sermon-on-the-mount

We will experience joy and fulfillment with friendships grounded in the love of Jesus.

Jesus continued with his next antithesis in today’s account to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).

Too many people today believe that our sexual urge is too powerful to channel and direct in chaste ways. In fact, to even attempt to do so, some would say is damaging. The Church has confused the matter a bit more because of those within her number who have not only abused children sexually but also those who have turned a blind eye to warning signs and/or covered up the abuse.

Yet, even these horrific acts by a few do not change the fact that Jesus calls us to practice chastity. Our sexuality is a powerful gift that when properly ordered in the marital embrace enhances intimacy and unity as well as offers the potential to bring life into the world. This is a wonderful gift. But the enemy seeks to distort and destroy all that God has created good. Twisting and manipulating the gift of our sexuality such that it can be used for mere physical gratification and objectification of another.

The normalization of lust, pornography, objectification of another must be countered with healthier and chaste ways of living. We figuratively tear out an eye or cut off a hand that leads us to sin by recognizing, identifying, and renouncing any disordered practices or variations. We also need to resist the opposite pull to the puritanical, opposite extreme, and identify our sexuality and all things human as bad. Suppressing our sexuality is not what Jesus is guiding us to engage in. God created humanity good, and our sexuality is good when we integrate it into the wholeness of the physical and spiritual aspects of our humanity.

This is a hard lesson to grasp if the majority of what we read, listen to, watch, think and fantasize about, are erotic and evocative. Living in a culture that is hyper-sexualized, condones enticing advertisements on TV, the computer, and billboards; normalizes pornography, acting out sexually at a younger and younger age, and the like, will make being and living a chaste life seem impossible. Jesus offers us a better way that will lead us to more authentic love and joy. We just need to be willing to allow him to transform our hearts and minds.

Self discipline and the dignity of human beings are true and authentic goods. Unbridled passions do not lead to happiness but instead to slavery and addiction. Seeing each other as objects for our own personal gratification demeans and reduces us to the bestial. Human beings are not merely objects and there is much more depth to our beingness beyond mere sensuality. As St. Pope John Paul II stated, “There is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person. In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.”

There is a greater intimacy that can be experienced when we engage in a wider range of personal engagement. Chaste friendships are a wonderful gift that is becoming a lost art. We all seek to belong, to be a part of, and to be loved. Making the time to have in depth conversations where we can speak and listen, share common interests, experience activities; work through challenges, conflicts, and accomplish goals together; as well as being able to take the risk to be ourselves, take off our masks, share our fears, insecurities, hopes, and dreams, and be heard, accepted, and loved, are ways we grow in intimacy and deep friendship.

Lust is too often linked with love. The sole pursuit of lust is to objectify another for our own self-gratification. The sole pursuit of the unconditional love that Jesus calls us to, is to will the good of the other as other, to seek their best. Jesus lived a chaste life full of love, joy, and meaning. He invites us to settle for nothing less. Jesus invites us experience the love of God, who fills our deepest longing. As we experience God’s love, we realize we don’t have to settle for counterfeit relationships. Our friendships can be properly formed such that we don’t see each other as objects for our pleasure, but instead friends to experience and grow in relationship with.

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Photo: Blessed by Jesus to be friends for decades!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 13, 2025

Material happiness is fleeting but the joy fueled by Jesus is eternal.

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Lk 6:22).

The Beatitudes are contrary to much of what too many of us are tempted by when seek our satisfaction, security, and fulfillment in what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the substitutes that we put in place of God: power, fame, wealth, and pleasure. What is more, we may resist Jesus’ teachings because we do not agree, there are behaviors we may not be willing to let go of, we don’t understand them, or we find them too hard.

In today’s Gospel account from Luke, Jesus taught his disciples how to attain the kingdom through five blessings and four woes. Jesus’ message is a universal message, an invitation to and for all who have ears to hear and a heart open to receive. These teachings though challenge us to place our trust, not in the things of this world but in Jesus. That which is finite and material are fleeting and passing and cannot fulfill us. We will always be wanting more and we are never satisfied. In placing our trust in Jesus, he will lead us to his Father, and it is in building that relationship that we will experience true happiness and fulfillment for the deepest core of our being is made to be in communion with God and only he can fulfill our deepest need.

This is an inviting offer, yet when putting Jesus’ teachings into practice in our everyday lives we will receive opposition from those in our lives and from ourselves from within. Another word for blessed is happy. Can we really be happy if we are as Jesus said, poor, hungry, weeping, and when people insult and hate us? Yes. When we seek to live out these beatitudes with the help of Jesus, we will find that we are indeed happier when we are not attached to material goods, when we are more moderate in our consumption, and when we are not attached to outcomes as we want them fulfilled and when we are not seeking immediate gratification. We will experience much more joy and freedom if we are not gauging our every thought, word, and action based on what others think and instead be free to live our lives by following God’s will.

To be blessed, happy, and fulfilled in this life can be fleeting, like trying to catch the wind, if we seek to do so by acquiring more material things and having things our way as we want it, when we want it, on our terms alone. We will experience true happiness and deeper joy when we are willing to let go of our attachments to the things of this world and instead, place building a relationship with Jesus as our primary practice.

If we are serious about being his disciples, then a good place to start is learning and living the beatitudes. This is no easy task but as we come to better understand what they require, we are willing to let go and allow the Holy Spirit to heal and work through us, “we will rejoice and leap for joy” (Lk 6:23)! Joy because we can experience the good things that God wants to give us.

When we can see the difference between God’s gift of grace, the very gift of his life he wants to impart in us, and the apparent glittering of goods and false truths we have been seeking to provide for our security and foundation, we will be less apt to be ensnared by them. Slowly and surely, step by step, making time each day for prayer, reading and meditating upon what we learn in scripture, struggling with them, yet trusting in Jesus and putting them into practice, we will experience the love of Jesus, the eternal source of our joy, and we will drink from the well that never runs dry!

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Photo: Fireworks this past July 4. They have passed, but the joy in serving at Holy Cross continues to grow!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, September 11, 2024