Sex life according to the Spirit

Your Point of Debate article by Michael Carstens (December 31-January 6) refers. Mr Carstens combines a lesson in the theology of Redemption with his views on sexuality and homosexuality with the customary denigration of Humanae vitae. He stops short of explaining how our becoming partakers in divine nature is possible.

The call to universal holiness in the Catholic Church is the application of Christ’s redemptive act. We do not share Luther’s view of redemption as a mantle covering our sins. We are meant to put our sinful nature to death with the help of sanctifying grace.

Christ said: “Take the narrow road, deny yourself, take up your cross every day and be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” — all humanly impossible without grace.

Christ points us back to God’s original plan for humanity in Mt 19:4. In this school of love we all have crosses which can become unbearable. When the fruit of Christ’s redemption, sanctifying grace, is made available to us in the liturgical life of the Church, we are then able to carry these crosses, including homosexual inclination, and reach our ultimate destination.

The Church has fumbled in its approach to sexuality in the modern world with Humanae vitae being condemned by bishop’s conferences around the world. The teaching “Just don’t do it” no longer satisfies the average Catholic.

In his letter to the Galatians, St Paul exhorts his readers to “live by the Spirit”. He keeps repeating this phrase in his other letters. Twenty centuries later, John Paul II, through his lifelong application of phenomenology to Catholic theology, has produced a philosophy that is revolutionising our understanding of sexuality, in his “Theology of the Body”. This is the explanation that the Church has been waiting for, and a powerful tool for evangelising the world in general.

After walking in the desert for 40 years, the Canadian bishop’s conference, once one of the most anti-Humanae vitae, have now fully embraced this document and will be using the Theology of the Body in explaining the Church’s view on all aspects of sexuality.

At the heart of “Theology of the Body” is: Life according to the Spirit.

Jan Kalinowski, Durban