The Olympic Games: Athletes test their natural, well-disciplined physical virtues. One woman trained six hours every day, six days a week to qualify for the Olympics. Yet, if any athlete takes steroids they would be disqualified, because they dis-obeyed the rules and spirit of the Games.
Many athletes, even high school athletes, have damaged themselves by taking steroids to “win”, but that defeats the purpose. The goal of winning does not justify the means of taking drugs to win. This is an essential moral principle: The means (taking illegal drugs) does not justify the end or goal (winning). That is why athletes undergo drug testing – to maintain the integrity of the Games.
Jesus does some testing of his own. In today’s Gospel, Jesus asked Philip how to feed the crowd, and it adds “He said this to test” Philip. (Jn. 6:1-2). Christ not only tested him but all his disciples, including us. Do we trust him to help us feed the crowd? Hunger is no “game,” it is about life and death.
The Apostles almost fail the test if it were not for the boy who listened closely to Jesus when he asked Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” The boy offers in faith all that he had: five loaves and two fish.
The Apostles now show their obedient faith when they respond to Christ’s request, “Have the people recline.” Christ received the five loaves and two fish given to him in faith, hope and love, “gave thanks” and performs a miracle. He provides food for five thousand, with twelve baskets left over, helping the twelve Apostles understand that they were to be the leaders of the New Israel in place of the Old Israel that had twelve tribes.
But after this miracle Jesus walks away, another test. He walked away because the people wanted to make him their King of natural gifts. But Jesus has come to usher in the fullness of God’s supernatural life of salvation through his Catholic Church’s seven Sacraments. These supernatural gifts are given to us through his one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church, purchased by his suffering, death and resurrection and the command, “Do this in memory of me,” which is the means to meet all our natural and supernatural needs, if we have sufficient faith, hope and love.
How is Jesus testing us today? He wants us to trust him that a holy life and the moral passing on of human life in the Catholic faith for us and our children is the essential means to attain the goal of heaven. By following God’s design of human sexuality and staying in Holy Communion with God through the seven Sacraments of the Church, we can assuredly attain heaven.
The dignity of human life and the transmission of life was addressed in Pope Paul VI encyclical letter Humanae Vitae fifty-six years ago. It reminded all Christians and people of good will that God is the immediate giver of life and thus we need to obey God’s rules of passing on that gift of life. Jesus spoke through St. Pope Paul VI, and many other saints, regarding the evil consequences of using artificial contraception.
The use of artificial contraception is objectively a mortal sin, since it says “No” to God’s purpose of sexual intimacy to both unite and potentially give new life to a baby. God’s gift of fully express-ing human sexuality is designed to be enjoyed only in marriage between a man and a woman who are open to the two-fold purpose of God’s gift of sexuality: the celebration of the couple’s union of marriage, and an openness to new life, a baby made directly and immediately by God in his divine image and likeness.
Because the worldly did not heed Jesus’ teaching through his Church, the prophesies of Pope Paul VI have come true. He and other erudite ethicists warned that if you take away the true purpose or end goal of human sexuality by using contraception you will have greater infidelity and divorce, greater unwed pregnancies and the breakdown of the family, all of which contributes to poverty, confusion and violence – especially the violence of abortion.
Before the so-called “sexual revolution” of the 1960’s which promoted hedonism and less discipline, the divorce rate was at about 15%, and about 75% of our citizens were going to Church or Synagogue every weekend. The American family was strong, contraception and abortion were generally illegal, and despite the scourge of some racism, people knew that spiritual discipline within the family was essential to strong family life.
Now the divorce rate is about 50% and only 20% of our country is obeying God’s 3rd Commandment –Remember to keep holy the Sabbath. Can you imagine if we gave God just 2.5 hours every day to prayer, study, evangelization and service? We definitely would be well-trained spiritual Olympians to attain the greatest goal and reward that last forever!
Olympians sacrifice and give much to attain natural, physical virtues, and we commend them. Jesus himself, the Son of God, gave himself 100% upon the cross to win redemption for those who, with the divine virtues of faith, hope and love, repent and seek his holiness. That is why we worship and follow him since he is the only means to our heavenly Father, for Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jn. 14:6.
To help us follow him, Jesus gives himself totally to us through his Catholic Church in Holy Communion, the Divine Eucharist, and wants us to respond 100% with the supernatural virtue of the Catholic faith. In this way, Christ assures us that we have chosen the correct means to the ultimate goal – to win a place in heaven by the way we love God and others here on earth.
With Natural Family Planning (NFP) a couple needs to give themselves 100% to God and one another in planning the size of their family in a safe, natural, spiritual and morally acceptable way. That is why the Catholic Church promotes NFP, for it builds up the physical and spiritual relationship of the couple and families. Since the marital embrace needs to be a celebration of both the unifying and procreative dimensions of the covenant of marriage, contraception is wrong since it tries to separate the unifying dimension from the procreative dimension.
The gravest consequence of people not celebrating the true goal of human sexuality by following God’s purpose of unity and procreativity is the violent, non-solution of abortion. Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider, has admitted that 50% of abortions occur because artificial contraception failed. And yet, some public high schools are making artificial contraception freely available to students, promoting that evil contraceptive attitude. Also, condoms cannot prevent HPV, AIDS and many other sexually transmitted diseases, which is a major cause of 20% infertility among childbearing age couples. (There are natural causes of in-fertility, but through NaPro Technology, remedies have been developed by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers of the Saint Pope Paul VI Institute. Connect with them online for information).
The boy in today’s Gospel believed in Jesus and gave him all that he had, the Apostles followed in faith, and Jesus received this trust and miraculously fed the crowd of five thousand with natural food. Jesus later gave himself totally at the Last Supper to his apostles in the divine Eucharist with the promise of being with them and us until the end of the world and said, “Do this in memory of me.” He then sealed his promise by giving his all on the Cross, to rise as the Everlasting Champion over sin and death by winning for us the supernatural food of Eternal Life - the Eucharist.
Truly, we can only receive the benefits of Christ in Holy Communion when we believe fully in the Catholic faith. Well-disciplined as authentic disciples, we can be assured of our passing the spiritual test with the grace and knowledge of the real solution to our individual and societal problems – giving our all to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist with faith, hope and love.
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