Lies on sex will never live to be old

Maximillia Muninzwa

Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being scorched? This was King Solomon’s rhetorical question to a lustful son. It is as relevant today as it was then.

I am not saying that people cannot get a kick out of sex. I am simply saying that the Ten Commandments are written in stone and we cannot break them without them breaking us.

God’s laws are like the laws of gravity. They apply regardless of who believes in them and who doesn’t, because we all live in the same moral universe.

As my people put it, a hidden illness will be revealed by dirges. It is futile to try to hide the truth because, as surely as night follows day, ‘illness’ will follow its course. Seeing our world today, it is doubtless that there is much unacceptable sexual behaviour, even among those who should lead others in the Christian fold.

We are living in very difficult times but, be that as it may, let us face it: Paedophilia, fornication and adultery all indicate a failure to practice an important Christian virtue — chastity. This is part of the cardinal virtue of temperament, which controls human appetite. When the drive for sexual pleasure is out of control and people begin to live by their glands, society always pays a heavy price. In as much as avoiding pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases or getting caught may demonstrate foresight, this is no way a sign of morality.

There is no doubt, therefore, that current revelations are an acid test for the Catholic Church. But these revelations are simply not about breaking the vow of chastity/celibacy. What is at stake is morality! In God’s moral universe, whatever is right is smart and whatever is wrong is outright stupid. As we encounter opinions that favour a modern pleasure-oriented mentality, cases of priests involved in pervasiveness make a strong statement that Church authorities seem to have taken for granted.

Wrong Thinking

First, at the foot of immorality is wrong thinking. Second, this wrong thinking reveals a people who observe religious practices and ceremonies without understanding them adequately, experiencing their reality and living out this reality in their daily live.

It becomes so easy for such a people to be consumed by the sexual permissiveness that is fast making serious inroads into our society, as we are barraged by new world ideas on sex, marriage and the family. It is, therefore, foolhardy for the Church to tell her priests to change their errant ways without helping them overhaul their thinking.

A priest who makes people believe there is no sin in sex outside of marriage, or one who involves himself in unnatural sexual acts, is not only sinning but is also a false prophet.

Further, it is worthy noting that in the area of sexuality, a great revolt occurs against any norm that may try to limit it. This revolt rises against youthful innocence and marital fidelity. The same revolt attacks decency, the vow of chastity as well as the state of celibacy in the Church.

Unrestrained, the revolt demands complete freedom in sexual life formulated in the name of progress. Thus, in a mentality of sexual gratification, sinful actions are branded ‘liberation’. Instead of being cultivated as protection against the profanation of sexuality, innocence, chastity and modesty are ridiculed.

So our errant priests are simply revealing a people who are fast drifting away from Christianity. Differently put, a people who have lost the sense of God, sin and human values. Such people find it easier to justify their errant ways by citing and clinging onto other dissent theologians’ "compromise morality" or "wholistic integrity". Ultimately, they find themselves in a muddle.

Time is nigh that the Church, seriously and with sincerity, interrogated vocations without following personal whims. Is there something to learn from the forgotten virtue of sexual control?

We cannot deny that sexuality is an art of the whole human being. Or that within the entirety of the redeemed man, it must also be redeemed. Sexuality, therefore, must be returned to the dignity intended by the Creator. It must regain the purpose originally decreed. What feeds the selfishness of passion must be consecrated by redemptive love.

It will come home to us that perhaps never in history was it more evident for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, that the Catholic Church is right in what she has tirelessly preached in every age about sexual morality.

That a few of her consecrated sons and daughters have fallen along the way is no reason to change the existing law. In fact, if the priests cheated even as they purported to live a celibate life, then they will continue to cheat on their wives. I am not heavy in rebuke for those who slip, but I acknowledge that the challenge for us all is to fully meet the demands of our faith.