Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 28, 2004 Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:8-14 John 8:1-11	Listen to Audio

So many of the controversial, hot-button issues today involve areas of traditional Church teaching that are brought into question. Sadly, I find in many of the controversies – be it abortion, contraception, gay marriage, divorce, living together before marriage, and so on – considerable misunderstanding of the Church’s teaching on both sides of the heated debates. Often the debate is about positions and rules rather than probing more deeply the meaning of the life-affirming values behind the rules. Sadly, too often political polarization between liberal and conservative dominates the debate, and it ends up more in name-calling than in rational discourse.

Today’s Gospel, and the other readings as well focus on two issues that are important in our lives and in our society today: judgment and forgiveness on the one hand, and sexual morality or chastity on the other. I dealt with one of those – judgment and forgiveness – in my Pastor’s Desk column in this week’s bulletin. Here I’m going to speak briefly about sexual morality and chastity.

This is such a wide-ranging and controversial subject, how can I speak briefly about it? Actually I can, because the Church’s teaching is simple, clear, and consistent – and is directly applicable to all the issues. Human sexuality is ordered to and is at home only in the exclusive, committed, life-long and life-giving relationship of a man and a woman – and in any other context is less than what it should be.

What is simple in principle obviously becomes very difficult in practice. The reality is that nobody does it well. Some would say it’s simply impossible. That’s the reality of sin, and there is not a human being alive that is not subject to some kind of temptations or even strong and deeply rooted impulses that go counter to the designs and intentions of our Creator in the gift of our sexuality. And those temptations and impulses cannot be successfully dealt with except by grace.

The answer to sin is not merely to be convinced that we must avoid it. The answer is not just to try harder. What experience teaches us doesn´t work, still won’t work if we try twice as hard! Nor is the answer found in self-justifying excuses. The remedy for sin is not to deny the sin, but to face its reality – and its power.

The only answer to sin is grace, and grace comes only through openness and prayer. That’s why we must speak of the virtue of chastity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has something surprising to say about chastity. Most of us tend to think of chastity as merely the avoidance of doing things against the sixth commandment. But the Catechism actually turns that idea upside down. Listen to what it says:

“Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of the human being in his or her bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality . . . becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual self-gift of a man and a woman to each other. The virtue of chastity, therefore, involves both the integrity of the person and the wholeness of the gift of self.”

Now, the principle is clear. How one integrates sexuality in real life is subject to many factors—including facing and not denying one’s sexual orientation – and necessitates prayer, discernment, and often sensitive spiritual direction and guidance. And because we are wounded in our sexuality by original sin, chastity often needs reliance on the sacrament of penance and a faithful and compassionate confessor. God does not expect the impossible from any of us, but God’s grace can move us patiently but assuredly towards wholeness as well as holiness. After all we were assured in the first reading from Isaiah the prophet to “remember not the things of the past,” because God is “doing something new.”

There’s a lot more on the virtue of chastity and the integration of our sexuality, in the light of our Scriptures today, on the homepage of our OLA website. Sometime this week, you may want to take a look at it.

And this week, please spend some time thinking and praying about this for your own life. Ask yourself: What do I understand by the word “chastity”? Is it something positive or negative? Is it worthwhile or of no real value to me? Is it possible or unrealistic?

© Thomas Welbers 2004

Here are some useful links, which provide material for the study of these liturgical readings, and reflections on their message:

The Text This Week

Daily Word of Life

The Center for Liturgy at St. Louis University

Lectionary Resource for Catholic