When reflecting on people who are ‘different’ to what I am accustomed to, I would in my simple attempt to be broadminded, sometimes ask: What can be wrong about the way they are if love is involved?
Even though my intention around asking this question could be seen as admirable – I soon realised I was not asking the right question.
Why? Because asking what is wrong automatically assumes that the opposite is right. Placing parameters around behaviours makes me feel comfortable – it helps me determine who’s in and who’s out. But what are these parameters based on? Ultimately, they are based on patriarchal laws that have been blindly accepted throughout the centuries. Many of us are aware that an ‘Untruth sufficiently repeated becomes a truth’. Within Church as well as society we have become accustomed to taking on board what our religious and political leaders place before us. Those with the loudest voices smother the thoughts and doubts of others. This is not good.
It is important to note that before we can move on to new revelations we need to reflect on our old self and be willing to ask the hard questions. We must be able to put off the old self with its distorted perception of God and reality and become a new person. This can be quite a frightening enterprise.
Allow me to relate the above by giving an example of two people of the same sex orientation sharing an intimate relationship. Rather than ask how this can be wrong when they clearly love one another, the better question to ask is: What are the fruits of their relationship?
True love has nothing to do with sexuality – it has everything to do with quality. If the relationship is life giving and brings out the best in both partners, if it is supportive, respectful and loving, then how can it not be of God?
A good friend of mine refers to the ‘fingerprint of God’. God’s goodness and love are the key ingredients to all we experience. Asking right or wrong questions focuses on laws and keeps us stuck in an immature faith cycle. It is imperative that we gain a deep grounding in our faith. Just as the past and present prophets have done, we need to listen to our inner authority, rather than just simply follow what is regarded as norm within our society and Church. God’s fingerprint is present wherever we see creation flourishing – this flourishing continues even in death. We cannot always see this because we tend to focus more on the material than the spiritual. This, then, is why many fear the prospect of dying.
So what does this mean for our Inclusive Catholics community? In today’s Gospel Jesus refers to signs. Signs are symbols - conveying through what is seen, a level of meaning and reality that always remains unseen, but that is nonetheless very much present. Symbols such as the bread and wine are used to convey complexity and richness.
Among the symbols with which liturgy deals, none is more important than the assembly of believers. The most powerful experience of the sacred is found in the celebration and the persons celebrating; that is, it is found in the action of the assembly: the living words, the living gestures, the living sacrifice, the living meal.
Inclusive Catholics not only gather as a community to receive nourishment through the Word of God and the presence of each other, but also to express their acceptance of one another and receive acceptance from one another. This is the true bread of life.
Thus even though these gatherings are seen by the ‘Official Church’ as being “outside of the Church”, and we may well all be ex-communicated for not following official Church Doctrine - we know, feel and experience that we are very much part of the Church that Jesus Christ would have accepted, loved and been part of. Our community holds each and every person respectfully as the holy and sacred people we are.
There is a genuine acceptance of the diversity of those coming together – whether they are divorced, of the same sex orientation, bi-sexual or who, for whatever reason, simply feel rejected by the mainstream Church. For some there is dissatisfaction about how women are treated, others feel excluded by the lack of inclusive language in the Liturgy or the authoritarian nature of the hierarchical church, as well as the cover-up issues surrounding the sexual abuse scandal. We each have a role to play in making God’s presence tangible to all. As such Inclusive Catholics is about allowing the reality of who we are to truly emerge. We know we don’t have all the answers and we certainly know we are not without blemish. But we are constantly searching for the truth within and we long to be the community that Jesus Christ intended when he said: “All are welcome at my table.”
In the Old Testament it is the Wisdom Literature that wrestles with the difficult questions of life. It is quite a humbling experience as engaging with issues of one’s life in particular and society in general is not a matter of swallowing baby food. Hard chewing and digesting is required. We live in a structured system of inequality – the hard reality of life is that this is exactly the community in which we must function.
The Truth of Christian Tradition is a profound acceptance of who we are. And this is the core message that comes to me from today’s readings. We are all called to holding the communion – accepting all as the holy and sacred persons we are. Anything that breaks or destroys this is not of God. The challenge for each and every one of us is to ask ourselves how we can avoid this happening. To support us in this challenge we have been given the Bread of Life that is before us – it is now up to us to take it and wholeheartedly absorb it.