Jesus was entering a town when homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” Jesus ignored the young people and his disciples encouraged him to send them away. For a moment in the story, Christ turns to his disciples and aligns himself with them saying that he only came for the house of Israel. As the young people are ignored, they become persistent in calling out to Christ and finally Christ stops ignoring their cries for help, turns to the young people, and says, “O young people, great is your faith!”

Now perhaps you’re wondering where these words are in the Gospels, but we need only look at the story of the encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman to see that Christ stands with those in need. The story of the Canaanite woman is of particular relevance to the current situation involving Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the invitation for him to meet with homeless LGBT youth to hear their stories and dialogue with them. It is in the light of this Gospel reading from Matthew (15:21-28) that I hold great hope that Cardinal Dolan will follow the example of Christ and that even amid calls from others to simply “look the other way,” he will turn and stop ignoring the cries of young people in need.

The welcoming and all-inclusive message of Christ is further seen in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10). When Jesus calls out to Zaccahaeus and tells him that he would like to stay at his home, the crowd refers to Zaccahaeus as “a sinner”; however, Jesus does not succumb to their words of condemnation, but rather sees Zaccahaeus as a “descendent of Abraham.”

Both of these stories remind me that the Church is at its core a welcoming and affirming assembly dedicated to living the message of Christ in a way that reaches the most vulnerable among us. The experience of the Canaanite woman demonstrates that even religious law is not always right and just, but rather sometimes we are called to witness truth in the present moment. In the case of Zaccahaeus, we are taught that Christ sees each of us as being created in God’s image and likeness.

When I launched the petition calling upon Cardinal Dolan to meet with homeless LGBT youth, hear their stories and dialogue with them, I did so because I believe the time has come for the Church to no longer ignore the stories of LGBT people, but rather to encounter and discern them. The notion that we live in a country where 30 percent to 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT, should be startling enough to awaken the hearts of Catholic leaders so as to work with the community to solve this epidemic. The Church must recognize its role in creating an environment that is safe and affirming for all youth without exception. This is the Gospel message of inclusion.

In light of this call upon Cardinal Dolan, the reality is that the vast majority of Roman Catholics support their LGBT sisters and brothers. I have visited a number of parishes throughout the United States, where I have seen firsthand communities of faith living the message of inclusion. This is what we are calling upon the American hierarchy to witness — witness the prophetic voice of those in the pews and those who courageously preach the Gospel’s message not of law, but of peace and love. The petition to Cardinal Dolan does not challenge Church teaching, but rather it asks the Cardinal — and others in the American hierarchy — to look into the faces of homeless LGBT youth and in doing so look into the face of Christ. This petition is not a political statement nor a profession of faith, but rather it is a contemplative action that represents a society-wide prayer: a prayer that one day we might come to see the dignity that is inherent in every human being.

I hope you will join me, and nearly 2,000 other people of faith, in asking Cardinal Dolan to follow the humble example of a man who nearly 2,000 years ago stopped ignoring a woman because of laws, turned to her, listened and witnessed the great faith she exhibited. This same man sought a place to rest in the home of person that others deemed a sinner, but Christ saw as a righteous man in the eyes of God. It is with this understanding of Christ, that I launched the petition inviting Cardinal Dolan to enter into a dialogue with those most in need, so as to begin to understand the LGBT experience and see the dignity of the human person. Perhaps at that moment, Dolan will turn to our community and say, “My gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers, great is your faith” and “Today salvation has come to this house because LGBT people are descendants of Abraham.”

Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is Christianity’s most important holiday. It has been called a moveable feast because it doesn’t fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, Easter is observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year. Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will occur and typically celebrate the holiday a week or two after the Western churches, which follow the Gregorian calendar.

The exact origins of this religious feast day’s name are unknown. Some sources claim the word Easter is derived from Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Other accounts trace Easter to the Latin term hebdomada alba, or white week, an ancient reference to Easter week and the white clothing donned by people who were baptized during that time. Through a translation error, the term later appeared as esostarum in Old High German, which eventually became Easter in English. In Spanish, Easter is known as Pascua; in French, Paques. These words are derived from the Greek and Latin Pascha or Pasch, for Passover. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection occurred after he went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew), the Jewish festival commemorating the ancient Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt. Pascha eventually came to mean Easter.

