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Before attending the theater with a friend last March, we enjoyed dinner at the Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee. As we wandered the lobby, enjoying the art decorating the walls, we stumbled upon an exhibit room entitled, “The Closet.” Taking a peek inside the small room, I lightheartedly said to my friend, “I am going to step back into the closet. Would you take my picture to capture this moment?” As I momentarily stepped into the closet exhibit, my friend snapped the picture. I quickly leaped out of the closet remarking to him, “I spent way too many years of my life locked up in the closet. I don’t ever wish to go back.” After coming out of the closet publicly as a Roman Catholic priest in December 2017, I have finally been able to live authentically and with integrity, no longer being silenced by our Church leaders, but being truthful about who I am. As we end Pride Month, I want to offer love and support to those in the LGBTQ+ community who let their lights shine brightly for others to see, especially to those who may have stepped out of the closet, but also to those who are unable to come out because of the real negative consequences they would have to endure.  Fr. Greg Greiten celebrating a Mass of Inclusion at St. Bernadette Church, Milwaukee, in 2017 Today’s first liturgical reading, from the Book of Wisdom, assures us that, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.” Rather this passage tells of God’s life-giving perspective, for the Almighty has “fashioned all things that they may have being.” God wants us fully alive. God loves us. God has fashioned us in God’s image! This idea is further illustrated in today’s Gospel story, as the evangelist Mark intertwines the healing of Jairus’ daughter as she is raised from the dead with the healing of the hemorrhaging woman who has been suffering for twelve years from her illness. By telling one story within another story, Mark masterfully demonstrates Jesus’ power over life and death. Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter is on the threshold of womanhood and the ability to give life, yet she is on the verge of dying. In the same story, the hemorrhaging woman has been slowly draining the flow of life from her body as no doctor has been able to cure her. In their desperate need, they turn to Jesus seeking hope, healing, and life in order to survive, for only God could save them in this moment. Jairus, an official of the synagogue, is convinced that if only Jesus would place his hands on his daughter, she would recover and her life would be saved. The unnamed woman is convinced that if she could just touch even his clothes, she would be made whole again. However, in those days, Jesus would immediately be labeled ritually unclean in both of these instances by coming into physical contact with either of these women. Even though the law considered both to be untouchables, for Jesus, that didn’t matter. Throughout his journeys, Jesus never overlooked those who were considered to be outsiders or on the margins of society, or out of view. Jesus saw and recognized them both. He stopped. He noticed. Sometimes, he would even eat and drink with people like these. Jesus took the time to see and appreciate what others never really noticed. When Jesus the healer was touched by the woman, he made her blood stop flowing, and when Jesus touched the hand of the girl and summoned her, he made her life/blood flow once again. Death gave way to life. By their faith and radical trust in God, they were saved. When everything appeared to be totally lost, the main people in this story demonstrated how necessary it was to reach out and touch, or be touched by, the healing power of Christ. In October 2022, our parish community of St. Bernadette, Milwaukee, celebrated a Mass of Inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community, family members, allies, and parishioners in honor of National Coming Out Day. Those who participated were truly a diverse group that gathered to share stories and to break bread together. But the week prior to the celebration, approximately 20 protestors showed up at Sunday Mass with a bagpiper in an attempt to have the parish community cancel the Mass of Inclusion. On the Saturday evening of the celebration, the protestors and their bagpiper appeared once again to make noise outside and draw attention to themselves. While inside the church, we prayed, we sang, we broke bread, we took notice, and we witnessed the incredibly affirming presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. I never would have thought that the Church community proclaiming the words “I love you” and “God loves you” to those considered on the margins could become so threatening to other members of our church. Yet, even today, in many places of worship, it is still threatening to some to have a group of LGBTQ+ individuals, their families, and their allies gather together in order to celebrate the Eucharist. The LGBTQ+ community continues to be denied their rightful place at the table. How difficult it remains today for some people to truly love and accept one another as God made us! Members of the LGBTQ+ community know what it feels like to be misjudged, marginalized, and sometimes even cast out by our Catholic community. We long for the shepherds of our church to stop and notice us, to seek us out, to find us, and to stand with us. Many LGBTQ+ individuals and their families have felt the exact opposite experiencing incredible pain, rejection, isolation, exclusion, anger, hurt, and deep sorrow. Even I have felt all of this from my shepherds. In the month following the Mass of Inclusion, I was summoned to a meeting at the archdiocesan offices with the archbishop and a few others to discuss the Mass of Inclusion. It became apparent to me that the point of this summons was to insist that there be no more Masses of Inclusion to be offered for the LGBTQ+ community. The readings today underscore that God is a God of life and not death. Jesus witnessed to the fact that he was not afraid to enter into the worlds of those who were often considered to be outsiders and sometimes even untouchables. Jesus did stop and take notice to respond to their deepest needs. Whenever life is feeling overwhelming and the outlook seems bleak, we must reach out, with the greatest trust in God and with the deepest faith, to touch and be touched by the healing power of Christ. As Pride Month draws to a conclusion, I invite each of my LGBTQ+ siblings along with our family members, friends, and allies to keep taking those steps out of the closet again and again towards a true freedom where we are able to discover the wholeness of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. Let your rainbow light shine for everyone to see and take notice. Whenever we touch the hand of Christ or even his garment, we connect with an incredible healing power that restores the flow of life through us. --Fr. Greg Greiten, June 30, 2024 Comments are closed.
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