Aaron Jay Ledesma and presumption: Behold Francis Church

Aaron Jay Ledesma, the open and active homosexual who will be meeting with Pope Francis, writes:

"Some Catholics believe that there are only two choices when being gay:
Live a life of celibacy OR Live in sin & go to hell.

I realize that some Catholics urging the LGBTQ community to be celibate are doing it out of love and concern, and then there are others who hide behind their religion as a justification for their bigotry.

For the ones who are truly concerned with my soul and my relationship with God, this is how I try to explain it:

There are heterosexual, married, Catholic couples who use contraception. They don’t plan on stopping the use of contraception, and don’t really believe they are sinning. How do they reconcile that choice with God and their faith?
There are heterosexual Catholics who have gotten a divorce and remarried legally without getting an annulment from the Church. They still receive communion. They don’t plan on pursuing an annulment and don’t really believe what they’re doing is wrong. How do they reconcile that choice with God and their faith?
There are heterosexual couples, even married ones, who have sex for pleasure only. Some watch porn and give little thought to the gift of intimacy. How do they reconcile those choices with God and their faith?
My point is — being gay and in a same sex relationship has the same struggles as the ones I’ve listed above.

So, what do we all do?
We do the best we can.
We seek the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation.
We try our best to live our lives as closely to what God wants as we can.
We try to resist temptations and sins, but when we fall short, we seek God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace.

Please, when you see a gay couple, try not to focus on their acts of sex so that you ONLY see their sins.

Pray for me, but don’t pray for me because I’m gay.

My name is Aaron Jay Ledesma.
I’m from Houston, Texas.
I’m Catholic.
I’m gay.
I’m me."

Got that?  That, my friends, is presumption in a nutshell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that,  "There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit)." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2092).

Dr. Grisez explains that, "Remaining interested in God's promises and counting on him to keep them, those who sin by presumption continue to hope and even, to some extent, to shape their lives by hope. But, not consistently putting hope into practice, they abuse it, expecting pardon without repentance and the reward for following Jesus without the cost of discipleship. This unrealistic expectation is the essence of presumption. An element of pride underlies this sin. Rejecting God's terms for obtaining what he promises, the presumptuous expect to obtain it on their own. They suppose that God, like a blustery parent, threatens punishments which he will be too softhearted to carry out, and, like a permissive parent, accompanies his gift of freedom with a virtual guarantee to fend off the consequences of its irresponsible use. Such suppositions are inconsistent with faith, which not only depends on God's absolute truthfulness but also, assuring believers that God will do his part, calls them to do theirs, as grace empowers them to do.

However, the sin of presumption can be committed without denying any truth of faith. People determined not to fulfill the responsibilities of Christian life in some essential respect, yet, unwilling to face the prospective consequences, can resolve the tension by persuading themselves that somehow God will manage to save them despite themselves. This self-deception need not be logical enough to withstand critical reflection, since that is something the presumptuous manage to avoid...It also weakens hope. Rather than serving as the intention of all the choices which should make up Christian life, presumptuous hope renders many of them unnecessary and clears the way for a life-style apart from, and even sinfully at odds with, hope for the kingdom. Not being exercised, hope weakens as other interests grow strong. Eventually heaven, now taken for granted and regarded as irrelevant to present concerns, becomes a dim prospect, a mere fairyland which one used to yearn for but no longer finds exciting."

Mr. Ledesma wants us to believe that as long as heterosexual persons commit sexual sins, it's "okay" if homosexual persons do the same.  He would have us believe that gravely sinful acts may be reconciled with faith without any real attempt at conversion and that the Sacrament of Reconciliation (I prefer Penance) is still valid without a firm purpose of amendment.

This man gets to greet the Pope and I cannot, as an orthodox cradle Catholic faithful to the Magisterium who actually lives a celibate life, obtain even a response from this pope regarding my desire to discern a priestly vocation within my diocese.

Is there really a question as to where Francis is heading?  As to where he wants to take us?

Pray.  The Man of Sin nears.