Msg Base:  AREA 3  - ASK FATHER (AMDG)
  Msg No: 15.  Wed  7-29-92 22:14  (NO KILL)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: David Ondrejko
 Subject: your questions

DO|Father,
 
DO|        I have a few questions which I hope you will be able to answer
  |for me, or at least provide some insight on.
 
 
DO|        1) Did Christ have to die on the cross to provide us with
  |a means of salvation, or was there some other way open to him?
 
DO|        2) Which saint was it who commented that if it were the will
  |of God for him to go to hell, he would gladly do that?  What is the exact
  |quote if you can find it?
 
DO|        3) Is self-abuse categorized as a venial or mortal sin and
  |why?
 
DO|        Thank you in advance for your thoughts and time spent on these.
 
DO|                                                -- In Love,
  |                                                           David
 
 
 
Dear David,
 
With three questions, you get short answers!
 
Christ did not have to die to save us.  God could have chosen another
way--or left us in our sins: But God became a man, taking upon
himself the guilt and slave-condition of a criminal sinner.  He then
accepted the appropriate punishment, death.  Because this sacrificial
victim was God, His death was of infinite value.  He perfectly atoned for
all our sins.  If He had chosen a softer way, would we realize what we
do to ourselves when we sin?  Would we have any way to realize just
how much He really loves us? But now we do have a way--THE WAY--
because when we are still sinners, Christ DIED for us.
 
Perhaps--for your second question--you are thinking of St. Paul.  In
Romans 9:3, he wrote: "I could wish that I myself were accursed and
separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according
to the flesh."  So he described his anguish at his fellow Jews'
refusal to believe in Christ.
 
Archbishop Borders of Baltimore, in his 1987 pastoral, "On Human
Sexuality", writes: "Authentic human sexuality should open one
(person) to another in a deep and abiding relationship.  Masturbation
has within itself not even the possibility of such relationship.  It
is neither unitive nor procreative, and is merely sexual actuation
with very little true sexual meaning.  Masturbation is representative
of a degree of sexual immaturity and often begins during adolescence,
before real maturity is attained.  As maturity increases, one would
expect that the individual would begin to use the help of grace to
overcome this tendency."
 
God's grace comes to us through prayer and self-denial, through
taking up our cross daily to follow Christ.  Those who love Mary and
pray to her for help find that this pure and loving Mother gives them
what they need by the grace of her Son to achieve or to recover
purity of body and mind.
 
In itself, masturbation is a mortal sin because it negates the whole
purpose of one of our most sacred powers, the power to fashion
family and procreate human life.  But as Archbishop Borders writes:
Immaturity and habit can be serious factors which interfere with an
individual's freedom, thus lessening SUBJECTIVELY the moral
responsibility of a person ... therefore, one may realize that there
is reason to question the moral seriousness of each individual act,
and yet there is need to work toward real change in the situation if
the individual is to grow into moral maturity."
 
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
 
                                        Father Mateo
 
 
.ORIGIN: 043/001 - THE ANGELUS,      -the Word became flesh                     
                                and made his dwelling among us -                
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