 |
| The Immaculate Heart of Mary |
This is not
all that abnormal. Many people hate
seeing others in pain—some have even not been desensitized to it. But, fear not, this is not another
Catholic jeremiad bemoaning the moral decline of our society. See, I seem to be an abnormality with my reaction to others’ pain. But the
anomaly goes deeper than that. I’m
not only uncomfortable about people being hurt physically, but also when
they’re hurt spiritually.
You might
ask what this means. Well, as a
Catholic, I believe in a soul. I
also believe in this pesky little thing called “objective morality,” which basically
means that every time you do something wrong, you are tearing your soul kicking
and screaming further from God. And that’s no better for the soul than Tony
Stark‘s chest magnet being ripped out is for his heart.
In practice,
that means that watching my friends do something morally wrong is the spiritual
equivalent of watching them cut themselves. No wonder I get so uncomfortable at frat parties.
Of course,
when someone’s cutting himself, the proper response isn’t to threaten him with the
fires of Hell. It’s not the time
to lecture him about the sanctity of the body, and how God is angered by the
desecration of His temple. The person who cuts himself is broken, and in need
of healing, and so the proper response is love. And love is not driven by fear, but is patient and kind. And it’s love that conquers all. Sure, at some point the “that wasn’t
okay” conversation should probably happen, and this can serve an important point
for accountability. However, having
that conversation at the wrong point in time not only doesn’t help, but can
undo progress that had been made.
 |
| Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery Gustave Doré |
So me
striding into Shooters during alumni weekend with a sign announcing, “Hell
awaits you! Repent!” is probably not quite the Christian way. Sure, the Catholic who goes to a frat
party and sees some of the partygoers taking a knife to their soul perhaps
should feel uncomfortable about it, just as we all feel uncomfortable about
self-mutilation. However, the to
inflate ourselves and self-righteously condemn so we can distance ourselves
from the messiness that comes with sitting at table with sinners breaks Jesus’
examples just as the sins they themselves commit.
After all,
many of those same partygoers simply disagree with Catholic morality. Some have
even thought much deeper about it than the Catholics who want to condemn them
have. I personally find getting
drunk to be probably morally questionable, and I find a faithful homosexual
relation to be probably not. Many Catholics
probably disagree with me on one or both counts. But I promise you screaming Leviticus 18:22 at me will
change my mind no more than me going to LDOC yelling about Ephesians 5:18 would
stop the Catholics there. I’ve
thought quite deeply about these issues, and if your first response is to tell me which
are my sins rather than finding the Christ within me, perhaps your priorities
are misplaced.
Once we have a
mutual understanding in love, which bears all things and endures all things,
then we can work to find the truth.
