According to La Civilta Catolica, on Sept. 5 in Mozambique,
Pope Francis informed a group of Jesuits:
·
"Once a Jesuit, a great Jesuit, told me to
be careful in giving absolution, because the most serious sins are those that
are more angelical: pride, arrogance, dominion...And the least serious are
those that are less angelical, such as greed and lust."
·
"We focus on sex and then we do not give
weight to social injustice, slander, gossip and lies. The Church today needs a
profound conversion in this area.”
Does the Church require a “profound conversion in this area?” I don’t think so. For one
thing, the Bible has consistently denounced sexual sin above many others. It
finds a permanent place among the Ten Commandments – “Do not commit adultery”
(6th Commandment) and “Do not covet your neighbors wife” (10th
Commandment). Many sexual sins are even called an “abomination” and had
deserved death:
·
“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his
neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness;
both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man
lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they
have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male
as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely
be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man takes a woman and her
mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there
may be no depravity among you. If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be
put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal
and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be
put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Leviticus 20:10-16 ESV)
The New Testament also teaches the seriousness of sexual sin:
·
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable
passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are
contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women
and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts
with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since
they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to
do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:26-28)
·
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality… (1 Corinthians
6:9)
·
Do you not know that your bodies are members of
Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a
prostitute? Never! Or do you not know
that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is
written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord
becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a
person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins
against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:15-18)
All sin is a sin against God Himself, but it seems that
sexual sin carries an extra cost: “the sexually immoral person sins against his
own body.”
Francis claims that the Church is preoccupied with sexual
sin to the exclusion of other sins. Is the Church preoccupied with teaching
against sexual sin? Hardly! This is the very set of sins that many now refuse
to teach against.
If teaching against sexual sin causes the Church to ignore
other sins, then the Church has a problem. However, the Church is fully able to
teach against all sins. Nevertheless, there is an argument to be made to teach more
strenuously against those sins that have become popular and are capturing the
Church, like the sin of pornography.
Francis also pits the sins of arrogance and pride against
sexual sins, claiming that the former are more serious. However, unrepented
sins cannot be so easier teased apart. Here’s how – to refuse to repent of
sexual sin is also arrogance and
pride. It is to tell God, “I know what is best for me. I do not need to submit
to Your every command. Consequently, we find that arrogance and pride have metastasized
to embrace various sins. In God’s mind, they are all closely and inseparably
associated:
·
“I will punish the world for its evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and
lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” (Isaiah 13:11)
·
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not
loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God… (Timothy 3:2-4)
Pride and arrogance are associated with the entire list of
unrepented sins. Therefore, when the Church teaches against pride and
arrogance, it is also preaching against all the sins that are associated with
them. And when we teach against sexual sin, we are also teaching against the
pride and arrogance that enables the proud to rise up against both the
teachings of the conscience and those of God.
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