E21: The Catholic Response to Pride Month & LGBTQ+ Issues

How can we promote our identity in the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June as the culture celebrates Pride Month?

Is there a way to evangelize hearts wounded in this way without compromising the truth of human sexuality?

Join us for this month’s episode of Catholicism 101 as we reorient our approach to June as a month of encountering the Love of Christ amidst the tension of culture wars.

Resources:
Homosexual Marriage & Catholic Response Presentation | Emily Gipson
Transgenderism & The Catholic Response Presentation | Emily Gipson
The Catholic Guide to Gender Theory | Jason Evert
Walking with Those with Same-Sex Attraction | National Eucharistic Revival
Gender and Sexual Identity | Compass for Parents – Archdiocese of Detroit
What Does the Holy Spirit Actually Do? (Superhero Analogy) | Fr. Mike Schmitz
The Love that Satisfies: Reflections on Eros & Agape | Christopher West

Have a question about the Faith you’d like to have answered on the Podcast? Submit it here: https://forms.gle/zorQwuUGtSdukzjc6

Transcript

·       Pride Month as a celebration of identity—

o   Good desire to celebrate human identity, BUT the authentic sense of identity has been twisted. 

§  This is one of the deepest sources of the high-fueled tension surrounding LGBTQ+ controversy. When people within the Church—not only Catholics but all Christians—are critical of homosexuality and transgenderism, it is taken by these people as an attack on their identity.

o   Though the goal of many people, especially in the political sphere, is to try and reason with people on the basis that their ideology/experiences are disordered (which is true in a sense) it cannot be the first approach we take in evangelizing human hearts that have been so terribly and deeply wounded.

§  Throughout June there is a tendency to weaponize the Sacred Heart of Jesus against the cultural celebrations of Pride Month. Images are shared all over Facebook that say “June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pride is the most deadly and serious of all sin.” We see billboards with passages from Leviticus and “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin” on them. 

·       Even though there is truth in these things, the manner that they are communicated is just pouring salt in the wounds of people who are desperately looking for authentic love. Pitting Love Himself against those who are searching for Him (even if not explicitly) only drives the wedge deeper.

o   Edith Stein: “All those who seek truth, seek God, whether this is clear to them or not.” & “Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love and do not accept anything as love that lacks truth. One without the other is a destructive lie.”

§  Edith Stein = St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

o   There is a beauty in the month of June being a celebration of human identity, however flawed, alongside the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

§  Reflecting on images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we begin to understand the radical, boundless, passionate love of God for every single human person. 

·       His heart is pierced and wounded—our hearts do not bleed alone, he bears our pain in his own heart. 

·       Not only is he bleeding for us, his heart is literally enflamed. The passion he has for us goes deeper than any passion we may have for another person, whether it be spouse, child, or friend. (In fact, the impassioned love we feel for others is meant to give us a little glimpse of Christ’s love for us!)

·       This incomprehensible passionate love for each of us as individuals is what drives Christ to endure the agony of his passion, death, and crucifixion, seen by the cross atop his heart and being wrapped in the crown of thorns.

§  So, what does the Sacred Heart tell us of our true identity? 

·       You are worth dying for. You are worth every ounce of pain and suffering that God-made-man has endured. You alone—not your accomplishments or abilities—are so supremely good that God not only will, but has, taken the most drastic of measures in order for you to find peace, rest, joy, and the greatest of loves in his embrace.

·       The heart of the Church is centered on the heart of the human person—the innate dignity as created in the image and likeness of God that cannot be eliminated. No person is a problem to be solved, we are each a mystery to be loved.

o   Homosexuality: A human person cannot be reduced to their sexual attractions !!!!!

o   Transgenderism: A human person cannot be reduced to a mere ideology !!!!!

§  A person’s desires do not determine his or her true identity, nor do their actions. 

·       You are more than your sexual orientation! You are more than your unrest with your body! These are things that we have or experience as human persons, but they do NOT define who we are as human people. 

·       Reducing a person’s identity to one of their deepest struggles only brings shame, no matter how well-intentioned it is. (ex: “She’s Bipolar” or “I’m Bipolar” vs. “She has Bipolar” –(whether it be of desires or tendencies) disorder does not equal identity!!)

·       Church Teaching w/ context:

o   CCC 1934: Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.

o   CCC 1768:Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons... Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case... Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.

o   CCC 2348: All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," The model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.

§  All too often as members of the Body of Christ we are quick to say that those who experience same-sex attraction are called to a life of chastity—which is true—but we forget that we are all called to chastity according to our state of life. There is a need to refresh our understanding of authentic Chastity. 

·       Authentic Chastity as freedom from the yolk/slavery of sin—Gal 5:1, 13—free to do the good with ease; the choice becomes second-nature (self-mastery)

o   the more you choose the good, the more likely you are to choose the good & the easier it becomes 

o   the more you fall to temptation, the more likely you are to fall again and the harder it becomes to choose virtue—the true good

§  you become what you choose—not in the sense of one’s identity, but in the sense of sanctifying grace AKA divine life. 

·       Natural human dignity (permanent & irrevocable) = image & likeness of God

o   We resemble God by our intellect & will

·       Dignity as a child of God = pure gift of sanctifying grace (divine life) making us ‘super-human’ – more than we already are, amplifying what is already naturally good in us

o   Aka we’re already in the image and likeness of God and, by the gift of sanctifying grace, God turns up the dial of our likeness to him to 11

·       Sinning does not remove the fact that we are still in the image and likeness of God—you do not lose your innate human dignity. But, your reasoning power and willpower are weakened à the more you fall to temptation the more likely you are to fall again and the harder it is to choose the good.

o   Chastity = self-mastery over your passions à Mt 5:37 “let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”

§  NOT “anything more makes you evil” à you are a supreme good who has been influenced by the evil one—neither your shortcomings nor your accomplishments change your identity.

·       Common saying: “The devil knows your name, but he calls you by your sin. The Lord knows your sin, yet he calls you by your name.”