Thinking about the story of Fr. Krzy (Monsignor Krzystof Charamsa)
There is a lot of hateful stuff on line - understandably so, since the priest in question appears to have made an attempt to hijack the Synod on the Family which began today. Sodomite is the operative word to drive home the point this guy is a filthy homosexual. That's the language I'm encountering - not unfamiliar to my ears either.
I've never felt more sad over a story like this.
When I first read the story, I thought it was sad, unfortunate, and felt badly for the guy. I imagined something sudden must have happened - and he fell in love and simply wanted to find 'happiness' with his lover and attempt to live happily ever after. Turns out he had a sort manifesto, a list of demands that the Church change her teaching, even rewrite Scripture, to accommodate and approve LGBTQ lifestyle and relationships, and so on. Equality and liberty for all. That's essentially Antichrist, anti-Christian.
How do people fall away like this?
For a religious person, I think it usually begins with a falling off of interior devotion. Faith without devotion, that is, love, weakens and is easily shaken. In Krzy's case, it might have begun shortly after arriving in Rome. Rome is incredibly romantic and dazzling, the Italians are fun, beautiful, and seductive. He may have been impressed by the glamour. He may have been seduced by the prestige of working in the Vatican. Encountering and dining with influential visitors, young acquaintances, perhaps - always happy and fun and in a Roman holiday spirit - all of which is enough to sap devotion. To neglect prayer and mortification and self-denial. To blunt humility.
One kiss ...
The lyrics from a Bozz Scaggs song came to mind as I was thinking of these things. Strange as it seems, I was reminded of St. Teresa of Avila's account of her 'falling away', as well as her tale of a priest she'd met, who had been 'charmed' by a woman. Not following that? Here's the lyric that influenced my thoughts, occasioned by some of the photos of Krzy and Edouard.
I can still remember
What you told me with your eyes
One kiss
Now it's down to this
Guess it's time you realize ... song here.
Mix that song, or one like it, with a sexually attractive person gazing at you from across the room, penetrating your 'heart' with his eyes - and you can fall - just like lightning from the sky ...
One kiss, with the eyes ... when faith and love and devotion has grown cold it is amazing how easily, how quickly we can be seduced. Like lightning - a tsunami of hot, flowing, emotion enveloping the depths of your being. The time must be ripe, the lonely heart shivering cold, the danger signals muted, the emotions and senses open to the occasion. It can happen in an instant. Through a simple, though evocative scent, a familiar taste reminding you of an earlier encounter or fantasy. Suddenly .... the fall.
The more serious the sin - or the propensity for it - the more fervent our prayer - our devotion must be.
Prayer - devotion - is incompatible with self-indulgence. (Hence my tie-in to Teresa of Avila.) Self-love, self-pleasure and self gratification cannot exist together in the devout life. Either little by little, or in one fell swoop we can return to our former way of life - which tugs at our heart - sometimes violently, inviting us to look back - perhaps just for an instant, just to glimpse the destruction of Sodom - which has a strange, fantastic appeal and exhilarating music all its own.
Back in my arms again...
The love, the passion, the vain rejoicing in natural goods ... the misappropriation of a false mysticism, leading to coveting what is lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not yours - all of that is forbidden to celibates, and when indulged, foments contempt of what is holy and sacred. The person rebels against nature. Then God and his Church. He blames the Church for his sin - and insists the Church absolve and erase the law from its books - because only the law defines it as disordered. The person sets himself in opposition to Christ - and is therefore, anti-Christ.
That. That is the scary part, as well as the extremely sad part of this story. Obstinacy in sin, rejection of the Commandments, leads to the denial of God - it makes us enemies of Christ and his Cross. We declare: I will not serve.
Yet we ask why the Blessed Virgin weeps...
I hope and pray this priest and his friend will come to understand the delusion homosexuality and lgbtq-gender-theory presents today. Fr. Krzy's apostasy demonstrates why it is so necessary to take care to avoid that 'an all too benign interpretation be given to the homosexual condition itself'. Sometimes this benign interpretation leads to the very fall we seek to avoid.
Be careful how you condemn as well - lest a worse fate fall upon you. Fr. Krzy and Edouard have the opportunity to repent and return - we may not if we condemn. And remember - no Pope caused this or accommodated this situation. Not any more than the Law or the Church invented this sin, as Krzy seems to suggest. Christ warned us and left an example of all of this in and through the conduct of his disciples.
Go and sin no more.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Our confidence is our salvation.
*If anyone reading this sees or knows these guys, tell them I will pray for both of them, Krzystof and Eduard, for the rest of my life, and give them a hug.
