God Doesn't Need.

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: No, I Won't Be Muslim · New blog on the kid: God Doesn't Need.

In His own nature, as distinct from the human nature God the Son made also His own, God does not need.

Jacques Arnould stated "God doesn't need proofs" in his recent book, the French title of which translated this phrase. Or rather, he put "proofs" in scare quotes, as we call them in English.

A certain Pasolini is succeeding Cantalamessa as Predicatore della Casa Pontificia.

The second video I see involving him, just in the feed, states (obviously to someone gay or lesbian), "God doesn't need to change you" ...

God doesn't need, period.

WE need proofs for God, so that those turning away from Him should be without excuse.

For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable
[Romans 1:20]

Is it nobler to walk in faith than to wait and postpone all assent till one has examined these proofs, as Jacques Arnould stated in his book? Certainly. But God does not want to save only the souls like St. Mary Magdalene or St. John the Beloved (or St. John of Zebedee, they are probably different persons), or St. Peter who came first to the Empty Tomb. And even St. John the Beloved saw the Sindone, the Shroud, as well as the Sudarium.

And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead
[John 20:7-9]

The point is not that God needs proofs, the point is that we need them.

Similarily, a person who practises sexual acts with persons of his own sex, it's not so much God who needs him to change, it's he who needs it.

Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God
[1 Corinthians 6:9-11]

If someone steals great sums of money from a person, God doesn't need him to pay back, as best he can, it's he who needs it. And the same is also true of those who commit sexual sins with persons, with whom they cannot amend the situation by marrying them. They need to stop having that sex, with that person. It's up to them whether they prefer marrying (someone who knows their emotional problem, not someone they are hiding it from) or whether they prefer celibacy, I know one gay man who stays chaste, and is by the way sometimes not well seen by the gay community for that. How they cease is up to them. But if they are not to lose the glory they were created for (yes, every man is created for glory, even if not all attain it), they need to stop one way or the other.

The change is not something God needs for Himself, it's something He wants for His glory, He's providing what graces they need. In some cases it may involve a marriage (between a man and a woman), even while some sexual temptations other than desires for the licit marital act still hanker to persons of the own sex. I know at least one man who previously did so, for long enough to have four daughters (and perhaps could have continued, if he hadn't been a marriage counsellor) and one woman who currently lives like that. In some cases, the preference changes first, and please note, spontaneously. I'm no believer in conversion therapy as the word is usually understood, as I'm no believer in therapy anyway. In some cases, a person succeeds in being celibate. And as for Oscar Wilde, I hope that he succeeded in truly repenting the last moments of his life or of when he was last conscious, before the priest came to give him extreme unction.

Meanwhile, God doesn't need, and didn't need to create to be perfectly happy. He is already One God in Three Persons, totally loving each other, and totally happy in that love, which does not need even sex to express itself. Therefore, when you see someone saying "God doesn't need X" about sth which was universally taken for granted as meritorious, that someone is bamboozling. The point was never that God needed it. The point is that we need it. However, one proviso. God doesn't need us, as God. However, taking on human nature, God took on the ability to need, for instance, during His earthly life, a glass of water, or for instance, even now, in Heaven, our love.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Nicolas of Myra, after first Vespers
5—6.XII.2024

Myrae, quae est metropolis Lyciae, natalis sancti Nicolai, Episcopi et Confessoris, de quo, inter plura miraculorum insignia, illud memorabile fertur, quod Imperatorem Constantinum ab interitu quorumdam se invocantium, longe constitutus, ad misericordiam per visum monitis deflexit et minis.