THE COLUMN YOU NEARLY DIDN'T GET TO SEE (First published in 'NZ Catholic, November 27)

NZ Catholic editor Peter Grace was asked to withdraw this column from publication. To his everlasting credit, he declined. It appears in today's edition, with a few minor changes, under the title To love as Jesus loves.

        
          We Catholics must all know about ‘the triumph of evil’, how it requires only ‘the silence of good men’. Reputedly posited by the 18^th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke, this idea has served speechmakers well ever since. The last time I heard it trotted out (very appropriately) was just last month, at the Voice for Life Conference in Wellington.

However, Joy Cowley’s views on ‘gayness’ (NZ Catholic, October 5) suggest that for  a 21^st century audience Burke needs an update. Because it seems evil, in a guise he probably never imagined, triumphs now not only by the silence of good men but also by the speech of well-meaning women.

Here’s another quote, this one from Scripture – which I naively thought Mass-going Catholics take as an unimpeachable source. ‘Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameful things with men and receiving in themselves due reward for their perversion’ (Rom 1, 27).

But Joy Cowley says St Paul could be wrong. Incorrect. Politically speaking yes, he certainly is, and her popularity as a writer helps to explain her stance. But to suggest any perversion of the truth – stated in the word of God, for heaven’s sake - by the greatest of mystics, apostle and martyr, third in the canon of saints, is preposterous.

Joy then pulls out the old thorn in the flesh theory - St Paul might have been gay. That’s possibly fact, but what’s undeniably fact is, he was celibate.

Pope Francis, in his ineffable way, has warned us of ‘buonismo, a destructive tendency … that in the name of a deceptive mercy  binds wounds without first curing and treating them … It is the temptation of the do-gooders.’ And St Paul says ‘Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God’ (2 Cor 7,1).

 But Joy quotes St John: ‘In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love’ (1 Jn 4, 18). Well, for anyone who isn’t yet perfect in love – and that’s the overwhelming majority,  including me - fear of gay marriage is just common sense: evil is frightening because it’s harmful. 

She asserts that ‘a deep commitment of love’ in homosexual relationships equates with marriage. ‘It’s all about love,’ she says. The trouble with that is, St John’s idea of love is  very different from Joy’s. True Christian love isn’t about feeling, it’s about acting. ‘He who does the will of my Father, he shall enter the kingdom of Heaven’ (Mt 7,21).

Loving means doing God’s will, in other words fulfilling his plan for our perfection by caring for others as much as we care for ourselves, and the best we can hope for ourselves and others is to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Clearly, we need to love as Jesus loves. With the heart of Christ.