[A comment from a priest regarding
Jesus’ Teaching About Sexuality and Marriage]
This is stupid.
Accordingly, food is for survival, but if eaten for pleasure, it is a sin. So one
should eat only rice cakes.
 ou’re a priest and you say,
“This is stupid.” But be careful. Where is real stupidity?
Real Ecstasy
The experience of orgasm reaches far
beyond the surface actions of stroking and caressing that stimulate it: at the
moment of orgasm the deep inner organs are touched with a profound, but momentary,
surrender to helplessness and a lack of control. Yet this is nothing other than
personal pleasure, and it does nothing to serve God. Beyond mere personal pleasure,
however, there is another experience possible for us, an experience of something
deeper even than the orgasm itself: the experience of the soul in the mystical
humility of spiritual emptiness and helplessness before God. When a soul that
acknowledges its spiritual emptiness and helplessness is touched by God, it is
mystically filled with grace, and the ecstasy of God’s touch of grace goes far
deeper than a personal experience of bodily orgasmic pleasure. The soul’s willingness
to accept that divine grace is of profound service to God. Mystics know that, and
they know it well.
Still, the orgasm does have a place
in the mystical life; it’s place is in the procreation of children within marriage.
Accordingly, marriage was designed by God to be a matter of the souls of the spouses
meeting in their spiritual emptiness and helplessness and being joined together by
their love for God, ultimately reaching an ecstatic orgasmic climax in their desire
for the procreation of a child. Hence, real Catholic marriage is a great spiritual
enterprise and not a matter of personal satisfaction. Yet the only persons who can
understand this are those who live by the profound contemplative prayer that defines
true Catholic life.
Contemplative Prayer
So, what do most priests know of deep
contemplative prayer? Well, sadly, not much. Most priests understand the soul’s mystical
yearnings only intellectually, according to the philosophy and theology they learned in
seminary. Most priests do not pray contemplatively. Most priests do not understand the
ecstasy of mystical surrender to God. Most priests are like you.
Real Stupidity
So, what about you? What if Jesus’
teaching about marriage is true? And what if your adolescent comparison of sexuality
with food and your glib condemnation of truth leads to the condemnation of your soul?
Where is stupidity then?
In short, you lack the
courage to be afraid—the courage to be afraid of your
own arrogant self-assurance.
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