Fertility and pleasure function as the two poles of human sexuality and, as such, reveal the truth about what it means to be an embodied being. Because we are made “in the image of God” (Gen 1:27), the God whose every work is described as “good” throughout the six days of creation, it should not surprise us that our own capacity to produce new life feels “good.” This intersection of doing and feeling is a hallmark of our earthly existence in the way that it makes us participants in the flow of life and serves as a signpost for authentic engagement with the world around us. Nevertheless, such an awesome responsibility—of being real and genuinely in-the-flesh like Jesus—can be a source of anxiety that leads to imbalance: perhaps we fall into the trap of being puritanical and our fertility becomes something sterile and unrecognizeable, incapable of producing new life. Or, maybe our lustful hearts have us forgetting that we necessarily depend upon others for meaning and our so-called pleasure simply becomes an exercise in self-gratification, incapable of any transcendent feeling at all. Let’s spend this week being awkward and vulnerable on the road to an integrated sexuality. With Jesus, we shall learn how to be fruitful, to multiply, to rejoice, and to be glad again and again and again and for all of eternity. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
