Friday, I went to see “Chicago.” A Broadway performance, it certainly was not. The friend who went with me said, “It was okay! They had some good parts and some baaad parts!! The dancing and choreo was AWFUL but it was entertaining overall.” Her assessment was spot on. There were two bright spots, the guys who played Billy Flynn and Amos Hart. Both were good actors and could really sing well. I can’t really say that for the rest of the cast. The girls playing Velma and Roxie improved some as the show went on, but there was no where for them to go but up. Some universities have great theater programs, but my college is not known for the fine arts.
My date Saturday night never happened. I woke up Saturday with a migraine, probably because of the bad weather. I had hoped it would get better, and it did for a short while, then it was back with a vengeance. So, had to reschedule my date. Everything seemed fine. My date was understanding because he too has migraines, and we rescheduled for yesterday. Then, yesterday came and went. I texted him numerous times, but never got an answer. In fact, it looks like the messages went unread. I have no idea what happened. Hopefully, I’ll hear from him sometime today. If not, then I guess he changed his mind. 🤷🏻♂️
I did get some packing done. I still have a lot left to do, but slowly but surely, I think it’s getting there. I really can’t wait to get moved into my new place.
On a side note, I ran tot he grocery store yesterday, and I saw the hottest guy I think I’ve ever seen since I moved to Vermont. That’s saying a lot because we have some really hot cadets at the university. This guy could have been a student. He certainly looked like he could be that age. He had great hair. I’ve always admired guys who have a great head of hair. He also had sparkling blue eyes, and a butt to die for. He was wearing shorts which were skin tight and were average length. If they’d been shorter, I’d have suspected he was gay, but most gay men up here don’t wear short shorts. Anyway, the tightness of the shorts made it very apparent that he dresses to the left, if you know what I mean. We kept running into each other the whole time we were in the store. I literally nearly ran smack into him twice. Other times we were sliding around each other as we were making it down the aisles. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy a little eye candy.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
—Galatians 5:22-23
The Greek word translated “fruit” refers to the natural product of a living thing. Paul used “fruit” to help us understand the product produced, not by us, but by the Holy Spirit within us. The Greek word is singular, showing that “fruit” is a unified whole, not independent characteristics. As we grow, all the characteristics of Christ will be manifested in our lives.
The fruits of the Spirit need to be allowed to grow within us and become a part of who we are. When we plant seeds in our flower beds, we have to watch out and remove any weeds, which is a constant threat. Weeds will choke what we’ve planted. If weeds are allowed to grow, then what we planted will never have the opportunity to reach its full maturity and beauty. Just as we don’t want weeds in our garden, we must constantly work to rid our lives of the “weeds” of our temptations that want to choke out the work of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives us the power we need to reject those old sinful desires. We can say “no” to temptation and accept the “way out” God provides through the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” As we give the Spirit more control of our lives, God will shape us and grow us to look like Jesus. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 tells us, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Paul uses nine characteristics to describe the fruit of the Spirit in the book of Galatians: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The first characteristic is love (Greek: agape, Latin: caritas). Agape (love) seeks the highest good for others, no matter their behavior. It is a love that gives freely without asking anything in return and does not consider the worth of its object. Agape is more a love by choice than Philos, which is love by chance; and it refers to the will rather than the emotion. Agape describes the unconditional love God has for the world. Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13:4–8:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
The second characteristic is joy (Greek: chara, Latin: gaudium) The joy referred to here is deeper than mere happiness; it is rooted in God and comes from Him. Since it comes from God, it is more serene and stable than worldly happiness, which is merely emotional and lasts only for a time. Without peace, there would be no joy. Peace is the third characteristic. Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace, who brings peace to the hearts of those who desire it. He says in John 14:27: ” Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” In the Beatitudes Jesus says in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
The fourth characteristic is long-suffering and sometimes referred to as patience. Generally the Greek world applied this word to a man who could avenge himself but did not. This word is often used in the Greek Scriptures in reference to God and God’s attitude to humans. Exodus 34:6 says, “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.’” The Lord is described as “slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”
Some English Bibles translate the single Greek word chrestotes into two English words: kindness and goodness, which are the fifth and six characteristics. In Greek, old wine was called “chrestos” which meant that it was mellow or smooth. Christ used this word in Matthew 11:30, ” For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Kindness is acting for the good of people regardless of what they do. Goodness can be defined in a number of ways: the state or quality of being good; Moral excellence; virtue; kindly feeling, kindness, generosity, joy in being good; or a general character recognized in quality or conduct.
The seventh characteristic is faithfulness (Greek: pistis, Latin: fides). The root of pistis (“faith”) is peithô, that is to persuade or be persuaded, which supplies the core-meaning of faith as being “divine persuasion”, received from God, and never generated by man. It is defined as the following: objectively, trustworthy; subjectively, trustful:—believing, faithfulness, surety, truth. The eighth, gentleness is “a divinely-balanced virtue that can only operate through faith.” Gentleness which is prautes in Greek, is commonly known as meekness.
