tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post2643969490478833270..comments2024-03-23T12:05:23.537-05:00Comments on The Wild Reed: Making Love, Giving LifeMichael J. Baylyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-30782940607479962862015-03-14T01:34:45.969-05:002015-03-14T01:34:45.969-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-83971973765356265382008-08-26T02:30:00.000-05:002008-08-26T02:30:00.000-05:00Clayton, are we reading the same text?Weiss writes...Clayton, are we reading the same text?<BR/><BR/>Weiss writes:<BR/><BR/><EM>If sexuality is indeed good – if God can say, over a pair of entwined bodies, replete with the salty sweet sweat of a well-won climax, “That was very good” – then within the moment of faith well-kept, shaped by intimacy that is just and kind, patient and passionate, making love is a holy act.</EM><BR/><BR/>This is about as far as you can get from "non-incarnational." It's totally incarnational. How on earth is it Gnostic, i.e. despising of the human body and its functions?<BR/><BR/>In fact, it could easily be argued that Weiss's understanding of human sexuality is more <EM>fully</EM> incarnational than the teachings of the Vatican as it doesn't limit God's presence in the realm of human sexuality but rather recognizes it in the lives and relationships (and, yes, the love-making) of both straight and gay people.<BR/><BR/>You ask: "Where is the appreciation for gender, for the goodness of being created as male and female, and for the physical way in which this creation is manifest?"<BR/><BR/>Yes, humans are created male and female, but we're also created male and male, and female and female.<BR/><BR/>Also, Weiss is a straight man happily married to a woman. Believe me, from his writings one readily discerns a <EM>great</EM> appreciation for heterosexuality and its expression.<BR/><BR/>Weiss recognizes, however, that not everyone is heterosexual. He (and many others) have come to the truly liberating (and totally incarnational) awareness that "human sexuality [including both <EM>hetero</EM>sexuality and <EM>homo</EM>sexuality] is one realm of bodily experience where God’s presence can be felt . . . therefore, there are 'holy acts' of human sexuality" both gay and straight. I find this awareness to be wondrously expansive and totally liberating.<BR/><BR/>My orientation doesn't undermine my gender. There's clearly more than one way to be and live as a man. As a gay man I still live in a "male body," and, no, I don't find that to be "narrow." <BR/><BR/>And surely "otherness" should not be solely defined by (and thus reduced to) an understanding of gender that at all times is dictated by what's between a person's legs. The brain, after all, is the primary sex organ of humans.<BR/><BR/>I think human sexuality - involving both gender and sexual orientation - is a very complex and diverse reality. I look forward to the day when the Vatican allows its teaching to be informed by this reality.<BR/><BR/>Peace,<BR/><BR/>MichaelMichael J. Baylyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-75002270395094998722008-08-18T09:26:00.000-05:002008-08-18T09:26:00.000-05:00This view of human sexuality strikes me as non-inc...This view of human sexuality strikes me as non-incarnational, and, in fact, rather Gnostic. Everything remains at the level of affect and emotional connection... giving privilege to spirit over matter, rather than seeking an integration of the two.<BR/><BR/>Where is the appreciation for gender, for the goodness of being created as male and female, and for the physical way in which this creation is manifest? Is the experience of living in a male body or a female body really "narrow"? Or is it, instead, liberating? Does it not reveal something of the mystery of "otherness"?CDEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01442791960391683444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-37230991218368608502008-08-17T22:00:00.000-05:002008-08-17T22:00:00.000-05:00This is a beautiful reflection on the sacramentali...This is a beautiful reflection on the sacramentality, the efficaciously of "eros." That very word sends many of the faithful into immediate "conditional" mode; that is, "Well, yes, sexual intimacy is holy, BUT..." and then there are usually tomes of cautions, limitations, warnings, and prohibitions that sap the very energy out of the very notion of sacramentality. <BR/><BR/>I am no fan of the current supreme pontiff but I do applaud his attempt to incorporate eros as part of "caritas" in his very first encyclical.<BR/><BR/>What I most enjoy about this reflection is that it reinterprets and applies to modern sensibilities the Church's teaching on "procreation." Love must "give life" if it is to be true and not a lie. If poor Paul VI had asserted that value and not applied it to reaffirm the ban on artificial contraception, the Church would look a whole lot different.kevin57https://www.blogger.com/profile/01681985465980196347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-16686318609501238002008-08-17T15:43:00.000-05:002008-08-17T15:43:00.000-05:00In 1961, the bishop of the small diocese of Vittor...In 1961, the bishop of the small diocese of Vittorio Veneto in northern Italy told some of his seminarians*:<BR/><BR/>"We must hold sacred this of God's creation -- this perfect balance of mental energy that exists between any two people when they love -- this perfect union of minds that can only be made by God. <I>To think that love pertains only to physical parts of the body is to say that the sacrament of Matrimony should pertain equally to animals in the forest.</I> <BR/><BR/>"We must hold this holy union in sacred trust before Almighty God whenever it exists between ANY of God's children -- man and woman, or black and white, Christian and Jew, virgin and divorcee, man and man, or woman and woman." (Emphasis added).<BR/><BR/>The bishop who spoke these words was Albino Luciani, who would later become Pope John Paul I for 33 days in 1978. Papa Luciani would continue to speak out for equal recognition of gays, especially for adoption rights, well into the 1970's.<BR/><BR/>Albino Luciani, whose birth name means “white light”, was driven by one burning question his whole life: “I always ask myself, ‘What would Jesus do in this case?’” His was a radical Christianity. <BR/><BR/>The Catholic church would be a much different place had he lived. Besides his enlightened attitudes towards towards sex, he wanted to reverse the ban on contraception, and he had zero tolerance for child molesters. And, as Pope, he declared, ”God is our Father; even more, She is our Mother.”<BR/><BR/>But mainly, I wanted to share his quote in response to this post: <I>"To think that love pertains only to physical parts of the body is to say that the sacrament of Matrimony should pertain equally to animals in the forest."</I><BR/><BR/>-- J.M.Kelley<BR/><B>http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com</B><BR/><BR/>* from “Murder in the Vatican,” by Lucien Gregoirie. The title is unfortunate. While the second half of this book admittedly speculates about the circumstances of Luciani's death, the first half is a well documented biography by an author who interviewed Luciani on nine occasions and had access to his personal papers. The Vatican is now "cleaning up" Luciani's legacy in preparation for his canonization.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com