The fire of sexuality

The human being is sexed. We are all born incurably and wonderfully sexed. This is part of a plot between God and nature. Sexuality is always present in our lives. Yet Christianity has been accused of denying, or at least being naïve, about the power of sexuality, as if it were a contrary or insignificant factor in authentic Christian living.

But observe how nature seems almost cruel to the young. Long before they mature emotionally and intellectually, they are already endowed with the hormones of life. They have an adult body before they become adults in their emotions and intellect. This phenomenon is a source of physical and moral risks in an adolescent who grows and develops in a fully adult body.

Moreover, today this is aggravated by the fact that almost everyone starts their youth at an earlier and earlier age and ends it later and later. An overwhelming majority want to remain young. Many pretend to do so. The age of marriage or emancipation has been pushed back. In many cultures a girl or boy reaches puberty at the age of eleven or twelve and will marry only some twenty years later. This raises the problem of how they can emotionally and morally contain their sexuality for all these years.

The sexual drive has a very precise purpose: that we grow and multiply, that we perpetuate the human species. Nature is inflexible in this. And God has something to do with this “conspiracy”.

But we should not ignore that there is more to preserving the gene pool than just physically having children. There are other ways of parenting. Nature wants children of flesh. However, there are other ways of giving life. We all know people who, without having children, have been and are wonderfully generative people. In fact, religious celibacy is based on that truth. This demonstrates the powerful spiritual dimension of sexuality.

Nature and God put us under relentless pressure to keep our lives open to something greater than ourselves and to be aware that communion with others, with the cosmos and with God is our true purpose. Our sexuality is so great that it urges us to love everyone. Is this not also part of realised human fulfilment?

Sexuality is a sacred fire. It takes its origin from God and is powerfully present within creation. Christian life is never a denial of sexuality.

 

Juan Carlos cmf

(PHOTO: Cullan Smith)

 

Start typing and press Enter to search