Joyless

From time to time Providence arranges for me an experience to remind that me that whatever the troubles, sufferings, doubts and sorts of loneliness I unknowingly bought for myself when I trotted out of the basement of Freeman Hall in my combat boots and blue tie, walked down Williams St. to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Quaker Hill and got myself baptized, I could never go back to the world.

The other night I went down to the friary TV room to hang out with the assembled brethren. An interview show was on, and the great interviewer was talking to a celebrity. The interview was very striking to me in a couple of ways.

First, it was clear to me that they had nothing to talk about. They kind of just sat there, toying with another, jabbing and making fun, in a way that might have been playful at least had it not been so joyless.

Second, I was struck by how the three questions, 'Who are you sleeping with?' 'Will you ever get married?' and 'Do you want children?' had no relationship to each other. Here is exposed the error of the world: sex, marriage, and generativity have no intrinsic connection, only an accidental one. The 'contraceptive mentality' is an ordinary presumption. It's one of the reasons that the human being as sexual creation is so fragmented and subject to so much alienation and misery in our culture. It's also why the world can only see the defense of so-called 'traditional marriage' as bigoted and 'homophobic.'

So let's pray for everyone, Christians and otherwise, who live the joylessness of the world. And let us thank God for the reminders he gives us of the salvation we have received in Christ.