For Jesus’ mother, his disciples and his followers, Jesus’ death was a tragedy. You can imagine that all hope was naturally gone. We today can face the same feeling. Many times in life, with a current homophobic Republican presidential campaign, the increasing rise of anti-gay homophobic groups, and everything that is going on in the world — war, famine, disease, natural disasters, discrimination, and hate — there can be a loss of hope and faith. Yet the resurrection gives us hope that no matter what has died in our lives, no matter how much faith and hope we have lost, we can experience hope, we can overcome and regain whatever we have lost in our lives.

Our hope includes the knowledge that evil does not win. – Sometimes today, it seems that the bad guy often wins. Sometimes it seems that the one who cheats, the one who lies, the one who steps on others to get ahead, is the one who prospers. Far too often, I read of this person cheating or that one (or catching a student cheating) or another kid, gay or otherwise, who has been bullied, lost hope, and committed suicide. How often do we read of politicians cheating, or working to make sure their businesses get the good contract? It seems that there is no hope for the little guy, the one who lives right, to ever get ahead.

With a positive attitude that through God we can accomplish anything, we truly can make the world a better place. With hope that springs eternal, just as the flowers in spring show the rebirth of the earth, we can be assured that God’s promises will deliver a better day, a rebirth our faith. The promise that Jesus would rise from the grave on the third day is remembered every Easter Sunday, it is the greatest sacrifice God could give for our sins. When we are baptized is done in symbolic reverence as our old body dies in its watery grave to be reborn and rise,from the dead as Christ did for our sins.

I hope that each of you feels the hope in the rebirth that Easter brings to us today. May God’s love eternally bless you.

1Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
2And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
3And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
4Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
5Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
6When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
7The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
8When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
9And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
11Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
12And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
13When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
15But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
18Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
21Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
23Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
24They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
25Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
26When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
27Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
28After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
29Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
33But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
35And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
36For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
39And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
42There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

I was reading Davey Wavey’s blog Break the Illusion yesterday, and came across this blog post:

The Cross: A Symbol of Love or Hate?

When I was driving into Canada, I passed a giant white cross on the side of the road. It was likely erected by one of the local congregations, and soared some 50 or 60 feet into the sky. For those that built it, the cross is a symbol of their faith. For me, the cross evokes a lot of mixed feelings.

On the treadmill last night, I caught a few minutes of a CNN interview with an openly gay woman named Barbara Johnson. At her mother’s funeral, the priest denied Barbara Holy Communion. He said:

I can’t give you Communion because you live with a woman and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin.

To add insult to injury, he left the altar when Barbara delivered the eulogy – and refused to attend the burial. On one of the hardest days of her life, the priest’s actions added insult to injury.

I know that the cross stands for many beautiful and compassionate teachings. But as a gay man who went through both Catholic high school and university, I’ve seen so many individuals and organizations hide behind the cross as a justification for their hate. After a while, it takes its toll on you.

When I see a cross, the teachings of love and compassion are overshadowed by the stories of people like Barbara Johnson.

I am not Catholic, nor do I claim to understand everything about Catholicism.  However, in my church (Church of Christ) where I am the person who passes around the communion every Sunday,  I have never denied someone the right to take communion.  It is their choice, and it is a choice between them and God.  That being said, what struck me about this blog post is that Davey wrote that for him “the cross evokes a lot of mixed feelings.”  When I see a cross, it reminds me purely of the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins.  Instead of having mixed feeling about the cross, about religion, or about God, I feel great sadness for those Christians who use the cross and twist the words of God to something that is negative.  Christianity is a positive religion, and when Christians make it a negative religion, then they are doing just what being negative means, they are making it less.  It is simple mathematics, 1 + 1 = 2, but 1 – 1 = 0, when you add negatives into the equation, you are taking something away.  In my belief those who use Christianity in a negative way are taking God out of it, and thus are moving further away from God and his love.

A friend of mine recently gave me a book God vs. Gay?: The Religious Case for Equality which I am reading that presents a religious case for equality.  As you all know, I have had a rough week, and I have not gotten far into God vs. Gay? but I have read a little of it each night.  When I am finished with God vs. Gay? I will write more about it on this blog. So far, it is a very encouraging and affirmative look at religion.

As always, thanks for reading and thank you for your support this week.  Your support and encouraging words have meant a great deal to me.