Gospel For Gays

This experiential Jesus

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”….Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3, 15-16; and 21-22; reading for Sunday, January 10 2010.

Sexuality is not a cross

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” -Mark 8, 27-35; Gospel for Sunday, September 13.

This Gospel is difficult to swallow

Does the Lord of Life condemn us, exclude us from his heavenly banquet on the basis of this presumption?
I don’t think so.
I think – indeed, I know – that he is present to us in the hopeful silence of our hearts, transforming us and transforming our partnerships by his presence, making us fully a part of a new and unexpected creation where the old either-ors are confounded, and the ox and the lion lie down peacefully together.

Ten million

If there are 10 million gay Catholics, world-wide – what are the implications? I do the math, begin considering the implications of so important a fact, and in the process tell the story of a future Pope’s loving message to a gay priest.

Six Days That Changed My Life

In telling this story, I am not motivated by any sense of spiritual pride or sense of being somehow “special”. On the contrary, I am rather embarrassed to be telling it at all, it is so far removed from my earlier religious comfort zone, and so close to the demonstrative practices I used to deplore. If anyone else had told me something similar about themselves, I would have been hard pressed to believe it myself.

Which is the real scandal?

Coming out reconnects gay persons to spirituality, while attempting to live a false life that conforms to church teachings destroys our spirit. This experiential reality is a scandal to the conventional – but which is the true scandal? This life-giving gay experience? Or the frankly shameful views of two prelates, recounted in this week’s post?

Terrors of the night

(Mark 4, 35-41) On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be Still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Favorite Gospels

These six Gospels are my favorites and are the core texts from which this web site springs. They follow the arc of Jesus’s life beginning with an early healing that breaks the social ostracism of his day and end with his death cry. This is why I call these “favorites”…

Beyond Abundance

John 21.3-14 (cf. Luke 5.4-11) Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”  They said to him, “we will go with you.”  They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  [...]

Jesus Forsaken

Mark 15.33-39 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling [...]