BELOVED DARLING | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2024

Author: Anil Israel

Intro: As gender lines blur all around us and gender identity confusions on the rise, Anil Israel reminds us of our true identity - children of God. 

The surge of Marian apparitions in the last two centuries can be attributed to counter the rising deception of the evil one. Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children who witnessed the Marian apparitions at Fatima predicted that the final battle between Christ and Satan would be over marriage and the family. No wonder the alarming confusion created by the emergence of gender identity crisis is posing an incredible threat to the sanctity of marriage. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church names ‘homosexual acts’ as ‘intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law’ and names ‘homosexual tendencies’ as ‘objectively disordered’. ‘Such persons must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’ (CCC 2358). While the Catholic Church does not consider ‘homosexual orientation’ sinful in and of itself, it does have a very negative attitude towards it. A 1986 letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the pastoral care of homosexual persons states, ‘Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.’ The Catholic Church does not celebrate, recognise or approve same-sex marriages.

Something appears to have gone terribly wrong. From the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8). God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27). The sexual distinction between man and woman is willed by God, as its purpose is to reproduce the human race. Every human person is loved into existence in the image and likeness of God. Every new born child comes with an assigned gender – male or female. No child is ever born otherwise.  

We are a product of our good and bad experiences. As we grow, every experience influences and shapes our character and personality. A thrust of chaotic negative experiences could pave the way for one to disown one’s gender assigned at birth and cause one to crave inclinations prominent for the opposite gender. With even the legal system favouring union between people with same sex attraction, morality as inscribed by the divine designer takes a back seat. The raging waves of polluting media further sets ablaze the flames of immorality, leaving ill-formed souls to accept evil as good.

Everything around us tends to deceive us that the only purpose of our earthly existence is to satisfy the desires of our flesh. My bodily craving needs to be met. My selfish longings need to be satisfied. I have only one life – only one body, and so all my thoughts and efforts converge to pleasing the decaying body – one day destined to be food for worms. Excessive love of the desires of the body is a grave neglect of the desires of the soul. ‘Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul’ (St Bernard of Clairvaux). 

All are called to embrace the universal call to holiness. All are called to live pure lives set apart for doing God’s unique plan for our life. Homosexual persons are called to chastity (CCC 2359). Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8). After our earthly journey, aren’t we all destined to be united with our Creator in our heavenly home? It is when we tend to forget that we have an immortal soul, that we miss living here below with eternity in perspective. 

Holy Scripture records the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with ‘brimstone and fire’ (Genesis 19:24) because of rampant homosexual behaviour. Even during New Testament times this wickedness is evident. They exchanged natural relations for unnatural (Romans1:26). They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). Whom am I serving – the Creator or the creature? The Bible clearly states the destructive consequences of sexually immoral behaviour including same-sex relationships. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals (1 Corinthians 6:9).

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own; we are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 9-10). We are therefore accountable for acts of desecration – for immoral sexual behaviour. We need to remind ourselves of our true identity as ‘children of God’ (1 John 3:1). Just as the Father is holy, we his children too are called to be holy. You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy (Leviticus19:2). Only when we live pure holy lives, do we truly reflect that we are children of God. Am I conscious that I ought to live like a child of God?

You are my beloved (Mark 1:11). We need to start looking at ourselves as God’s beloved child. We are the apple of his eye (Deuteronomy 32:10). We are not an accident. God makes no junk. We are chosen and precious (1 Peter 2:6). I might find it difficult to attribute the value that God attributes to me. However, with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). He can forgive our sexual-immorality. He can cleanse our distorted evil inclinations. He can heal our damaged inner self. He can restore in us our true identity. Am I willing to be wholly repaired by him? Am I willing to embrace my identity as God’s beloved darling?