The liberating message of the Gospels
The eighth chapter of the gospel of St John records a nasty spat between Jesus and his opponents (the Pharisees are mentioned, but we can assume that the priests and lawyers are also included). Which is hardly surprising, if the opening scene to chapter 8 (possibly a later insertion to the Johannine text) is anything to go by. Jesus had just saved a woman from a summary trial – for adultery – and the seemingly inevitable sentence that awaited her, death by stoning. This unforeseen move by Jesus must have really riled them, because he not only succeeded in freeing the woman, but also himself from the trap that they had set for him. Clearly Jesus and his message were sending shock-waves across Jewish society; he was perceived as a threat to the established civil and religious elite.
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Midway in chapter 8, Jesus makes a truly remarkable statement:
If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (8:31b-32)
And continues just a couple of verses further down with the even more uplifting words:
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (8:36)
The contradiction in the restrictive Vatican teaching on homosexuality
To this gay Catholic priest these words are a spiritual boost. Seeking the truth, or knowing it, is a very relevant issue in the sphere of queer theology, and it’s not the first time that, even here on QTC, the matter has been raised. I chose to explain briefly the context to the above quoted texts because that context is not dissimilar to the one obtaining today. We can observe an increasingly polarised environment where, on the one hand we have a motley assembly of religious and political interest groups (let’s put the Catholic hierarchy with this bunch, for argument’s sake), and on the other hand, wider society mainly lay but including a number of religious and political figures who are challenging the status quo, not simply on homosexuality, but on a number of issues. Is there a way out of this polarisation? What’s making it so hard for those who are clinging on to the old paradigm to accept the reality on the ground? Isn’t the truth self-evident?
Well, perhaps it’s not self-evident. Were that the case, how are we to explain the following quotation from the CDF 1986 letter to the bishops Homosexualitas Problema (HP)?
18. The Lord Jesus promised, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (Jn. 8:32). Scripture bids us speak the truth in love (cf. Eph. 4:15). The God who is at once truth and love calls the Church to minister to every man, woman and child with the pastoral solicitude of our compassionate Lord. It is in this spirit that we have addressed this Letter to the Bishops of the Church, with the hope that it will be of some help as they care for those whose suffering can only be intensified by error and lightened by truth.
How ironic that this final advice on the truth comes at the end of a lengthy invective against homosexuality and the efforts of those who are seeking to ‘normalise’ it. It makes one want to scream out: physician, heal yourself! How about accepting once and for all the scientific evidence about human sexuality! You are the source of our suffering, and not homosexuality.
The nature of truth and faith
The above example from HP is as good as one can find to show explain why questions of truth are more complex than first meets the eye. Truth here is somewhat different from truth in, say, mathematics, logic or physics. The findings of the human sciences – psychology, sociology, and anthropology in particular – have contributed to a greater understanding of how sexual orientation and identity take their place in the complexity of the human person, but certainty in these sciences is achieved in a different way from, say, mathematics. Decriminalising and depathologising same-sex behaviour has made it easier for gays and lesbians to come forward, put down their masks, and live life to a greater degree of normality. This has helped immensely because it became possible for the human sciences to study patterns of human behaviour in a way that was not really possible before. When we look closely at these steps forward, we slowly begin to realise that the truth is being uncovered (or discovered?).
Harder to match – at least in certain circles – have been the efforts to remove the moral condemnation attached to same-sex activity. Why does moral truth on human behaviour not allow itself to be informed and formed by the truth that we receive from other sources? At least in Christian circles, the Bible is often cited as the source of moral truths, and there are those who base their judgement concerning homosexual behaviour on a specific interpretation of certain scripture texts. In the case of the Catholic Church, the hierarchy goes one step further and points to its own Tradition and teachings for the reasons why homosexual behaviour is wrong.
I have been trying to understand the grounds for this impasse by reflecting on how truth and faith work on each other. The link between the two is trust. Faith is not simply a mental (or heartfelt) acceptance of certain doctrinal statements as being true. The underlying presumption is that one believes the authority/person making these statements. So, in the sphere of religion, the relationship between the believer and the authority making religious claims is of the utmost importance. If the authority cannot be trusted (i.e. cannot be believed), then it’s going to be hard to believe the pronouncements made. In other words, I have to believe you to believe the truth of what you say. If I cannot believe you, then I cannot really believe what you say. The argument applies in the opposite direction too, that is to say that the authority making religious claims is not trusting (believing) the persons – in this case gay and lesbian believers – who are coming forward with their experiences of faith in God. If we hope to grow in our faith, we can wait until the Church hierarchy comes round to believing us. We have to root our experiences in our experience of the Lord.
