Last week, Eve had a chance to discuss BCF’s work with a group of gay Christians and their friends who had been reading her book Tenderness. One woman said something that really stood out.
She said, “You know, when the gay Christians I knew used to talk to me about what they were experiencing, I would say, ‘Your suffering connects you to Jesus.’ I would see Jesus in them. And I stopped doing that after a while, because there came a point where it didn’t seem like it was helping anymore. Like it had stopped being an encouraging thing to say. And I guess I wonder—I know how this idea of gay people’s suffering can go wrong, how it can get all messed up in the church, but what can I do instead?”
This was a woman who herself had suffered deeply—including being marginalized in her church. She empathized with many of the struggles of the gay Christians she knew. But now she was worried: Was that empathy, or stereotyping? Was she relating to gay people primarily as victims—even if she was connecting their experience to the Sacred Victim on the altar?
One of BCF’s Five Building Blocks is, “Tell Good Stories: Explore the ways Jesus’ story and the lives of the saints reflect LGBT/SSA+ people’s experience.” When we receive someone’s story, we look for Jesus there. We are made in the image of God, and so the life of God is reflected in each one of our lives.
And so we want to encourage everyone who sees Jesus on the Cross in the suffering of gay people: You are right. He is there.
And… Jesus is there in other moments of our lives, too. We here at BCF have been inspired, and seen a glimpse of what our own lives can mean, in Jesus’ Resurrection: an image of emerging from the tomb of the closet into new life. We have learned what our own loves can mean from the intimate friendship Jesus shared with John the Beloved Disciple—and as we see ourselves in the Disciple, too, we learn to take Jesus as our Friend and Mary as our Mother.
When gay people work in the healing professions, they model Jesus’ healing service. When gay people challenge their church communities (or their gay communities!), they may speak with the prophetic, overturning voice of Jesus. When gay people rejoice in community, we get a glimpse of the communion Jesus desires us all to share.
We see Jesus on the Cross in the lives of gay people who are frightened, confused, feeling forsaken, cast out and rejected.
And we see Him reigning from the Cross, triumphant over death and Hell, when gay people experience liberation, hope, and joy.
What are the ways you see Jesus in your own life? Where do you see yourself in the Gospels right now?