Homosexual Marriage

While hardly a fan of Jesuit Tom Reese, I largely agree with his view (NCR July 2,2015) on the Supreme Court ruling on homosexual marriage. He is right: we will learn to live with this as we have with other now-commonplace misguided practices like divorce-and-remarriage, cohabitation and so forth. Homosexual practice is basically in the same boat as premarital sex, pornography/masturbation, contraception in marriage and other varieties of sterile, non-unitive, extrinsic and mutually manipulative interplay. It is no better and no worse! The sin of Sodom is essentially the same as that of Onan. My own view is that intercourse between two men in a faithful, tender and generous relationship is a thousand times less disordered than the Clinton/Lewinski dalliance which was at once a desecration of his marriage, a predatory violation of a young woman who could be his daughter and abuse of his unbounded presidential, which is to say paternal status and power. The court's ruling is not an unmitigated evil and it is helpful to look on the positives: some may well benefit from a faithful and sanctioned relationship; many young people may experience enhanced self-esteem with the lifting of the social stigma; and lastly, the development is itself a strange and confused witness to the deep appeal of marriage. Perhaps because I am aging, aware of the limitations of my energy, and less the cultural warrior I was 20 years ago, I see that we must marshal and use our stamina in positive ways. As a "communio" Catholic and protege of St. John Paul II and Benedict, I see our first priority as deepening our own spiritual union with Christ our Bridegroom. Secondly, we need to strengthen our own marriages, vows, families and communities of faith, including our service of the least. Thirdly, we must remind ourselves that very few have been give the grace to understand the deepest, sacred and iconic meaning of sexuality and marriage and so we grow in gratitude and surrender to this blessing. Forth, we are free to appreciate those we love who experience and live out this attraction, as we deepen our own allegiance to what we know to be true. Lastly, we are clearly moving towards a more counter-cultural position as the society becomes actively hostile to the gospel vision of sexuality. Our disappointment and even alienation from the mainstream must surrender to our deeper Joy in our communion with Christ in His Church, our families and communities.