The ninth and final characteristic is self-control. The Greek word used in Galatians 5:23 is “enkrateia”, meaning “strong, having mastery, able to control one’s thoughts and actions.” Second Peter 1:5-7 discusses fruitful growth in the faith, saying, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
I went to see my doctor yesterday. It turned out to be a really good visit. My A1C has dropped to 5.2. I have been taking Metformin and Jardiance for my diabetes, however, because I seem to respond better to the Jardiance than I ever did to the Metformin, he dropped the Metformin. Also, I’d lost another five pounds since I saw him on February 14. We also talked about my anxiety triggers: work, family, and moving. I told him about how bad Tuesday’s panic attack was, and he prescribed me some Xanax for when I need it. At the maximum, he only wants me to take two a week. I’ve taken Xanax before because I used to have panic attacks when I flew, but as I have flown quite a bit since moving to Vermont in 2015, it doesn’t bother me as much. He told me that if the anxiety increases, he can increase my antidepressant, but hopefully, things will settle down once I move.
My weekend is going to be pretty busy. Besides packing over the weekend, tonight, I am going to see a production of Chicago my university is doing. Chicago is one of my favorite musicals, and I fondly remember going to see it on Broadway with Susan when I went down to NYC for Thanksgiving and my birthday in 2019. Tomorrow night, I have another date with the guy I saw last week. If all goes as planned, he’s going to cook me dinner. I can’t wait. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been on a second date with anyone? It’s never happened while I lived in Vermont. Sunday should be a day for laundry and packing.
“Luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’ve prepared for it.”
—Saint Patrick
St. Patrick, originally named Maewyn Succat, was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of that country. Each year on This day, Irish and Catholics everywhere celebrate the Feast of Saint Patrick who died on March 17, 461.
Saint Patrick’s Day is a time for grand celebration in many parts of the world, with green beer and shamrocks sprouting in the most unlikely places. So what do you do, if you want to join in the fun, but cannot find a trace of green blood in your ancestry, no matter how far back you go? Good old St Patrick is one of a surprising number of queer saints and martyrs in Christian history, giving gays, Irish or not, an excuse to enjoy his day.
In his book on Irish gay history, Terrible Queer Creatures, Brian Lacey presents some evidence that Patrick may have had a long term intimate relationship with a man:
St. Patrick himself may have had a relationship tinged with homoeroticism. Tirechan, a late seventh century cleric who wrote about St. Patrick, tells the story of a man Patrick visited and converted to Christianity, who had a son to whom Patrick took a strong liking.
Tirechan wrote that “he gave him the name Benignus, because he took Patrick’s feet between his hands and would not sleep with his father and mother, but wept unless he would be allowed to sleep with Patrick.” Patrick baptized the boy and made him his close lifelong companion, so much so that Benignus succeeded Patrick as bishop of Armagh.
This is a rather tenuous basis for a claim that Patrick was gay, but there is more from his youth. He was originally brought to Ireland as a Roman slave. In Ancient Roman society, slaves, male and female, were freely used for sexual purposes. Later, young Maewyn Succat escaped, but returned to undertake the evangelizing of Ireland that he’s famed for. To pay his way back, there is a claim that he worked as a prostitute.
This is still short of really hard evidence – but hagiography, the writing of the lives of saints, is not history. The most famous popular belief about St Patrick, that he chased the snakes out of Ireland, is certainly not true (there never were any), but that doesn’t deter anybody from repeating it, regardless. When it comes to the life of saints, definitive proof is not a criteria for a saints life story.
Irrespective of our view on the historic Patrick, there’s a deeper, serious reason for thinking about him. For too long, Christianity has been badly abused as a weapon against sexual minorities, but there are undoubtedly a large number of people in church history that in today’s terminology, would be considered LGBTQ+, but who nevertheless achieved high office in the Church, as bishops, abbesses, and popes, or honored as Christian saints and martyrs. There are bishops who wrote frankly erotic poetry and love letters addressed to each other, bishops who secured appointments to vacant sees for their boyfriends, and popes who slept with men, or commissioned homoerotic paintings from the great Renaissance artists. There are even the forerunners of our modern trans men – biological females, who lived as males in men-only monasteries.
Secular historians have gone a long way in uncovering our hidden history. We are blessed by God with our sexuality. We are His creation, and to quote St, Patrick, “Hence I cannot be silent, and indeed I ought not to be, about the many blessings and the great grace which the Lord has designed to bestow upon me.”Doing the same for our place in church history can make a small contribution to countering religious bullying. Just consider: the next time you hear offensive remarks from a homophobic Irish neighbor or colleague, just point out to him: St Paddy was queer.
I will leave you with one final quote from St. Patrick:
“May good luck be with you wherever you go. And your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow.”
—Saint Patrick
This modified article was originally written by Terence Weldon, a UK based gay Catholic activist He writes on general matters of faith and sexuality, and was first published on Bilerico in 2012.
Joe
The Closet Professor 