Friday, June 12, 2020

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Kings 19:9a.11-16; Matthew 5:27-32)

Jesus in today’s gospel delivers two thunderbolts. First, he says that lustful looks comprise a grievous sin.  Then he forbids divorce in all cases except where the marriage was null from the beginning.  So why does the first reading seem to say that God was not found in natural catastrophes like a tornado, an earthquake, or a forest fire?

With this story of the natural revelation to Elijah Scripture makes an important point for today.  The story itself means that God’s revelation is not to be necessarily associated with any kind of natural occurrence.  God may use nature to reveal his sovereign will, but no phenomenon is definitely a divine oracle.  Wise people will want to discern what God is saying with the current pandemic.  But it is foolish to say offhand that the pandemic is a negative judgment on the world.

Many have commented recently that racism is a pandemic of equal order to the Corona-19 virus.  It is certainly rooted in society and is taking too long to eradicate.  I would hold that pornography is another pandemic with disastrous effects.  It obsesses both young and old alike.  It creates desires that are not capable of being fulfilled in healthy marital relationships.  And it exploits innocent people who are often minors or de facto slaves.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

(Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15)

Certainly the most confessed sin among men is viewing pornography.  Many cannot control themselves even though the sin involves a manual action.  Some say pornography is a victimless crime, but that is patently false.  It involves numerous people in the smut industry.  It also affects the relationship of a man with his wife or future wife.  Most of all it distorts the man’s brain which will seek ever more outrageous satisfaction.  The readings today suggest what might be done to overcome this vice.

Isaiah tells of the effectiveness of God’s word.  Dabar, Hebrew for word, created the universe.  It certainly can liberate those who feel bound up by a particular sin.  In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus shows his disciples how to ask directly on behalf of their needs.  Troubled by the sin of lust, men will ask to be delivered from the evil.  They will pray it often especially when handling their telephone or computer.

We would like an egalitarian society where all people live together in peace.  If that is ever to become even a near reality, we must tame our covetous impulses.  We will accomplish this only by beseeching God’s life-giving word in prayer.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 11:1-4.9-18.20; Matthew 6:19-23)

The medical profession has sounded the alarm on obesity.  It tells us that people in the United States are digging their grave with forks and knives.  When will it make a similar cry about “sexual obesity,” the pandemic of porn that has enveloped the country?  The facts are that young people who have looked at pornography are more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, to have used alcohol and tobacco at their last sexual encounter, to engage in forced sex and to become sexual offenders.  This alarming report readily verifies what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel.

Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body.  He means that what the eye takes in will either bring light or darkness to the person.  Viewing pornography will darken the both body and spirit.  It will lead to corporal excess and deteriorate the possibility of positive relationships.

As neither government nor even the medical establishment seem much concerned about pornography, it is incumbent bring about us to curtail it.  We must be vigilant about it entering our own computers and mobile devices.  We also want to assist friends and those to whom we minister who have already been ensnarled in pornography’s web to climb out.  We should refer them to twelve step groups programs if not professional help when necessary.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Kings 10:1-10; Mark 7:14-23)

Often a store purveying pornography is located outside of town in an isolated area. One may feel a touch of pity for the owners of the one or two cars that the store attracts, day or night. What a pity, one may say, that the men have to pollute themselves in this way! But are the men really committing sin by viewing pornography? The gospel today seems to hint otherwise.

In the passage Jesus makes the startling statement that “everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile.” Of course, Jesus is referring to food in this context, but even then it might be asked how eating meat on a Lenten Friday could be sinful. Carefully analyzing Jesus’ words, experts have concluded that they are invented by Mark to defend the practice of the non-Jewish Christian communities who eat pork and other foods that Jewish law forbids. It is simply wrong-minded to think of the statement as applying to Church prohibition today of eating meat on certain days of the year and much less to natural law’s proscription of pornography.

The Second Vatican Council legitimates the conclusion of Biblical scholars that the gospels must be read as the end products of a forty to sixty process. First, there are the actual words and actions of Jesus. These are repeated and reformulated by the apostles in proclaiming Jesus as Lord in different places. Finally, they are reserved for posterity in a written narrative by the evangelists writing on behalf of the communities where they live. We have their words to ponder and to use to mold our lives. At times we may feel that our individual interpretation will never have it right. But praying over the readings and paying attention to different commentaries, we will find our understanding not only nearing target but leading us to truly fruitful lives.

Reflection for Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007

In her syndicated column today, Kathleen Parker again touches America’s pulse. She cites a recent study, reported last week but lost in the hoopla over an astronaut’s romantic revenge, about pornography and adolescents. According to Ms. Parker, the report links an increasing nonchalance over children viewing pornography as adults indulge more in it. Parker is outraged as, indeed, anyone concerned about human development should be.

Many years ago a particularly insightful contributor to America, the Jesuit weekly magazine, wrote that this country will not give up the practice of abortion easily. He said that although logic points that way, people’s pleasure stands in the way. That’s an enormous obstacle for which many do not mind lying as Presidents as well as have teenagers have done. But can a majority of people be so soft-headed? Evidently, yes.

Once again, I am reminded of true freedom. People like to think of freedom as the absence of restraint. Doing whatever one wants is the declared wish of many. But such a meager hope cannot bring about true freedom, much less human fulfillment. Freedom is the perfection of one’s ability. A three year-old pounding piano keys is not playing freely. Arthur Rubenstein fingering one of Mozart’s concertos with eyes closed is. Freedom is not given by human decree; it materializes with guided effort. If children are to grow up to be free adults, they must be tutored in an environment where virtue prevails. Pornography will make them slaves of their passions, ready to lie for a bit of cheap satisfaction.