When considering my last post from yesterday, in light of a paper I just completed as to whether Vatican I's definition of papal infallibility is in compliance with St Vincent of Lérins' two rules for the authentic development of Christian doctrine, in which I used his theological commentary on
Matthew for a good bit of my exegetical piece on
Matthew 16:15-21, it is beginning to dawn on me why the theology of Protestant theologian Stanley Hauerwas is so attractive to those of us in
CL.
Anyway, along with Douthat and Cafardi on the election,
Maggie Gallagher and
Thomas Friedman have some insightful things to write about Proposition 8 and our economic crisis respectively. Additionally, I listened to a review of Gus Van Sant's new film
Milk, starring Sean Penn, on the way home from work. I was further struck by the fact that politics is not the most important thing, not even close! I was hit in the head while driving home by the truth of Msgr. Albacete's words and those of
Traductor. I see clearly that ours in not
"the problem...[of] construct[ing] a bridge between faith and politics" and how thinking that it is
"already violates our humanity". Hauerwas would agree! I agree and this work has tired me today. I started to plan this elaborate post, intricately weaving together Albacete's quote, Gallagher's insights, and how they impinge on the political as depicted in
Milk. Alas, dear reader, I leave it to you to connect the dots.
Since I have introduced randomness into the post, I also thought today that sexuality must start from a positive hypothesis: marriage is a divine institution and sex is good. The fact that we are sexual, even those called to celibacy, is good. Our sexuality is our longing, it is a very transcendent part of our being human. Hence, it is complicated and can be both confusing and a bit ambiguous. This is why Pope Benedict's meditation on love in the first part of
Deus Caritas Est is so beautiful and moving. It is also why we often find sex, even when physically good, somewhat lacking. Such dissatisfaction arises from our disconnection with our destiny, our reason for being in the first place. St. Paul, whom we remember in a most vital way this year, teaches us that we must
"take every thought captive in obedience to Christ" (
2 Cor. 10:5).
