human race become her sons and daughters. These examples do not mean that only men give, or that women only receive, but they do point to the complementarity of the sexes that is present in all human actions because sexuality is present in all human actions.

The Triune nature of God also reveals something about human sexuality. “In the Trinity, each person is utterly equal in his possession of the divine nature and yet utterly irreducible to one another as Persons…. So too with men and women created in the image of God. The sexes share a common humanity—the same nature. Yet they are irreducibly different as persons” (Grabowski). Thus, the definition of the Trinity “that the Father is God, but that the Father is not the Son who is God, and that the Son who is God is not the Holy Spirit who is God” was intentionally echoed when I said that “man is not more or less an image of God than woman who is not more or less an image of God than man.” This comparison between the persons of the Trinity and human sexuality is by no means perfect, but it shows again how understanding God helps us understand the human person.

So, how do we live this sexual difference in our lives? We live it first by knowing ourselves, knowing our strengths and weaknesses, and prayerfully discerning how God wants us to use them in the world. We live this difference too by considering our station in life: are we married or single? Young or old? How is God calling me where I am right now and to where is He calling me in the future?

Sexuality is the shared difference of the human person that somehow images God perfectly while still depending on the other to reveal God completely.