07/09/2022

St Paul's warnings about marriage are consistent with our experience in this century. Marriage isn't always plain sailing but most couples can stay together and enjoy the pleasures of family life. Little children are lovely but when we are enjoying their delight in life we are also aware that this too must pass and the squabbles of teenage puberty are not far away. Now that fertility can be controlled by man or woman there is an increased temptation that St Paul did not anticipate, to ignore the purpose of human sexuality and to put the pleasure first. Our age is dominated by the fornication we know to be  sinful but it is in this age that I am now living and it is the sins of our flesh to which I  have been most attracted and still am.

In St Luke's version of the Beatitudes there is no hint of marital guidance but in St Matthew's we are to be pure of heart and it is in this state that we will find happiness. One thing of which we can be sure is that man/man woman/woman do not enter into the married state approved by God and if there is sex involved in such relationships it is sinful. The freedom that has been given to us does not include the right to do what ever we fancy to achieve sexual satisfaction and the "love" that is claimed for man/man is a self-delusion of sinful egos.

St Paul does approve and advise abstinance and if this is our choice the grace to live in  this state will be given. The way to failure of sinful clergy to live up to their commitment is so horrific to contemplate that this seeming failure of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has panicked their Bishops into "coverup" mode and thus sin has been lathered on sin and so destroyed confidence in the Church and most importantly in God. 

Jesus knew when he founded the Church that he had chosen sinners to work with the purpose of continuing his presence here on earth; "Get thee behind me Satan" "I don't know him" Peter was chosen to be the holder of the keys but Jesus also promised to be with us always even to the end of time. My  constant hope is that the "Institution" is not the only place to live in God's Love; that Mary's constant "yes"is greater than Peter's keys and that even though the  Institution may pass away, the Word will stand.

Dear Lord you know the totality of my being, my sinfulness and my weak sentimental love for the idea of you; help me to be truely in your presence and to find the way to a love stronger than sentiment. Send your Holy Spirit into the hearts of all your clergy that they may withstand the devil, the world and the flesh. May Mary pray for the foregiveness of all sinners that we may be true to the promises made for ur us in Baptism.