Before it became treatable, I looked after a number of men dying of end-stage AIDS. I met several gay men who looked after their partners or friends during a really awful illness with total love and commitment, often at considerable risk to themselves. They had seen many of their friends, and sometimes other partners, die, and they were doing this with fully open eyes. Many had developed an extraordinary depth. Their gay relationship had led them to a deep love, true until death. Since then I have struggled to understand how God would not accept such a relationship, indeed love it, how it could be intrinsically disordered. Similarly with many remarried divorcees, where regularising their position may sometimes be far from straightforward.
We often talk of the centrality of the Eucharist in Christian life, yet we also now say it is not that vital, you can still be part of the communion without. Christ shared bread and wine with Judas, who he knew would betray him, and Peter, whom he foretold would deny him. We somehow manage to make the ever-surprising Good News sound so technical and dreary. Is there a greater sin than that?