Rousing Her Radiance: Day 6
Author: Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2023
Ordering Our Courts
‘Beauty
is the radiance of truth.’- Thomas Aquinas
I
love this Church. Strength and clarity for the day arises from quiet
contemplation on Christ Crucified. He points to the tabernacle below the
crucifix where He deposits Himself in the host. I am grateful to hold this
thought; addicts struggle to think beyond self-pleasure, and I am free now,
able to savor the Source of my freedom.
Who
can fathom the God-Man who gave all to gain you and me? More marvelous still, He
opens the door of the tabernacle and beckons: ‘Eat and drink Me; I’m better
than the false gods who wanted your blood. I offer Myself to compose you—to
unite into wholeness what was “fragmented into multiplicity”’ (
Catechism of
the Catholic Church #2340).
The
Holy Meal heals me. I am now a chaste-enough man but my wholeness hinges upon
receiving His self-gift. The lure of the world in its broken images and ideas still
beckons to me. This Jesus at the most visceral level reconfirms my chastity,
that is, chaste Jesus frees me to mobilize for real love and connection while
refusing divisive unrealities.
My
masculine integrity is bridal. Manliness is first Marian. Like Mary, Christ-bearing
can only be received, not attained. To be a faithful bridegroom I need the gift
of the Bridegroom, over and over.
We
who still recall the sting and seduction of unchastity need this Church and her
head Jesus. The powers that create life can also destroy it; sins against
chastity flare up and fan out to burn many.
There
are more important goals in life than overcoming sexual sins, but few things
disrupt and diminish one’s life more. Lust fractures spiritual sight and skews sound
judgment and decision. Noble goals
become impossible when captivated by unchastity.
Josef
Pieper says it best: ‘To be open to the truth of real things and to live by the
truth that one has grasped is the essence of the moral being. Only when we
recognize this state of things can we likewise understand the depths to which
the unchaste heart permits destruction to invade its very being.’
Pope
Francis tends to scoff at Catholic ‘conservatives’,especially American ones,
for majoring on ‘below the belt’ issues. All I can say is that a soul divided by
unchastity is unable to proceed onto higher ground. Thank God for our beautiful
Church! By her very design she invites us to recognize our divides and become
united with the Source of freedom.
In
her courts, our ‘courts’ find vision and power to be ordered aright. Order in
her courts liberates ours.
‘Thank
You Jesus that we can hold holy thoughts! And thank You for Your house in which
we can gaze upon Your beauty and consume it. Faithful and true, You make a way
for us to be faithful and true. May we aspire to and honor the ordering of our
sexual gift. May order in the Church hasten the ordering of us as members; may
we champion this order for all with hearts to hear.’
‘Father,
we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell will
not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on Her
firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the deceiver
and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members of
Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace to
sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the chaste
radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe,
holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’
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