Directing Desire

Sexual desire is a calling, it is an awakening to the holy call to union.

When we feel that desire in us we naturally seek the other.
The other is the place that union with God will be found.

As Christ desires the Church, so we desire each other, as He designed.

We are pulled toward each other and the fulfillment of that desire should culminate in the marital
embrace where it is directed upward and it bears fruit.

When we feel that desire and we then direct it at something other than the fruitful embrace of marriage,
we are not answering the call. We are putting it off, or putting ourselves first.
God calls us to the embrace and when we put something between ourselves and the fruitful embrace,
it is a misdirection or a disordered desire. When we direct or encourage the desire toward anything
other than the gift of that union, we are inhibiting Grace.

The Grace flows from the sacramental union, in the same way that it flows from the Eucharist.

We cannot have a true romance that is anything short of the total gift of self, because Christ did not hold
any of Himself back from us. He is the whole and entire Spouse.

In season 1, episode 2 of Amazon's “Legion”- David Haller, the main character, is in love with Syd,
Because of her "power" she can’t be touched. In one scene David says “I just want to hug you”
and Syd says “you know that’s not possible.” Then she says “we’ll have a romance of the mind”
and he agrees, but the desire is obviously still there, still burning in him.

A “romance of the mind” is an incomplete romance. Chastity is always ordered toward union. Either
the bodily union of marriage, or the lifelong union to Christ, in religious life.

In mastering our desires, we are still acknowledging them. We seek that one that we will unite with in
the sacramental embrace, but the embrace is the ultimate goal.

In the romance between Christ and the Church, there is a physical gift of self and a holy reception of
that gift. A romance of the soul is like a chaste engagement, the union of the bodies should be the
ultimate goal.

In a Christianity that is only Spiritual, there is an incomplete romance.

We can look at David and in a way we see Jesus.

He wants to touch us, but for so many people the only thing possible is a “romance of the mind”.

A romance of the mind is a beautiful first step, but it is never the ultimate goal.

Christ wants to touch us, to have the physical union that is the ultimate goal.

There are those who say that priests shouldn’t have to forego sexual intimacy,
and yet many of these people are foregoing the ultimate goal of Christ with His Bride!