**Disclaimer,.This post will be concerning pornography in case children are reading**
A few days ago, I was asked my opinion about pornography. Is it really that dangerous, and what's so wrong about it? Well for starters, no one at one time was a bigger pig and womanizer than I was. I looked at life like a giant playground and sought to fulfill every petty little fantasy I could ever have dreamed of! Working out of a gym had its perks, and I certainly partook of it. What was missing? Well for one thing my smile...actually my smile was there but for all the wrong reasons.
Why was I not happy? On the surfcace I was 'content,' moving from one sensual stimuli to the next, yet completely empty on the inside. Imagine a cat purring as you pet it, then you stop. The cat then stops purring, this is how society as a whole begun to view itself. 'Happiness was not 'Joy' as we understand it theologically, but simplistic 'contentment.' Pornography operates the same way inside a man's psyche. It emasculates a man, by offering up the sensual delight as the ideal,..only one problem though,..because that woman you see in the picture is stripped of her humanity by every chemical cocktail coursing through your brain(pituatary gland),..she becomes an object of lust, completely divorced from love. Stability is then removed and in its place a sort of addiction forms. So the 'ideal' ceases to be ideal and keeps changing so you can 'get off.' The man then has difficulty maintaining a normal relationship with any girl. Guys,..by the way, don't kid yourself,.this porn problem is an epidemic!
How does one get free from porn? Well, the first thing is to do is to acknowledge that its there. Society has given it a mainstream acceptability, that even driving on the autoroute, you'll see 'La Senza' ads with women in lingerie. Ask yourself honestly, can it be argued that there is a link between pornography, contraception and abortion? Honestly, I think this is a no brainer....The second thing to do, is to use prayer as a resource! Jesus came to save us, so that we could be free!!! (Are we really free guys when we look at porn on the 'Net with a box of kleenex beside us? I think in all actuality, we look pretty freakin' ridiculous!) Jesus knows our struggle and yes it will take time, but prayer is essential! Thirdly, a Spiritual Director or someone we can be accountable to. Every guy struggles with this, it is how we fight that is the issue. Saints are sinners who fall but don't stay down,..they get back up! My friend Bishop Tom Dowd told me that the Church is not a hotel for saints,..it is in fact a hospital for sinners!
Do we win the battle? Well Jesus already won it for us at Calvary. Yes, we do have the residue of original sin, but as long as we keep fighting, offering up our suffering(s) we too can share in this victory! I, myself am a 'work in progress' but through prayer, and accountability, I hope to get this issue under control. One trick I did recently, was to remove the condom in my wallet and replce it with a benedictine medal and a picture of my beautiful Goddaughter Bianca. As men, it is embedded into our character to be protective of those we love. If I even suspected some guy of looking at her a certain way,..I would be prone to disconnecting that dude's head from the rest of his body!
Our Lady Undoer of Knots,.............ora pro nobis.
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