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Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 126:1-6
Hebrews 5:1-6
Mark 10:46-52
“Every
priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to
offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the
ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this
reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.”
This passage has always stuck out to
me, especially as I discerned and pursued a vocation to the priesthood, because
it clearly reminds me of who I am. I am a sinner, beset by weakness. I’m not
better than anyone because I’m a priest. I’m not holier than anyone because I’m
a priest. I have a past, parts of which I’m not particularly proud of, but I am not confined or defined by it. Rather, I am defined by the
life I choose to live as my life moves forward and the same goes for all of us. We have all done things in our lives that were sinful, but the reality is that God’s grace is bigger than anything in the past
and the Mercy of God is so generous that even the most grievous offenses are
forgiven instantly when we simply come to open our hearts to the One who died
to ransom us for Heaven. There is always hope.
For the past several weeks we’ve all
been hearing the presidential and vice-presidential debates, the ads on TV, the
news, webpages and other media sources talk about all of the things going on in
the world today, particularly the problems that must be addressed. We’ve heard
endless discussions on things such as the economy, foreign policy, energy, and a
list of other things. But one thing that I haven’t heard a word spoken about is
actually one of the most destructive forces in our world today, and that
destructive force is the reason you received those white ribbons when you came
into Mass today: pornography.
I came across a book a while back
that really interested me because it was a book entitled The Social Costs of Pornography, but which wasn’t written from a religious perspective. For the
Catholic Church or a group of religious people to write a book against it would
be for the world to chalk it up as religious belief trying to justify itself by
coming up with facts to back up beliefs. Instead, this book is written by
regular people who have to deal with the effects of pornography in our world:
lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, computer techs, and other professionals
who see it every day in the people they serve. This book comes together to give
us some disturbing information.
-45% of teens view it regularly; not occasionally – regularly!
-90% of children between 8 and 16 years of age have viewed online pornography.
Some
might see those numbers and be unconcerned because they think pornography isn’t
really a problem. It is simply a private thing that doesn’t affect anyone and
those who act it out are doing so freely, so what’s the big deal, right? Well,
the big deal is that it is destroying the culture around us by destroying the
way that we interact with other people.
For
starters, the people who are in the videos or images are often there not
because they enjoy it but because they’ve been coerced. Many who have been able
to get away from this industry describe how drugs were offered to the actors
and eventually they became dependent upon them, such that they were willing to
do anything for the camera in order to get another high. Also, human
trafficking is a major problem, as there are an estimated 13,000-15,000 people
who are bought and sold into this market of sexual exploitation each year;
slavery is still going on in our world today.
The
part that is more notably affecting the world outside of those actors and
producers is not much brighter. The statistics and findings of the report in
that book on the social costs of pornography indicate a number of very serious
problems – and below is just a small portion of the findings. The fact that
internet pornography is so readily accessible on phones, notepads, computers,
and every other electronic device means that it is there at our fingertips
24-hours a day, which encourages addictive behavior. Divorce lawyers indicated
that nearly 25% of divorce cases indicated pornography use as a major factor in
the separation.
But
more fundamentally, it distorts the view of the human person.
It has been noted that the problem with pornography not that it shows
too much of the human person but that it shows too little. A picture or video cannot
capture the soul of a person, it cannot show the whole person who is there but
rather reduces them to their body parts. Pornography essentially makes people
who are meant to be loved into objects that are used instead and this transfers into normal social interaction. Thus, users of
pornography find it more difficult to enter into actual intimate relationships
because they are unable to truly love but rather are gratifying themselves at
the expense of the other. This means that faithfulness in marriage and
relationships in general is drastically decreased. Also, users are constantly
fed lies that distort the reality of true intimacy, hide the negative effects
of unfaithfulness and extra-marital sexual encounters, and fail to provide any
accurate depiction of what it means to be a man or woman and how to interact
with the opposite sex. In general, pornography takes everything that can build
up the human person and strengthen family life and does the exact opposite. Is
it any wonder that as the dignity of the human person is denied in our world we
see an increase in violence, promiscuity, and addictive behavior? This evil
silently destroying our country and unless we personally and communally take a
stand against it, we will continue to see the family and human person become
less and less honored in our world.
So
I end with this – pornography affects each and every single one of us. If it is
affecting you or has in the past because of your use of it, there is always
hope. As I said at the beginning of the homily, there is no sin that Christ won’t
forgive and for that reason we don’t have to be bound up by the sins of the
past. In fact, Christ longs to free us from these sins and to bring us to
wholeness because we weren’t created for slavery and sin but for freedom and
life eternal. We simply need to come to Him with open hearts, recognizing that
Christ has the power to do anything. Like Bartimaeus in the Gospel today, we
must cry out for the Lord and know that we are heard and He desires to effect
the healing the same as He did for Bartimaeus.
For
those not affect by it personally, thank God and pray for those who are. Pray
for our youth who are being bombarded with it. Pray for families being broken
apart by it. Pray for those still caught up in the industry themselves. God’s
love is being our understanding and His grace works in powerful ways if we call
upon Him and Our Blessed Mother is a perfect reflection of that love and all
grace passes through her hands, so let us also pray through the intercession of
Mary, Undoer of Knots, that the bonds of sin might be broken and true freedom
would be known by all.
*****
For more information on pornography and getting help:
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