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We reproduce for the edification of our readers the content of a post on Fr Z’s Blog in America—http://wdtprs.com/blog/2017/09/moving-feedback-from-a-gay-reader/—posted 22nd September 2017.
This is the kind of note that makes all the flak worthwhile:
“A thousand times, thank you for your blog. I’m a Catholic in no small part because of this blog. When I first entered the Church ten years ago, I fell under the influence of liberals who taught me it was OK to live in sin as a gay man. I fell away from the faith eventually. Through the years, my own conscience told me this was not the life I wanted to live. Your faithful words have supported my decision to leave the homosexualist life, that was death. I could tell I was on the slippery slope again you spoke of last Sunday. Today I went to Confession and the FSSP priest (which I also learned about from your blog) reminded me that though this cross is “big and bloody and difficult,” the Lord will help me bear it. Thank you for standing up for the truth on which I have staked my life and eternal salvation. Please pray for me, as I do for you.”
I am sure that God will bless this fellow a hundred fold for the suffering that he has had to endure in trying to live a good and holy life. It is hard for me to imagine the trials people with such attractions feel. However, I am convinced that if they bear their crosses and persevere, their place in heaven will be very high indeed.
Here’s another point.
When we fall and commit a sin, we can get back up again, go confession and move forward. I say the same thing to straight couples who may be living together in an irregular situation which, for some reason, they can’t change, as I might say to a same sex couple: live continently and be ready to suffer, don’t put yourselves in occasions of sin if you can help it, again be ready to suffer, use the sacraments well, use sacramentals to help to keep off the attacks of the Enemy of the soul.
If you fall… get back up and keep trying.
Our Church is for sinners. The only Church I want to belong to is the Church Christ gave to sinners. This is not the Church of the pure, only. We are all in this together.
If we ponder the gift Christ gave us as a Church, the effects of absolution are quite simply breathtaking.
With absolution, provided that you are sincere, that you’ve done your best to confess your mortal sins without intentionally hiding anything, that you want sincerely to amend your life, then…
Your sins are taken away, obliterated, gone from your soul never to be held against you. They are not merely covered over. They are eradicated forever. They are washed clean out of your soul by the Blood of the Lamb. You might remember them (with sorrow), but they are no longer yours. Penance must be done in reparation for them, but they have been irrevocably forgiven.
There is nothing that we little mortals can do that is so bad that that absolution given by the priest – who is Christ in that moment – can’t perfectly forgive. Therefore, never hold back.
With absolution also come graces not to sin in the future. God doesn’t just forgive us and forget us. His care is ongoing through graces. You can also call upon the baptismal and confirmed character that you have in time of temptation and trial…
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