The Failure of Abraham's Prayer for Sodom

Homily
Sunday, July 29, 2007, 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Emmett; Sacred Heart Parish, Yale

(Another homily on this topic can be found here.) 

            The reason God created us was to see him as he is in heaven; to see his divine essence clearly, intuitively, immediately.[1] This way, and only in this way, can we attain that joy we most long for, “beatific joy,” by which we shall see that God is better than all creatures put together, by which we will love God forever more than ourselves. A superb means by which to attain this is marriage. Yes, marriage is a means, not an end; the end for which it exists is eternal life. It has proximate ends, which are the procreation of children, the love of the spouses, and the remedy of concupiscence. But it, like all the sacraments, is intended to lead the faithful to God.

            Yet in our day, there is not one institution more ruthlessly attacked, no society more despised, no union more belittled, and no good more hated than the institution of the sacrament of matrimony and this is one of the greatest problems of our times. This shouldn’t be surprising news to you; you experience it every day. Today we will reflect upon one particular attack on marriage and the family, so that you may know the Church’s teaching, love it, live it, defend it responsibly, and so attain heaven.

            In today’s first reading, Abraham intercedes for Sodom, that it be spared. He haggled God down to sparing the city for the sake of ten just men. But they were not to be found. There were only three, Lot, Abraham’s kinsman, and his two daughters, who were spared only because angels had warned them, and they fled. When the angels went to Lot’s house, men surround the house, and demanded that the strangers could come out, so that they could rape them. Indeed, the sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah were devastated was as sin with no name; after this event, the world has called it “sodomy.”

            In 1869, the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert coined a word.[2] That word was “homosexuality,” now widely used, to the point that the new generation does not even know what “sodomy” is. Many prefer the new usage, because it distances the homosexual practice from the judgment God revealed on it with the fall of Sodom.

            It is crucial, however, to always distinguish between the temptation and the act. No one commits a sin by being tempted to it. But when one gives into the temptation, he commits a sin. Homosexual temptations are only temptations to disordered acts, and can therefore truthfully be called a disordered inclination.

            The Church teaches, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, [they are] " are intrinsically disordered” [and] contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”[3]

            The Church also says, “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives…”[4]

            There are many places in scripture which pronounce the objective moral judgment on homosexuality; I have preached on this elsewhere before, and will again on a later date. For those of you tempted to this sin: be strong in the Lord, giving in will not make you happy, but separate you from God. For those who have fallen to this sin: come to the sacrament of reconciliation, and begin rebuilding your life, for in God’s mercy there is hope for the sinner, but only for the sinner who repents.

            Yet there are many, even Catholics, who reject teachings on this matter and much else that has to do with the sixth commandment and marriage. Such poor souls are blinded by the appetites of their passions. It’s very hard to reason with someone who thinks with their passions and not their intellect. But we at least try to reason with them.

            They hide their rejection of Church teaching behind what we can call “subjectivism.” “Subjectivism means referring to the individual for the test of the truth.”[5] Now, it is true that each person needs to, by themselves, come to discover the truth and its value. But he does so by a reflection upon what he thinks, comparing it to the real live world that surrounds him. Truth is this relationship between the mind and reality; when there is no such relationship, there is no truth. And so some happily recognize the truth about things like food, money, walls through which they cannot pass and suffering which they cannot escape. But in the matters of religion and morals, they go about making up their own little world, and sometimes even imposing their fantasy on others.

            The subjective person needs to wake up and open his eyes, lest, if you sleep on the battlefield, your enemy get the better of you. There are many enemies to the family, and one of them is the militant gay movement which is marching over states and nations. These are not those good people who suffer from the temptations, even fall into weaknesses, whom we should help and not fight; but rather those less honest people who know no bounds to their ruthlessness, and these we should fight and not help.

            For they are imposing a completely wrong philosophy of marriage upon you. They are telling you that marriage is nothing divine, but man-made. It is all about feelings and pleasures, not about love and sacrifice. It is merely two people using each other. It has nothing to do with children, and how they despise your God-given fertility. That marriage is about self-gratification, and has nothing to do with God or his will.

            Remember Sodom. Remember the teachings of St. Paul. Remember the teachings of the Church. Be merciful and kind towards all, but not at the expense of the truth; don’t say that what is evil is good, avoid affirming the practicing homosexual in those deeds of his which are sinful, and don’t let them tell you what marriage is. You show them what the sacrament of matrimony is, do so with humble pride and peaceful joy, and persevere in your service of the Lord in your families. Amen.