Jordan Paul

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
— St. Augustine

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. . . . And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
—Galatians 5:16-17, 24

Friends,

As I was sitting at my desk fighting writer’s block, I received a notification that Fr Ben Crosby had posted a new piece on his Substack—On Crucifying the Desires of the Flesh. After reading it and deciding there was some good material in it for this piece, I did what any good Christian would do: texted it to someone and proceeded to have an argument about it.

The argument I had was not a new one and has been and will continue to play out across group chats, social media, one-on-one conversations, and churches across the world. It’s an argument about to what extent, if any, the Church should provide moral guidance to Christians and the world. Proponents of such an argument run up against those who would rather see the Church shrink back and simply bless whatever decisions any individual person decides is best for them.

If you spend any amount of time online (I don’t recommend it), you’ll quickly learn that adult converts get a bad rap. It’s not totally undeserved and quotes about the zeal of converts exist for a reason. They’re not all bad though—I’m one of them.

Part of what drew me to the Church—and part of what has drawn a lot of the young converts that I know or know of—is the draw of a philosophy that is at odds with the modern world, the radical hope that comes from Jesus, and the unshakeable truth of the Gospel.

In private confession we examine our consciousnesses and then confess the same things, month after month, year after year. It’s frustrating. But it’s also hopeful. We come in every time with the same trepidation and we leave every time with the same hopeful reassurance. But first, we must know what it is, and why it is, we are confessing.

In Christ,

—Jordan