On Family Life and Homosexuality

Homosexuals Live Difficult Lives…Nonetheless, they have a unique Vocation!

Topic on homosexuality is important in family life issues. Before one sees a homosexual person in the open, he / she is there existing within the context of the family. As our common impression of homosexuals suggests, we often regard them as strange individuals as someone to be dreaded from or make fun of. They are as if a virus that we must eliminate or an object of laugher or rejection.

But come to think of it, homosexual people live a very difficult and highly demoralizing life. And if he or she is Catholic, it is like adding insult to injury. Why? To be able to live a morally upright lives, a homosexual may force himself / herself marrying a person of opposite sex (in which he / she is not sexually attracted to) or become celibate in his/her whole lifetime. Straight men and women, as sexual persons could have a valid outlet of their sexual urges – they marry that person whom they felt attracted to, sexual attractions included. And it is moral. But in the case of homosexuals, they are only attracted to the person of the same sex, which in Catholic (or Christian) standard, is immoral. So, what option is left for them, but to become celibate. And if it is just the only option, we may not consider it as truly an option, but an imposition.

Indeed, homosexual persons need to be helped and assisted. They have the right to be treated as ordinary human persons, and not as objects of derision. There is a great challenge that poses in the life of a homosexual person.

Thus, this would bring me to next reflection – that to be a homosexual person is a real vocation. I believe that there were homosexual saints, there would be homosexuals to be proclaimed saints, and until now many homosexuals are struggling to be saints.

And if it is a vocation, one has to be open about it, not hiding one’s true identity inside the closet. He/she is called by God to witness a holy life – that after all his/her struggles to be pure and single-hearted, God would heap a great reward to his/her who remains faithful. People who are terminally ill of cancer or any dreadful disease would at one point complain to God, why of all people, he/she has to suffer in this way. Well, suffering in sickness is a special vocation. Homosexual people may also experience that same bitterness in their situations. We really do not know why it is like that. There are more mysteries in the world than comprehensible truths.

In this, I made distinctions. God calls him/her to witness his sexuality, not his/her homosexuality (which is connected to practicing his/her homosexual acts to the same sex). It is inspiring to see a known homosexual person practicing a very chaste and celibate life. They could become a model for people to temper their sexual libido and become pure in the eyes of God. That after all, to be a homosexual person, God does not condemn him/her, but it is just that He has given him/her a great calling so that His glory will shine in his/her life. And with that great calling comes a great responsibility. But with that great responsibility, comes a great reward.