Know Thy Self

The packing is about 99% complete. Since I do not have a laptop, you can figure out what is remaining to be packed. The big effort will be loading the truck. Since the parking lot is about 60 yards from our townhouse door and we have about 12,000 lbs of “stuff,” this could take a while. If it doesn’t rain from now until Monday I may be able to pull the truck up closer without getting stuck in mud. Who is the patron saint of dry ground? The other day I was watching a taped episode of Journey Home (it was taped because we do not have cable/satellite). Fr. Hugh Thwaites was the guest and Marcus asked him what he thought is currently the greatest problem in catechesis from his perspective. He replied that he thought it was the ignoring or outright denial of original sin. Exactly! When he said this, the words from the entrance to the temple at Delphi immediately sprang into my mind: Know Thy Self! There are just so many problems that arise because of the lack of recognition of original sin and its consequences. Of course, theologically we have no need for a Savior if we have not as a race, fallen from God’s grace. Therefore, we have no need of: the Sacraments, the Mass, the Church, etc. However, neither can we make sense of ourselves without recognizing original sin. We have an inner sense that humanity is essentially good but we see the evil things that man does to man and there arises a dissonance between our inner sense and our experience. Many have tried to reconcile this by supposing that evil arises from everything from poverty to ignorance. The problem is that as knowledge and wealth have increased so has the magnitude of evil in the world. The 20th century being emblematic of this fact. We recognize that the body is good and that we have this inner drive to genitally express our affection/lust. Without original sin and concupiscence it would seem that there is no reason not to satisfy these “natural” appetites. That is unless we honestly look at the medical and social ills which come about when these appetites are satisfied outside of the marital union. Only original sin and concupiscence can make sense of the fact that we are essentially good but we are inclined toward evil. Only original sin and concupiscence can make sense of the dissonance between our appetites and what is truly good for us and for society. Without recognizing concupiscence we have little chance of living a chaste life and achieving the purity of heart for which we were created.

Those Catholics who reject the Church’s teaching on sexual matters, usually beginning with original sin, usually end up degrading sexual intercourse. They reduce it to an animal function which humans can manipulate for whatever purpose they please, usually in quite hedonistic manners. Paradoxically, however, they accuse the Church of degrading sex as little more than a necessary evil. On the contrary; the Church teaches that it is holy. Sexual intercourse, within the marital covenant, is the most intimate union two persons can experience with one another. However, this sexual union is only a shallow foretaste of the consummate union all will experience with God and the saints in heaven. Without the whole picture of who were are, we are more likely than not to follow our fallen instincts and thus have more in common with the animals than with children of God.