As Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is no mere symbol. In this most blessed sacrament, we partake of the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ – His body, blood, soul and divinity. To step forward for communion, properly disposed, is to enter into mystical union with our Lord and Savior.
This is why St. Paul cautions in 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord." There are certain sins that rupture our covenant with God so severely that we become unable to receive this gift worthily until we repent, confess, and have our souls cleansed anew by sacramental grace.
Mortal Sins: "Deadly" Barrier to Communion
The Church speaks of two classes of sin: venial and mortal. Venial sins are smaller faults and weaknesses that hurt our relationship with God, but do not cut us off from Him completely since sanctifying grace remains alive in our souls. But mortal sins – named for the "death" they incur spiritually – destroy sanctifying grace and charity in the heart. As the Catechism states in paragraph #1855:
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God‘s law; it turns man away from God…by preferring an inferior good to him.
Sins of grave matter, committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, sever the life-giving bond with our Creator. The person falls from a state of grace and loses their right to eternal happiness in heaven (Catechism #1033). Only contrite confession can restore them.
What grave "deadly" sins carry this consequence? The Church speaks of sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance in their grievous offense against God or neighbor. Specific lists vary, but among those most commonly cited are four sins attacking fundamental goods of human life and dignity:
1. Murder – Direct and willful killing of innocent life violates the 5th commandment and sacredness of life given by God. It attempts to usurp God‘s dominion as the author of life and death.
2. Abortion – Seen as a form of murder grieviously opposed to God‘s creation in the womb. Deliberate ending of preborn life strikes at core dignity.
3. Sexual Sins – 6th commandment safeguards integrity of intimacy; sins like adultery, fornication, masturbation, pornography violate purity in the temple of the body, harm marriage/family, degrade sacredness of marital act.
4. Economic Exploitation – Defrauding laborers, oppressing the poor can become grave injustice crying out for vengeance.
But clearly, among the most common transgressions barring reception of communion are sins against the 6th and 9th commandments protecting fidelity and purity. Ever since the story of Onan in Genesis 38, Scripture shows God detesting spilled seed as immoral, an abomination against pure love and openness to life.
Why Lust Wounds Us So
In today‘s hypersexualized world beset with temptation, the devil plays upon human weakness exploiting this chink in our armor. Media continually links sex with power, prestige and liberated self-interest – promoting a selfish rather than self-giving ethic. Prevailing notions of no-strings-attached, recreational sex cheapen intimacy as merely pleasurable, denying deeper meaning.
But the ageless wisdom of the Church holds sexuality as the sacred seal of the one-flesh union, wherein husband and wife participate in God‘s own creative, covenantal, life-giving love through total mutual self-donation. Science now reinforces this truth, demonstrating how sex alters brain chemistry through neurohormones like oxytocin to forge bonding and attachment, while also flooding the brain with dopamine stimulation – making it highly pleasurable and addictive.
Brain scan studies on pornography users show overconsumption of erotic imagery can literally rewire neural circuits, triggering cravings, compulsions and dependence. The brain grows accustomed to constant sexual novelty, making monogamy difficult. There is a biological reason lust can gain such control when unchecked!
Sexual Sin Wounds Body and Soul
St. Paul warns in 1 Cor 6:18 to "flee sexual immorality" because it uniquely harms human dignity and the soul by hijacking God‘s design for the body against His loving purpose. The saints throughout history have described their agonizing battles to overcome temptations "of the flesh" – precisely because fallen man feels these bodily urges so strongly, yet submitting to them enslaves spirit to matter.
Instead, we are challenged to acquire mastery over passions, so they submit to the service of love. The pagan world indulged every hedonistic whim; yet facing his own lustful past, St. Augustine came to realize God created sexuality not just for procreation, but also as a fire-like fervor between husband and wife to "achieve a passionless passion."
In true holiness, eros finds its proper discipline and direction within the covenant bonds, enabling the body‘s intense pleasures to overflow while self-giving spirit still leads through constant tenderness, communication and consent.
Guarding the Domestic Church
Sins violating fidelity and purity damage not only the soul of the individual, but tear at the stability of marriage and family – considered the "domestic church" where loving devotion and sanctity are first nurtured.
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Surveys show over half of men, nearly 30% of women in the U.S. acknowledge committing adultery. Of ever-married generations, nearly 18% of Gen-Xers and 15% of Boomers admit affairs. Studies reveal the traumatic impacts infidelity has on childhood development and identity when a parent betrays their marriage vows.
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Meanwhile, porn usage statistics are staggering: almost half of millennial men found to compulsively indulge in habitual porn consumption sinking many hours per week into viewing online content. More young adults now report learning about sex from pornography than from parents or health teachers. And average age of first exposure is 11 years old, profoundly impacting boys‘ attitudes, assumptions and ideals around relationships.
