Daily Retreat 08/29/08
2008 Aug 29 Fri: Martyrdom of John the Baptist M
1 Cor 1: 17-25/ Ps 32(33): 1-2. 4-5. 10-11/ Mk 6: 17-29
From today’s readings: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.... The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.... Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison, on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.... ”
How to get a head
St. John the Baptist denounced Herod with the charge, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." For that, Herod imprisons him and eventually beheads him. While everyone is rightly disgusted by the tyrant’s brutality, so many people today are nearly as shocked by the saint’s morality! Sexual excesses and perversions have become so commonplace it’s almost ludicrous to imagine anyone putting his head on the line over such a relatively petty affair.
But John is honored by the Church as a martyr, not as an out-of-touch prissy busybody. Which means what was important to him (the truth which he gave witness to with his very life!) ought also to be important to you and me. So then, how did the immorality of the “sexual revolution” take root so completely that St. John’s witness to unchanging truth appears obsolete and pointless to so many? The answer is: dualism!
On August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of Mary body and soul into Heaven, I mentioned that we must be on guard against dualism, this temptation to view the body and soul as mutually incompatible, radically opposed or at odds with one another. One of the painfully obvious ways that dualism has infiltrated modern thinking is in the area of sexual ethics. When people argue, “If it feels good, do it!” or “Anything goes as long as no one gets hurt!” they are spouting dualistic thought by divorcing spiritual morals and ideals from bodily actions.
On the other hand, when we recall that God created (and redeemed!) us body AND soul, then it’s plain to see that our whole selves (body AND soul) are subject to God’s dominion. In this matter, St. Paul reminds us that things are pretty clear, “This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality...”
Note that Jesus, St. John, St. Paul, and the Church have all been tyranically shut up, not so much for prudishly decrying the filth of sexual immorality, as for prophetically extolling the beauty of sexual morality: “For God did not call us to impurity, but to holiness!” (1Thes 4:7). Isn’t it time for you and me (and everyone!) to start living up to God’s noble plan for us, body and soul?
1 Cor 1: 17-25/ Ps 32(33): 1-2. 4-5. 10-11/ Mk 6: 17-29
From today’s readings: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.... The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.... Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison, on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.... ”
How to get a head
St. John the Baptist denounced Herod with the charge, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." For that, Herod imprisons him and eventually beheads him. While everyone is rightly disgusted by the tyrant’s brutality, so many people today are nearly as shocked by the saint’s morality! Sexual excesses and perversions have become so commonplace it’s almost ludicrous to imagine anyone putting his head on the line over such a relatively petty affair.
But John is honored by the Church as a martyr, not as an out-of-touch prissy busybody. Which means what was important to him (the truth which he gave witness to with his very life!) ought also to be important to you and me. So then, how did the immorality of the “sexual revolution” take root so completely that St. John’s witness to unchanging truth appears obsolete and pointless to so many? The answer is: dualism!
On August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of Mary body and soul into Heaven, I mentioned that we must be on guard against dualism, this temptation to view the body and soul as mutually incompatible, radically opposed or at odds with one another. One of the painfully obvious ways that dualism has infiltrated modern thinking is in the area of sexual ethics. When people argue, “If it feels good, do it!” or “Anything goes as long as no one gets hurt!” they are spouting dualistic thought by divorcing spiritual morals and ideals from bodily actions.
On the other hand, when we recall that God created (and redeemed!) us body AND soul, then it’s plain to see that our whole selves (body AND soul) are subject to God’s dominion. In this matter, St. Paul reminds us that things are pretty clear, “This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality...”
Note that Jesus, St. John, St. Paul, and the Church have all been tyranically shut up, not so much for prudishly decrying the filth of sexual immorality, as for prophetically extolling the beauty of sexual morality: “For God did not call us to impurity, but to holiness!” (1Thes 4:7). Isn’t it time for you and me (and everyone!) to start living up to God’s noble plan for us, body and soul?
posted by FrPitstick | 8/26/2008
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