02/13/2026
In between giving talks at parishes and schools during our New York tour last week, the team had the chance to visit The Met Cloisters, a part of The Metropolitan Museam of Art which houses their collection of medieval European art and architecture. Turns out we chose the perfect time to visit because they are currently featuring an exhibit on love and s*x in the Middle Ages. And what a fascinating exhibit it was! To their credit, the curators at the Met chose some excellent artifacts to include in this exhibit. Made by Christian artisans over 500 years ago, these illuminated manuscripts, icons, and carvings show forth the wonder and beauty of love between man and wife and man and God. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), the exhibit falls short of the mark in the interpretation of the art contained therein: A staue depicting Christ and John the Beloved is said to have homos*xual overtones, the ecstasies of the saints are reduced to expressions of repressed s*xual desire, etc. The contrast we observed between the artifacts themselves and the intrepretation given to them by the museum is a great illustration of what St. Paul was getting at in 1 Corinthians 2:14.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
As Christians, we understand that human s*xuality is a pale reflection of the divine love in which we are called to participate. The curators at the Met, like most of the modern world, have an impoverished view of s*x which leads them to reduce all of love to base, animalistic desire. For us, rightly ordered s*xuality is the end. This vision of human love as a mirror of the divine is what drives us here at Generation Life, and our visit to the Met was a great reminder of that.