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Less than half of teenagers now date, yet casual sexual "hookups" are widespread on campuses, enabled by sites promoting no-commitment encounters. Almost 3/4s of women in one survey expressed reluctance, admitting to going further sexually in such meets than they authentically desired.
The Church warns such trends reveal the false freedom of secularism. When intimacy is treated transactionally, we become imprisoned to selfish appetites. But Christ proposes instead the true freedom – liberation from vicious cycles of mutual usage – found when man and woman freely bind themselves in sacred covenant.
Overcoming Disordered Desires
Christ offers hope and healing to all who have fallen. But delicate consciences may still hesitate to approach the altar if grave sins remain unconfessed, or if patterns of immoral behavior continue actively. What recourse exists for souls facing persistent violations of purity?
First, private sacramental confession stands ever ready and essential – for absolution, grace and guidance to go and sin no more. Beyond this, spiritual direction from a priest or religious order can help develop an individualized plan of prayer, asceticism, self-knowledge and discipline best suited to temper one’s passions.
The saints themselves often struggled lifelong against recurring sensual temptation. St. Paul speaks of it as a “thorn in his flesh.” But holiness consists not freedom from urges, but building self-mastery through God’s power. Through His strength, we become tougher warriors.
Practical strategies include avoiding unnecessary risks and temptations – shunning anything fostering lustful thoughts or fantasies. One must recognize the inherent difficulty in simply “dabbling” in pornography without falling back into compulsive viewing habits that rewire the brain’s neural patterns over time.
Fasting and mortification have long been used to foster detachment from earthly cravings. Padre Pio wore a painful hair shirt and cilice belt as a bodily reminder staying centered on spiritual priorities. Frequent reception of Eucharist and Reconciliation, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, reciting the Rosary, invoking the help of Mary and our guardian angels – all help focus the mind’s eye back toward the divine celestial vision.
For lingering weakness, consider enrolling in one of many excellent Catholic recovery programs emerging, perhaps joining a support group to overcome pornography or heal adulterous betrayals through counseling. Christ stands ready to restore hope and trust even in devastated marriages.
Above all, nurturing charity through selfless service keeps the heart properly ordered, countering self-absorption. Instead of expecting marital intimacy must constantly stoke novel excitement, see the Cross’s raw sacrifice as the model – pouring oneself out for family prompted by grace, despite ego’s protests.
Beyond sexual behaviors like masturbation or infidelity, contraceptive use also impairs full reception of Christ in the Eucharist. Many Catholics do not realize church teaching deems artificial means preventing conception intrinsically evil. These include:
- Barrier methods inhibiting fertilization like condoms or diaphragms
- Hormonal contraception like the Pill, Patch, IUDs that potentially induce early abortions
- Tubal ligations, vasectomies and other sterilization ending fertility permanently
The core problem is separation of the love-giving and life-giving dimensions ordained by God to be inseparable. Sexuality gets reduced to affectionate stimulation and recreation alone, while its sacred creative potency is actively thwarted – implying children are unwanted burdens to guard against.
This utilitarian narrowing of sexuality’s meaning actually fosters objectification of the partner through disordered use of natural faculties against innate purposes imprinted into bodily design itself.
Paragraph #2370 of the Catechism states the conjugal act is imposed “upon our animal nature” to directly cooperate with God‘s creative designs instead. Suppressing our procreative capacities arrogantly suggests we claim greater wisdom than the author of life, harming authentic integral development of our humanity.
A Disembodied Theology of Body
Long before his pontificate, Pope St. John Paul II spent years as a philosopher and ethicist presenting extensive biblical arguments against contraception in his groundbreaking Theology of the Body talks.
He explained how sexuality forms an earthly sign God created to reflect spiritual truths at the core of divine reality itself. The original unity of man and woman, cleaving together in "one flesh" through sexual consummation (Gen 2:28), mirrors the relationship between Christ, the bridegroom and His Church, the beloved bride. It signifies the eternal, reciprocal self-giving and indissoluble union flowing within the Holy Trinity since the beginning of time.
Thus, marital relations symbolize tremendous mystery. All sexual behavior holding meaning must affirm holistic reality of the person – integrating both body and spirit with reverence. Love without total openness to life severs an integral aspect of our nature, blinding us partially to beauty of God’s truths. It treats the body as "mere instrument of lust" rather than divinely crafted canvas to capture and reveal spiritual essence.
