BONUS HOMILY 5 of 5: What makes a sexual act a sin?

The conclusion to Fr Parker's five-part homily series about the human person and sexuality. Fr Parker reviews his points in light of Pope Francis's confirmed comments, and he focuses on the heart of the matter: what makes a sexual act a sin?

The full text of the homily follows:

So, the last four weeks have been building up to this: an attempt to answer misreporting by the mainstream, and not-so-mainstream, media that said Pope Francis had broken with long-held traditions of the Church. The world and the Church are in much different place than we were four weeks ago when we began these reflections. The world is seeing the devastating effects of COVID 19 take effect as places around the world are hit hard by a second wave, and it is trying to hit back harder with increased restrictions and enforcement of a second lockdowns in some places. The Church celebrates, today, the end of the liturgical year with the great feast of Christ the King of the Universe. Moreover, as I expected, the past four weeks have allowed the Vatican itself, at Pope Francis’s direction, to clarify his statements.

For those who don’t know by now, Pope Francis was taken out of context by making two different answers to two different questions seem like an answer to a third question. Pope Francis said that "homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God” and "what we have to have is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered."

Leaning on our four supporting facts, we should be able to see clearly that there is nothing inherently contradictory between Pope Francis’s actual words and our God-given traditions of our Church.

“The human person is the body and soul that is created, loved, and redeemed by God” means that each of us are created, loved, and redeemed by God. Things outside of our control do not change that, and the things we control that we use to try to convince ourselves otherwise do not change that either. Every human person who was created by God (all) is loved and redeemed by Him.

“Sin is the brokenness of the world, chosen by each individual, but forgiven by God” means that all of us are sinners in the eyes of God, and more specifically, all of us are forgiven and loved sinners by God. We are called to imitate God’s love of us as we love others—that means loving others not just despite their sins, but with their sins.

“Sexuality is the shared difference of the human person, who images God perfectly, but depends on the other to reveal Him completely” means that the necessary difference between man and woman tells us things about God and things about the human person. One of the things that this tells us about God is that He is even more vast and complicated than we can imagine. One of the things that this tells us about the human person is that the human person is also even more vast and complicated than we can imagine. This vastness and complicatedness means that sometimes things seem like paradoxes—that God is three in one, or entirely God and entirely man, or that the individual images God completely but relies on another to do it perfectly—are not actually contradictions but examples of things that are beyond our understanding, things that require that we have faith.

“Marriage is the divine unity between husband and wife that brings God’s Grace (love) into the world for the good of the spouses and the community” means that marriage is something special. Marriage is good not just for the individuals in the marriage but indeed for the world. Thus, marriage is something that should be treasured, and like we do with all our treasures, shared, protected, and explained.

Pope Francis’s call to ensure that homosexual people are welcome parts of their families respects the dignity of their creation and acknowledges the brokenness of each of us. That he calls it a right shows the profound importance he, and the Church, and God, places on loving everyone we meet, especially those in our family, whom we love with word and action.

How Pope Francis’s words about civil union laws impact the Church’s understanding of sexuality and marriage will be ongoing and discussed at length, but it is clear that his call to protect in law all people needs to be seen as an interpretation of his call to love all people. Pope Francis cannot change the natural law of sexual difference, nor can he change the eternal teaching of the Church about marriage. And importantly, it’s clear to me that he doesn’t want to change those things.

Now, I hope it has been evident in the past four weeks that, despite attempting to answer some very important questions, I have also tried to be attentive to the particular day and the divine mysteries we celebrate at every Mass. Today’s feast, Christ the King Sunday, is one of the greatest feasts of the year because it reminds us that along with being king of our hearts and wills, Christ desires to be king of our societies, and indeed, our whole universe. This feast is an invitation to faithful to participate in the challenges and struggles of our society, but also to do so mindful of a higher authority. Political structures have a rightful place in our lives, but also limits, and our ultimate authority is and always will be Christ the King.

Mindful of that call, we need concern ourselves less with civil laws than with the holiness of our hearts and lives. We need concern ourselves less with institutional structures than how those structures challenge us on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment, basis to preach the love, mercy, and compassion of our God—and to preach less in words than in actions.

That said, I have another question for us to consider in light of today’s readings, great feast, the divine mysteries we celebrate, and this series of questions: what makes a sexual act a sin? Aware that our civil and human authorities are limited in ways that our ultimate authority, Christ our King, is not, let us consider not laws or norms of cultures, but the divine meaning of our humanity in a broken world that reveals God for our good and the good of the whole world to answer this question.

Today’s readings point to clearer answers. The reading from prophet Ezekiel reminds us that along with being our King, our Lord is also our shepherd; that is to say, He is our guide and protector. Does the sexual act ignore the directions by which God leads us? Then it is a sin, but our King Shepherd will never abandon us. St Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians of the universal effects of sin; “as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” Does the sexual act make life (not necessarily literally), or does it make death, brokenness? If it is the latter, then it is a sin, but remember Christ has defeated death, restored brokenness.

Our Gospel this weekend is very memorable. This great image of the Son of Man separating sheep from goats because everything we have done to our brothers and sisters in Christ that has hurt them or helped them, we have done to hurt or help our King Shepherd, Christ, our God. Likewise, everything we have not done for our brothers and sisters in Christ that has hurt them or helped them, we have not done for the hurt and help of our King Shepherd, Christ, our God.

This great image and warning reminds us that our actions mean much more to us than what they initially suggest in the midst of our fleeting desires or even long-held identities. Virtue and sin affect who we are and affect how we view God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our sexual acts have the potential to make good or participate in the brokenness of the world. We are called, invited, challenged to make good and not participate in this brokenness.

The Paschal Mystery of Christ reminds us that all sin is forgiven, but it also more clearly reminds us that we are called to the glory of the Resurrection and that call and glory is foreshadowed and revealed fully now. The human person reveals God; this means as human people we reveal His Cross, which is evident in our suffering, and his Glory, which is evident when we act with virtue. Our Sacraments--Marriage, Eucharist, Baptism—too, reveal God and His death and resurrection

The Trinity of God reveals that the human person, who is made in the Trinity’s image and likeness, is made for relationships. Just as our God is most fully revealed in relationships, we reveal Him most fully in our relationships. Our relationships can make us more virtuous, or they can make us more sinful. Our relationships can be sexual or they can be friendly. Sexuality and friendships can each be virtuous or sinful.

What makes a sexual act a sin? When it contributes to the brokenness of the individual and the world instead of the goodness of them.