Put Out into the Deep
April 15 2025
This week’s newsletter was tough to write—because you’ll be reading it in Holy Week, the week when Christians enter deeply into Jesus’ suffering and humiliation. And when it comes to LGBT/SSA+ people, the spirituality of suffering is easy to misuse.
The Joy of Suffering
One young man remembers being told that his same-sex attraction made him a “victim soul,” chosen by God for special suffering. Many gay Catholics have been startled when others referred to them “bearing their cross,” when being gay, for them, had involved as many blessings as hardships.
Some are tempted to wallow in suffering, absorbed in contemplation of their own wounds rather than the sacred Wounds of Christ.
Others are tempted to be dismissive: “Sister, I’ve heard a million gay sob stories. Yours is nothing special. Grow up!”
So it may seem that the spirituality of suffering is simply bad for gay people.
And yet… we are called to imitate Christ in His suffering and humiliation.
We follow Christ the Liberator—and we follow him when we “take up our cross” (cf. Luke 14:27, Matt 16:24).
What makes this spirituality fruitful for LGBT/SSA+ people? What would allow a gay person to say, with Paul, “I am the greatest of sinners” (cf. 1 Tim 1:15)—without fearing that it means, “I am more sinful than a straight person”?
The work of Building Catholic Futures helps those who share the Gospel with LGBT/SSA+ people guide them to flourish in the Church. We help you build Catholic communities where people of all sexual orientations are treated with equal dignity and given an equal chance to imagine themselves as faithful Catholics. Where nobody thinks, “I deserve to suffer because I’m gay.”
By building this future of inclusion, we’re also rescuing the Catholic spirituality of humiliation for queer people. If you have known the necessity and comfort of this spirituality in your own life, you know that this, too, is an urgent part of our work.
Your Prayers and Ours
Please pray for all those walking in Jesus’ footsteps this Holy Week, and all those preparing for reception into the Catholic Church at Easter. And those guiding them in the Faith
Eve & Keith