Contraception fosters blindness toward full purpose and dignity of gendered embodiment. It reduces the richness of masculinity and femininity to just sensual utility alone. Sterilized individuals erase spousal meanings tied inseparably to identity as father or mother. Genitals become mere outlets for physical intensity, divorced from family context. Responsible parenthood sees each conception itself as a holy invitation to cooperate in creation of immortal souls destined for eternal life. Whereas contraceptive rationalizations try limiting cooperation only up to ‘replacement levels‘ while the rest is written off as ripe for hedonistic sport.
Through this perversion, we lose sight of deeper reasons for the differentiation of the sexes. Woman signifies humanity awaiting Christ’s fidelity and an infusion of grace nurturing new life spiritual and temporal both. Man depicts the initiative of agape willing to sacrifice ego to give oneself entirely for other-centered fruits. Such mystically forensic language was common among theologians like St. Augustine or St. John Henry Newman when elucidating why homosexual or masturbatory acts obstruct God’s sacramental symbolism imprinted into creation.
While periodic abstinence through Natural Family Planning remains morally permissible for sufficiently serious motives, the church holds hormonal or surgical methods altering healthy fertility are never licit – akin to self-harm of a healthy organ system. They erode reverence for the sacredness of intimate gift exchange between spouses. Married couples undertaking contraception commit grave matter, and should seek the grace of Reconciliation to restore fulness of spiritual communion lost.
Navigating Difference on Spiritual Journeys
Tragically however, conflicting views on accepting the gift of life often jeopardize harmony. A spouse may demand contracepting while the other strives to obey their faith – conscience rights violated through coercion or threat. Theology of the Body makes clear though each person alone owns their subjective choice, both share moral responsibility hoping to align behavior around objective truth.
We must upbuild our beloved, not enable their demise spiritually. It falls to the wiser, more attuned conscience illuminated by God to defer sexual intimacy calling for a truce, while patiently hoping the partner‘s perspective matures acknowledging their fears or controlling tendencies over time. One seeks compromise only around prudence, not principle. And if hostile threats persist without respite, counseling assistance may serve as wise and standard recourse.
Above all, outraged reaction proves counterproductive. Vengeful domineering or retaliation impose merely through might rather than right. Scorn closes hearts; only earnest love providing better example can enlighten minds otherwise mired in worldly paradigms.
Where spouses diverge, earnest prayer and sacrifice offer hope of convergence. But even when we stand pained before loved ones‘ unfortunate selections, blaming harms innocent family.
Children still demand protection, provisions and guidance toward purer paths by the spiritually sober parent, along with surrounding families or godparents. For their destiny hangs in balance also.
Thus the church urges couples to discuss reverently eye level with eternal consequences before wedding thus preventing much hardship. Shared spiritual compatibility proves essential in avoiding much heartache as in-laws exert influence and heirs demand legacies become lived.
Choosing the Kingdom: God‘s Vision for Sexuality
Christ preaches the universal call to holiness. His Gospel elevates all spheres of everyday life through sanctification in Him. Yes, stumbling occurs amidst human weakness. But true believers retain decisiveness renouncing all sin. Lapses call not for surrender, but renewed zeal to participate properly in the redemption.
God plants divine reflections inside the human frame itself to illuminate right relationship. Natural law and conscience point toward truth and goodness. Sacred scripture reveals liberating wisdom freeing us from harmful constraints of instinct, subjective preference or changing cultural tides.
The church guides as steward of these gifts helping revise disordered assumptions echoing original innocence rather than the fall. Her moral teachings aim at safeguarding the authentic good, human flourishing and true happiness that comes from alignment with God‘s intent for sexuality rather than suppressing fertility while chasing transitory intensity as the pinnacle.
For marriage and parenthood unveil the deepest mysteries of divine reality. And definitive giving of self in service to family oscillates strokes of divine paintbrush across each generation‘s canvas capturing God‘s abiding covenantal love holding His children fast through the carefully crafted iconography of the one flesh union.
Husbands living out Christ‘s sacrificial redemption awaken phallic symbols ever aspiring to shower grace. Feminine souls brimming underneath in blessed receptivity signifies God quenching thirsts for intimate communion through faith‘s obedience. ‘Begetting in the beloved‘ connects past and future in one eternal bonds sweeping across humankind.
Gnawing guilt means the soul still senses something sacred has been spoiled by selfishness. Promiscuity peddled so casually deadens the real joys of uncommodified communion built by lifelong nurturing. Only the pure in heart can see God; and true vision recognizes created insignia were intended all along to reflect the divine nature.
Yes the church is mocked as austere for rejecting casual enjoyments of the escapist age. But she preserves wisdom of ages past and recalls willing souls back to the path well traveled by saints awaiting in glory. May all come home; take up their crosses to follow joyfully.