. I think sodomite as a word is needed for those who act on the ssa....just as fornicator should be the word for those who act on hetero impulses outside marriage. Other words seem to make acting sinfully....kinda not so bad....hook up, gay, don juan, ladies man, shagging etc. Christ was not politically correct in our theology terms when he said in Matt. 18:17 " let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican". That is Christ did some Pope Francis things but Christ was more judgemental than Francis at the verbal level and He corrected the Samaritan woman in a sexual venue without having a relationship to her at all ( the Francis
ReplyDeletething). Would Francis correct the sodomite couple he kissed last week on the cheek. From that previous students words ( he was stunned at the thought of Francis meeting Davis and said that could never have been the Pope's idea) ...we can conclude that Francis never corrected him in the case closed manner of Christ to the Samaritan woman..." and the man you are with is not your husband".
I'm not opposed to those words. Sodomy is an equal opportunity sexual act however. In fact I think some sports figures engage in anal sex to avoid impregnating the women they seduce. Sodomy is equated with anal sex - sometimes permitted as foreplay in marriage - depending on who you talk to. It's a disgusting act.
ReplyDeleteFornication works well. By the same standard, divorced and remarried couples could be called adulterers and their children - and all kids born out of wedlock illegitimate bastards. Harlot might be a term used for women who seduce priests into leaving Holy Orders as well. Usurer could be the term used for bankers and credit card company employees. I do not mind the vocabulary except when it is used by fellow sinful human beings about other human beings whose conscience we have no way of knowing BTW - in order to shame and ridicule and condemn.
That said, When Our Lord spoke to St. Photina he did so privately - he recognized her integrity and sincerity, as well as her candor when she 'confessed' that she did not have a husband. While he gently corrected her telling revealing to her that he alone knew her soul, and that she had 5 husbands. He used the term husband.
Francis and his gay friends know each other. His former student admitted they disagree on gay issues. They were in a semi-public meeting or 'audience' - as it was filmed and document it wasn't a private, confessional encounter. The Pope is the sign - his friends know full well how he regards gay relationships.
There was nothing more to say. I know you have an issue with the Pope - and that's your business, but I see nothing wrong with how he greeted his friends. And he was encouraging to Kim Davis.
Works for me.
Actually my thing is equally against the last three Popes who both I and the 1976 US Supreme Court by logical extension...see as getting thousands of murder victims killed per year not in the middle class world, but in the third world chiefly through their campaign against the death penalty which has little affect in middle class areas like Europe or Maine but out sized deterrence effects in poor areas per UN figures. I love Francis' heart in many individual moments and his real estate choice actually. He is the first Pope to oppose contraception in his choice of square feet per person.
DeletePopes who had the big apartment in the Vatican while telling laity to have 200 square feet each in their homes...were less convincing as the data perhaps reflects. Francis hugging that man with the boils all over his head may be one of the best photos ever from the emotional standpoint. Usury? The Church now has little idea what it could be outside of loansharks and those loan against paycheck outfits that are similar.
You are such a good man, honestly. Last night, after reading your first post, I put them both on my permanent daily prayer list. You've been on there for a while. We are all sinners. I stayed away from the Church for 40 years because I thought it was too hard to follow its teachings. Didn't work out. I've now got that peace that passes all understanding. Even when I'm in the midst of turmoil, mostly caused by myself, it's in there. And I hang onto it. God is here.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for your prayers - everything is so uncertain these days, isn't it?
DeleteThis is a great post, Terry. This could be a great teaching moment for the Holy Father if he would issue an encyclical basically saying what you have said it here. I think it would be marvelous if he would simply clarify the issues this way.
ReplyDeleteThanks - but as a Jesuit and spiritual director/confessor - the Holy Father knows more about the soul than I do. I also think issues will get clarified soon.
DeleteI remember thinking that my way was best. That I had all the answers to what could make me happy and fulfilled I remember too, when the soft voice of the Holy Spirit would remind me that nothing or anyone could fill the void I carried inside. I shut Him out for so long and then would cry and cry and wonder why.
ReplyDeleteHow easy we deceive ourselves into thinking we are the one. I read his interview last night while at work and I cannot understand it. I do not know if he is real or honest in his "coming out" does he believe what he says? He says his lover "helped him come to terms with his sexuality as a homosexual." He was ripe for the picking then. The pleasure of the flesh is a powerful elixir. Easing your longing and your loneliness in the arms of another while being pleasured ... well, you get my drift. One starts to think that's the answer.
I will remember to pray for these two and for the rest of the homosexual community. Those who are faithful to Christ as well as those who have gone astray believing theirs is the "right way."
It can happen to anyone. I know.
It's pretty much the same for all of us, isn't it.
Deleteyou can fall...like lightening from the sky. I love that Terry. It's too easy to fall, too easy to trust oneself, too easy to think that it's been so long, it'll never happen again.
ReplyDelete