Moral authority and the Church
In the debate between Jesus and the Pharisees; the latter would not accept Jesus’ teaching because, for various reasons, they would not accept him and what he stood for. They would not believe him. On the other hand, there were persons who believed Christ, saw the congruence between what he taught and their life experience and therefore were open to receive his message. Let’s now look at what’s happening in the Church in our time. Clearly there is sharp drop in the Church’s moral authority. The sexual abuse crisis, and the cover-up that accompanied it; the constant refusal to acknowledge the findings of science on same-sex attraction and love, as well as on other issues relating to human sexuality, such as contraception; the silencing of those voices demanding engagement with the whole of the church on the issue of female and married clergy have all eroded the belief/trust that the wo/man in the street has in the persons that form the Church’s authoritative voice. If we look at our own situation as queers, we can easily understand what the issue is all about. The teaching of the hierarchy on homosexuality (well, on sexuality in general) is not the truth that sets us free. On the contrary it is perceived to be a lie: first and foremost about us as persons, and secondly about our experience of life. We can see the enormous difference between how we perceive our love, our relationships and our life experiences, and how those in the Church leadership try to label and describe the very same love, relationships and experiences. We know from our own experiences that to follow Church teaching in this area is suicidal psychologically and spiritually, and sometimes literally so too.
The contribution of gay Catholics: live truthfully in the Spirit
Is it possible those in power fail to realise that the Spirit of him who said that “the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” dwells in us too? Isn’t the Spirit of Jesus – the Holy Spirit – not also the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17; 16:13)? It is for this reason that we have been given the Holy Spirit, as individuals and together as a community of believers. It is the Spirit’s mission to lead us into all truth. And I believe it is this that is happening right now in the move towards a renewed understanding of human sexuality and love, not least same-sex love. Need I repeat it again? In John’s words:
You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. … [T]he anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:20,27)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes this understanding when it says in paragraph 904 (itself referring to Lumen Gentium 35):
“Christ … fulfils this prophetic office, not only by the hierarchy … but also by the laity. He accordingly both establishes them as witnesses and provides them with the sense of the faith [sensus fidei] and the grace of the word.”
At the risk of repeating myself, it is important to realise that we (every single member of the Church) play an extremely important part in discovering the truth, or uncovering it, whether the Church hierarchy likes to admit or not. The caveat however is, that our knowledge of the truth is very much grounded in our relationship with the Lord. It is Jesus’ Spirit in us who can effectively guide us into the whole truth. And no set of weird and implausible doctrines will do. It is not such teachings (which, in any case, are not part of the core of our faith) that determine our status within the Church, our membership in God’s family. Rather, our belonging is based on our identity, as baptised members of the Church. And that identity is rooted in the person of Christ, not in this or that teaching. I am reminded of Paul’s words:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
It is this new creation, this new identity in Christ, which is the source of both our truth and our freedom:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)
A closing comment on the debate in John chapter 8. Whereas the Jewish religious (and political) establishment tried to claim their own authority on the basis of their Abrahamic succession, Jesus pointed out a different line of succession, and that it is this line of succession – based on faith, and now rooted in him – that ultimately establishes one’s identity, my own identity as a gay person in the face of those who seek to sideline me because of my queer status. Knowing this truth is what sets me free.
Related Posts at QTC:
- “Speaking the Truth” on Catholic LGBT Inclusion
- “Speak the Truth in Love?” No, says Archbishop Dolan
- Speak the Truth in Love: Write Your Bishop.
- Excluded From God’s People? (A discussion of the CDF Homosexualitatis Problema)
- Sebastian Moore, On The Transformation of Catholic Responses to Homoerotic Love
Suggested reading:
Gay Theology Without Apology (Gary D Comstock)
Take Back the Word: A Queer Reading of the Bible (ed Robert Goss)
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News? (Rev Peter Gomes)
The Queer Bible Commentary
