Bread of Life

BREAD OF LIFE
 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. (john 6: 50)
The miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. Jesus Christ celebrated the first Mass with His disciples at the Last Supper, the night before He died. He commanded His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The celebration of the Mass then became the main form of worship in the early Church, as a reenactment of the Last Supper, as Christ had commanded. Each and every Mass since commemorates Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross through the Holy Eucharist. Because the Mass “re-presents” (makes present) the sacrifice on Calvary, Catholics all around the world join together to be made present in Christ’s timeless sacrifice for our sins. There is something fascinating about continuing to celebrate the same Mass—instituted by Christ and practiced by the early Church—with the whole community of Catholics around the world…and in heaven.

THE REAL PRESENCE

Why does the Catholic Church believe Christ is really present in the Eucharist?
The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence is the belief that Jesus Christ is literally, not symbolically, present in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity. Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist because Jesus tells us this is true in the Bible:

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” - John 6:48-56
Furthermore, the early Church Fathers either imply or directly state that the bread and wine offered in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the doctrine of the Real Presence that Catholics believe today was believed by the earliest Christians 2,000 years ago!

This miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

THE PORN EFFECT

I feel very called and driven to address a particular issue. This last weekend, I was approached by a young man who asked me a question about a lie concerning pornography that I’ve heard numerous times. The widespread nature of this lie shows just how successful Satan has been at spreading it among young men, and how the evil one has given us just another justification to put between ourselves and purity.

He said: “Jesse, I’ve heard that it’s not a sin to masturbate if it isn’t lustful/if you can keep lust out of the picture. Is that true?”

I’ve heard a lot of young guys talk and ask about this particular statement or “loophole”, or whatever you want to call it. Furthermore, there’s a popular Christian book (which shall remained unnamed) which states this notion, or at least something very similar. It is a very widespread, common understanding about masturbation.

Well? Is it true?

First of all, if we’re honest with ourselves, this seems impossibly unrealistic. If someone, somehow, could separate lust from masturbation, they’d probably be up for winning the... Nobel Porn Prize or something (that was just off the top of my head, but come to think of it, if nothing’s done about the rise of pornography, don’t be surprised if they start issuing that to people someday...). Just quickly, to define “lust”, we’re talking about the twisting of love, from outward action for the benefit of another, to inward action for the benefit of self, sexually.

What does... masturbation in itself sound like to you? It’s certainly not “outward” or for anyone else’s benefit other than the self. And just briefly, to understand why this is just generally an extremely dangerous act to try and perfect, to masturbate without the incorporation of lust, all we need to do is to look at what the Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:3
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity....”
Not even a hint of sexual immorality or impurity. A hint means... more than 0%. Kind of like, if there was a hint of dog poo in your birthday cake you would not feel nearly as happy about surviving another year of life as you were before you found that out. You don’t want any dog poo in your birthday cake right? So why... put it on the counter beside the batter? Do you get what I’m saying? I’m not saying masturbation is equal to birthday cake.

But, even if it was okay to masturbate without lusting, the act of masturbating opens up a massive opening for the occurrence of lust, which, if masturbation was okay without it, would just be like opening up a large possibility for that black forest cake to become... crap forest cake.

But the biggest thing to understand about all of this, is that even if you can separate lust from masturbation, it’s still wrong.

Why?

The late Pope John Paul II stated that if a sexual act is to be an act of love, and not lust, it must be four things:

1. Free

2. Total

3. Faithful

4. Fruitful

The act of masturbation releases a chemical in the brain called Oxytocin, which is meant to bond us to our future wives during sex once we’re married. But if this chemical release is happening outside of marriage, what is it bonding us to? It can bond us to... anything related to the act of impurity that we’re involved in. This point destroys the first two points of that list shown above. If we are allowing this chemical to be released outside of marriage and apart from our future wives, we are limiting our ability to bond to our wives.

The act of masturbation, if ever “total” is “totally” based around the self. That sounds like lust, not love. And also, this chemical release opens us up to addiction (this chemical is released in the brain when someone takes cocaine as well), and addiction is quite understandably the polar opposite of “Free”.

The biggest point though brothers, is number 4. The only “fruits” of masturbation are not truly fruitful at all. Masturbation breeds self-absorption (pride), greed, sexual gluttony, and can often be a result of sloth. That covers four of the seven deadly sins. And all of these are focused on the self in an attempt to satisfy, while in reality leaving us wanting more. The difference between love and lust. Love satisfies, and lust does not. So it’s the opposite of fruitful.

I think it’s important to focus on always moving forward, always trying to grow stronger in purity, in self-discipline. A big trap that’s very easy to fall into is trying to figure out just how much we can get away with, while still being considered “Christian” or “a good person”. Why don’t we forget about just trying to get away with what we can, and instead focus on actually making things better in our lives and in the lives of others through true, honest, genuine love. Because I’m pretty sure that even if you do win a Nobel Porn Prize, you probably won’t be putting that one up on the mantle for Grandma to see when she visits for Christmas.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Every form of sex not directly open to conception is sinful."
"The use of contraceptives, masturbation and homosexual acts are intrinsecally disordered."

Congregation for Doctrine

Tortoise said...

"Virginity belongs to paradise. Marriage began after the fall."
St. Jerome