Love is for Life: Pastoral Letter of the Irish Bishops
PART II Putting Love Into Love
(9.) "THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION"
52. The phrase "sexual revolution" has often been used in
respect of the radical and rapid change of attitudes towards sexuality and
sexual morality which has taken place in recent decades, particularly in
Western countries. Beginning with the urban populations, and widely diffused
through literature, the stage, the screen, music and song and the media,
these changed attitudes now affect in greater or lesser degree every sector
of society.
53. Some aspects of this modern "sexual revolution" are good and
are to be welcomed. There is a new openness in discussion about sexuality,
and an absence of unhealthy feelings of guilt or shame about our sexual
nature. There is a more general acceptance of the need for education of
the young in an understanding of their sexuality, even though the call for
"sex education" does not always sufficiently stress the human
and the spiritual dimensions of sexuality. It would be better to speak of
"education for love", since the whole aim of a Christian and healthy
sexuality is to put love, in its full and genuine meaning, into sexual relationships.
Properly imparted, this knowledge can greatly help young people towards
a mature and balanced and Christian understanding of sex.
54. In the Church itself, instead of exaggerated preoccupation with sex
as a source of temptation or sin, there is a timely emphasis on the goodness
and sacredness of sex in marriage and on marriage as a means to holiness.
Harm was done in the past by some sermons, statements and attitudes which
associated sex with fear and shame and guilt, instead of seeing it as a
beautiful gift from God. There is also in modern times a timely movement
towards equality between the sexes, and a greater and overdue recognition
of the rights of women within marriage and the home, and also in society.
There is a better understanding of marriage as a partnership between equal
persons, in which each looks to the other for personal fulfilment, rather
than for financial security. All this is positive and welcome progress.
55. Nevertheless it can hardly be denied that our contemporary Western society
has seen a serious breakdown of hitherto universally accepted Christian
moral standards in the sphere of sexuality. Some of the great non-Christian
ethical traditions in non-Western countries would judge much of Western
society as decadent in this respect. A great modern thinker said that "our
whole civilisation is aphrodisiac". Modern culture in the Western world
would in some respects seem to be reverting to a cult of sexuality not entirely
dissimilar to the old cults of the "goddesses of love", Venus
and Aphrodite, in the pagan culture in which Christianity was born. The
challenge facing the Christian in today's world is quite similar to the
one which confronted the very first Christians in New Testament times, the
challenge to save sexuality from debasement and ennoble it by the standards
of the Gospel.
56. St Paul warned Christians that they could abuse the freedom Christ brought
to them and allow themselves to become enslaved once more to sinful self-indulgence.
He said:
- You were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this
liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence. (Galatians 5:13).
In spite of the super-abundant grace brought into the world by Christ, sin
continued to abound. Men by their sins continued to disfigure the beauty
of the works of God's New Creation. Human love, even Christian married love,
continued to be debased. In our own day many factors combine to make it
difficult for sexual love to retain its full human and spiritual perfection.
No statement on the Christian understanding of this area of human life can
neglect to point out how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour violate
the plan of God when He made human beings male and female and blessed their
sexuality. All these forms of immorality are instances of disruption of
the intrinsic unity and wholeness of sexuality. They are forms of untruthfulness
in sexual relationships.
57. In each instance of sexual immorality, there is a failure to make sexual
union a genuine act of love; that is to say, a bodily expression of a lifelong
togetherness in love, open to shared life giving. In other words, there
is a failure to make human love what God designed it to be, for the mutual
fulfilment and happiness of men and women. In all sexual immorality there
is a lie: the sexual body is saying one thing; the mind and will and intention
are saying something else. In Pope John Paul's words, there is a failure
to "put love into love".
58. Some people will say that, so far as a sexual relationship is concerned,
all that matters is that two people be in love. The trouble is, however,
that what seems like love often falls very far short of the true meaning
of love. Everything that the Church has to say about sex is that it should
be an expression of genuine love. Love is what the Bible is all about and
what the Church is all about. Unless people understand what true love means,
they cannot understand what sex means. They cannot use it as God planned
it; for God meant sexuality to help people to grow in love and to show God's
love to the world.
59. Sexual morality is education in real loving. The purpose of sexual morality
is not to condemn or prohibit, but to point the way to love, which is the
heart of the Gospel of Christ. Sexual morality protects people from the
hurt and the pain that loveless sex can bring to them. Sexual morality is
a programme for helping people to distinguish true love from its counterfeits.
It keeps love from being wasted. An old Irish phrase for sexual sin described
it as 'making a spoiling of love'. In this respect sexual morality is not
different from the rest of Christian morality. Moral laws are all of them
statements of what is, in this or that situation, the truly loving thing
to do, for others and for oneself. Christian teaching says no only to what
is unloving. It says yes to love provided the love is truthful and honest.
Wrong uses of sex are wrong because they are never the truly loving thing
to do.
Net publishing courtesy of the Newman Center at Caltech
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