“For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
Because the turning of one’s back to God is something contrary to nature, for all things naturally incline to the praise and worship of God: “For to know thee is perfect justice: and to know thy justice, and thy power, is the root of immortality” (Wisdom 15:3). In leaving the sanctuary of God’s merciful love, the devil then has free reign to sow seeds of discord, leading to other actions contrary to what one is made for. Now, St. Paul calls these “shameful affections” because they are beneath human dignity to commit: You are made for extraordinary love and righteousness: “The fruit of the Spirit [of love] is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity” (Galatians 5:22-23), to exhibit a supernatural love, not a burning lust that lasts but moments. Now, sins of lust alone are not worthy of human dignity, for they resemble what is natural to animals, “And God created man to his own image” (Genesis 1:27). Sexual actions that cannot even naturally yield children fall to a place that is lower than animal actions, for which no one was made. Now, it is interesting to wonder why people are given to such actions, the answer for which is a lack of love. People burn with lust that they may grasp desperately for love, and homosexual relations are particularly prevalent in those whose parent of the same sex was absent or unloving. Therefore, they rush to others of their sex to experience the love that they did not receive. O hearts, so broken, so needing love! Your longing for affection has overridden what is according to right reason, and now you find yourselves grasping after that which cannot mend your heart, but further hurts your o so beautiful heart. The same is seen in transgenderism: The only reason someone descends to such an action is that they hate themselves to the point of wanting to rebuild themselves as something completely different from who they are naturally. Jesus looks on the lost with eyes of such compassionate pain: “And seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them: because they were distressed, and lying like sheep that have no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Now, the Apostle has designated sexual immorality as a consequence of idolatry. The book of Wisdom supports this: “For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life” (Wisdom 14:12). You, dear Theophila, if you care to set the captives free from their yokes of sin, have a twofold mission: To plants seeds of love in the hearts you come across that have given themselves to such things, that it may grow into a full expression of divine love: “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the hair come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32); and to pray. “All the gods of the Gentiles are devils” (Psalm 95:5), and there is nothing to be done against devils but to pray: “Turn back the evils upon my enemies; and cut them off in thy truth” (Psalm 53:7). There are many great weapons against the ways of devils, but the Psalter is filled with psalms of war: “Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war” (Psalm 143:1). Those that are given to lust are living a life of punishment, as St. Paul here says, and it is the duty of saints to extend the kingdom of God beyond what has been predestined. O love that pulls God to extend His love ever farther! He knows He cannot resist you and your love, thus He says, “Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away” (Song 6:4) to souls that need My merciful love, which I will grant in abundance to you, o dear spouse of God. “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), but “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea” of the world of sin “And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Apocalypse 13:1-7). If all are called to be saints, look to your brothers and sisters that are overcome by the beast, and free them by extraordinary LOVE. Grasp your rosary! Pick up your Psalter! Cry out to God always for those who need the divine love in you: “For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3). Suffer any trial, risk your life for the sake of one little soul that is enslaved by devils: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), for “He that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). Love calls you out of yourself for its sake, therefore go! “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send? And who shall go for us?’ And I said: ‘Lo, here am I, send me” (Isaias 6:8).