A Painful Conflict
Advocate Carl Siciliano recounts how relationship with his LGBTQ community has often placed him at odds with what Christian churches have taught:
The love I discovered in God when I was younger was wild and boundless. But as I grew up and grew into my queerness, I had to reckon with some heavy questions. How could leaders of a religion devoted to a God of love vilify my community? Why must they value their dogmas over the lives of God’s queer children? How could the spiritual tradition that nurtured my early years of service be the very same entity that so recklessly brought devastation upon the young people in my care?
Now an answer began to present itself: What if I was not meant to turn away from this conflict but in fact called upon to confront it? What if I was meant to witness the devastation inflicted on LGBT youths and use my voice for truth, to cry out that such cruelties are not the way of Christ?…
Thomas Merton wrote of an “eternal conflict” [1] within Christianity—a conflict between those who become self-righteous and judgmental of the sins of others and those who learn to humbly accept their essential unity with their fellow humans. I hope the Church will come to such humility and repent of the terrible harm it has done to queer people, especially queer children. I don’t know if I will live to see that. All I know is I cannot imagine how the harmful elements of the Church can be healed if I cannot uproot the rage and division in my own heart. I’m tired of being angry.
Over three decades, Siciliano has supported LGBTQ youth suffering from addiction, rejection, and heartbreak. He witnesses their grief through his understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection:
As a teenager, I longed to see the face of Christ with my own eyes. I spent many, many hours in prayer and meditation, desperate to catch a glimpse of my beloved God. That longing has changed. For I have seen the face of the crucified Christ, over and over again, for decades. I saw Christ when Cheri was choked with tears in the SafeSpace kitchen. I saw Christ when Ali sat with me in sorrow at the subway station, and when I looked into the stunned, grief-stricken eyes of KJ, Rashon, and so many other young people as they told me how it felt to be abandoned by family and sleep in the streets.
For the better part of my life, I have looked upon the broken Christ, the Christ of the persecuted, the Christ bound to us in our desolation. Now my deepest yearning is to see the healing of their wounds, the binding up of what was broken, the wiping away of every tear, the “making all things well.”
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| Avoiding Sin Isn’t the Goal |
 We should not read Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 as a full view of the final judgment. In fact, we would be foolish to view any of his parables as complete theological treatments. They exist, in most cases, to make a single, surprising point about the topic at hand rather than a comprehensive argument. Therefore, it’s incorrect to assume that our care or neglect of the poor will be the only dimension of God’s judgment.Understanding that, we must not diminish the gravity of Jesus’ warning either. Notice that the “goats” on the King’s left side are condemned for their sins of omission rather than their sins of commission. Their guilt did not stem from what they did, but for what they failed to do. In many religious communities, people are preoccupied, even fixated, upon their transgressions (and especially the transgressions of others). As a result, they make the Christian life little more than a sin-avoidance program. The goal simply becomes not actively participating in evil. This is a very low bar. It’s like celebrating an Olympic swimmer for crossing the pool without drowning. In the parable just before the judgment of the sheep and goats, Jesus told of a “wicked” servant who buried his master’s talents (a sum of money) in the ground. He did not lose his master’s money, but he didn’t do anything productive with it either. The same theme is repeated in the King’s judgment of the goats. They are not condemned because they have committed evil acts, but because they have failed to commit good ones. Likewise, merely avoiding moral calamity is not what we are called to as Jesus’ disciples. Instead, we are to use the love and power he has graced us with for the blessing of others and the healing of his world. It is not the sins we are tempted to commit that ought to frighten us, but the acts of justice we are never inspired to attempt. DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 25:31-46 MATTHEW 25:14-30 WEEKLY PRAYERFrom an African Christian O God, enlarge my heart that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of your love. Stretch my heart that it may take into it all those who with me around the world believe in Jesus Christ. Stretch it that it may take into it all those who do not know him, but who are my responsibility because I know him. And stretch it that it may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes, and whose hands I do not want to touch; through Jesus Christ, my Savior. Amen. |
