While doing a conference in Denver many years ago, a vigorous young man introduced himself to me as Christopher West; he was then the ‘marriage and family’ guy for the Archdiocese of Denver. He loved our emphases on healing through the cross and community. And he wanted me to have a copy of John Paul II’s book: The Theology of the Body, the late great pope’s sweeping take on human sexuality. Wow. What a meal. For the next couple of years I slowly ate what I now regard as perhaps the most thorough and profound theological work on sexuality. It is a large meal, but not inaccessible. It undergirds the pope’s native compassion with … [Read more...]
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Mercy From Rome
Filed Under: Catholic Sexuality Tagged With: Catholic, Christ, Christopher West, Communion, Creation, Emil Brunner, Family, Gay, God, Heal, His Roman Church, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Paul, John Paul II, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Karl Barth, Love, Marriage, Mercy, National Supreme Court, Prayer, Ray Anderson, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Church, Rome, Sin, Supreme Court, The Cross, USA
Merciful Intimacy
Around this time I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean. Amid a winter storm, my pastor dunked me into the waters, and counted the old man dead. I arose with Christ into new life. It was timely. I needed to know that something really had changed beyond my subjective experience—how what Jesus did in entering those waters Himself and emerging out of them as the Beloved Son had relevance to me. Jesus’ baptism was unto death; His dunking foreshadowed Crucifixion. Similarly, His emergence into the fullness of the Father’s blessing—the confirmation of His Sonship through the infilling of the Holy Spirit—foresaw His Resurrection. He … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Mercy and Healing Tagged With: Beloved Son, Christ, Crucifixion, God, His Resurrection, His Sonship, His Spirit, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Karl Barth, Mercy, National Supreme Court, Pacific Ocean, The Father, USA
Otherness and Intimacy
To honor marriage is to honor the distinctions of male and female, and how the two combine to form a whole. The one discovers its need in relation to the other—‘I do not possess what the other offers’, and one’s unique gift—‘I possess something the other needs.’ Gender complementarity is crucial to a marriage being able to ease the aloneness of both parties. It is precisely the other’s difference that satisfies the ache of the solitary heart. The mystery of the other draws one out of familiarity and into another reality. Gender differences provoke exploration and yield the rich discovery that the other rounds one out. At … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Gay Marriage Tagged With: Gender, God, Karl Barth, Marriage, Mike Mason
