Not enough. . .

Remember this?

"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)"

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far.

To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage.
To fight the unbeatable foe.
To reach the unreachable star. 

 

Apparently we are not up to such impossible quests today.  In particular, we are not up to loving purely or with a chaste love.  We think as a culture and even as Christians it is an unfair and too great a burden to deny your desires -- especially sexual ones.  Then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger answered that question of self-denial of desire pretty well way back in 1986.  I am not sure we have the stomach to hear it again now almost forty years later.

What, then, are homosexual persons to do who seek to follow the Lord? Fundamentally, they are called to enact the will of God in their life by joining whatever sufferings and difficulties they experience in virtue of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross. That Cross, for the believer, is a fruitful sacrifice since from that death come life and redemption. While any call to carry the cross or to understand a Christian’s suffering in this way will predictably be met with bitter ridicule by some, it should be remembered that this is the way to eternal life for all who follow Christ.

It is, in effect, none other than the teaching of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians when he says that the Spirit produces in the lives of the faithful “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (5:22) and further (v. 24), “You cannot belong to Christ unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.”

It is easily misunderstood, however, if it is merely seen as a pointless effort at self-denial. The Cross is a denial of self, but in service to the will of God himself who makes life come from death and empowers those who trust in him to practice virtue in place of vice.

To celebrate the Paschal Mystery, it is necessary to let that Mystery become imprinted in the fabric of daily life. To refuse to sacrifice one’s own will in obedience to the will of the Lord is effectively to prevent salvation. Just as the Cross was central to the expression of God’s redemptive love for us in Jesus, so the conformity of the self-denial of homosexual men and women with the sacrifice of the Lord will constitute for them a source of self-giving which will save them from a way of life which constantly threatens to destroy them.

Christians who are homosexual are called, as all of us are, to a chaste life. (Emphasis Added)  As they dedicate their lives to understanding the nature of God’s personal call to them, they will be able to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance more faithfully and receive the Lord’s grace so freely offered there in order to convert their lives more fully to his Way.

 

 – from Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986)

It is not just the same sex attracted who are called to chastity.  We are ALL called to lead a chaste life.  How odd it is then that we really do not expect this of ourselves even though we expect it of those whose sins we disavow?  A chaste life is lived out within the Biblical order, according to God's design, within the fabric of forgiveness, and in repentance always.  It is not and never was that some folks get to be exempt from God's call while others have to give up everything.  We are all under the same call to live holy, upright, and godly lives where we are.  No matter what our desires.  No matter what our vulnerabilities.  No matter what our inclinations.  No one is singled out for more or less of a life of self-denial but we are all called to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. It does not help that we have made divorce normal, that we shrug our shoulders at sex (as long as it is consensual), that we live in a culture of pornography and perversion, and that we have our own pet rankings of sin from worst to not so bad.  We are being converted to God's way and not the other way around.  Lest we forget this, every now and then when a question is raised about others, it finds its way back to us and where we live.