A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. This is a continuation, of course, from the readings we've been having from Saint Matthew. Saint Matthew. So Jesus said to his disciples, you have heard the commandment, you shall not commit adultery. What I say to you is, anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts.
If your right eye is your trouble, gouge it out, throw it away. Better to lose part of your body than to have it all lost in Gehenna. Again, if your right hand is your trouble, cut it off, throw it away. Better to lose part of your body than to have all of it cast into Gehenna. It was also said, whenever a man divorces his wife, he must give her a decree of divorce.
Our lord is quoting the old testament, of course. Now he continues, what I say to you is, everyone who divorces his wife, lewd conduct is a separate case, forces her to commit adultery. The man who marries a divorced woman, likewise commits adultery. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ.
In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. If you read certain writers and listen to certain speakers, you would never guess that the text we have just read is found in Saint Matthew and put into the mouth of our lord. You have serious so called Christian leaders telling us today, I only I read one just yesterday, that in some instances, a little bit of adultery can improve, enhance a marriage. That's said seriously.
Now, supposing we grant that it might, what is your what how does that reflect upon the morality of adultery? Of course, you know that word isn't used. Even by religious leaders in many instances, they don't refer to to adultery and fornication anymore. It's called extramarital relationships, or an intimate relationship, or all kinds of euphemisms. Because you see when you use the words fornication, adultery, they are they are laden with a a value.
They have a moral connotation. And of course, we mustn't have moral connotations. That's judgmental, and we mustn't be judgmental. Notice our lord said don't judge persons. He never said anything against judging actions.
Not a word. Told you not to judge your neighbor, the person. It is absolutely unnecessary for me this morning to bring to your attention the fact that we're living in a world that's topsy-turvy when it comes to morality. Even as even with a church which used to be Calvinistic, puritanical, the Presbyterian about well well, it's about more than two years ago now. They set up a commission to review their code of morality for the church, the Presbyterian church, and to submit their report.
That report was submitted, and it was absolutely devastating. Because the committee who submitted and this is the Presbyterian church, remember, which was noted certainly for its tight laced attitude towards morality. And in that report, the the some substance of their it was all about sexuality, of course, was this, that if that practically anything is morally alright, if it's if it makes you comfortable, if you can live with it. In ever In other words, there is no standard of of moral right or moral wrong in sexuality. It's a communist like talking about your appetite for food.
If you use too much of it, you are a glutton, and that's not nice to be a glutton. That's piggish. Now don't want to be like pigs, do we? No. Well, pigs can't commit gluttony, and pigs can't commit adultery.
Only human beings can because you see, you're bringing in a whole new sphere of reference. You're bringing in a moral code, and you're bringing in condemnation for that action. And yet you have I'm not talking about our separated brethren. I'm talking about so called members within the fold of the Catholic church, who are coming out with this attitude that what helps you in a given situation will be morally right for that situation. It's called situation ethics.
Joseph Fletcher is the main character who who in his book, who gave this articulation. So I'm not talking about people outside, this is within the fold. There are plenty of so called theologians, not plenty, but there are some, and these ones yeah. And they get the the headlines who say that the who tell us that the church should be contemporary, and with Andrew Greeley is one of them. And that it is just ridiculous for the church to take a position on on the morality of sexuality when you have so many people violating what do you say is the church law.
This is the craziest kind of thinking you can imagine. That's like saying, just let enough people commit murder, and then we'll say murder is okay. Just let enough people go down and steal money from the banks, and you'll say, well, that's not a crime. That's a way you can reduce your crime rate, is to eliminate the crime by a little scratch of the pen, making something legal. This is being done.
This is the world we're living in. How do these people who supposed to be Christians and following Christ make that agree with what we've just read this morning? How do you do it? Well, I I know how they do it, dude. But the thing is, can you do that?
Can you eliminate the 10 commandments and call yourself a Christian or a Catholic? Is it possible? Is it it doesn't make any sense to say that we that the church of Jesus Christ should be guided by contemporary wants and dislikes or likes. Does that make sense? If you're talking about the church of Christ, Did he give the Church of Christ a code of morality or didn't he?
And if he did, what should we want to do? Now, you may say, don't want to be a Christian. Fine. I I That's great. Well, then you make sense.
You're consistent. But for someone to call themselves a follower of Christ, and yet not to accept his what he has told us in explicit language. How does that make sense? It only makes sense if you bring into your interpretation of what Christ said your own subjective thinking, and you you do like the supreme court, make your interpretation of the written word conform to what you think is the are the sociological needs of the day. And that's what's being done.
That's what's being done all over, all over. We have got there there is a let's say the virtue of chastity is in disfavor. Disfavor. I have met young men and young women, especially some of the young women in in high school, who are afraid to admit or to let it be known that they're virgins. What kind of a society is that?
I can understand people going out and doing wrong. We all know we all can do wrong. None of us is above sinning. But you see, when you admit I'm a sinner, when you say I have sinned, you are admitting you did wrong. But today, we're insisting I we did right.
That's how we're twisted around, you see. It's a crazy world we're living in, and we've got to get our thinking straight. I'm not saying that this is going to make us comfortable. Remember, Christ never said I've come to make you comfortable. Christ never said that.
He came and he said, I bring a sword. I bring a sword. I have come to set brother against brother, son against father, daughter against mother. That's what Christ said. The cross separates people because you're either following it or you're rejecting it.
And so remember, this is not a doctrine of gloom. This is not a doctrine of gloom. The church, the Catholic church in its official teaching is absolutely realistic. It treats this most important activity or facility or faculty or whatever you want to call it of sexuality in a very real manner. You remember not so long ago when the holy father, you using this text, made that statement about lusting for for husbands lusting for their wives, and the whole world took him to task because they didn't they had they didn't even read the context what the man was saying.
When he was saying that husbands should have respect for their wives as human beings, as persons, and not as tools and instrumentalities of pleasure. Even Immanuel Kant said that the greatest crime, the greatest crime, the greatest immorality This is Immanuel Kant. The greatest immorality is to use another human being as a means to an end. To make a human being a tool, an instrumentality, a means. Con said that is the worst immorality that a human being can be guilty of.
It's all the holy father was saying, but he was saying a great deal. Our lord is our lord didn't give us an easy code of living, but he gave us a joyful code of living. He gave us a code of living that's sane, that is realistic, that is not impossible with his help. But without me, he said, you can do nothing. In the name of the father, son, the holy spirit.
Amen.