A headline jumped out at me from cnn.com:
CNN Exclusive: Pope held private meeting with same-sex couple in U.S.
After reading the article, my heart rejoiced and my heart broke. Here's why:
Why I rejoiced:
This was a headline. A good one. One about love. How often do we get a good headline at the top of a news website?
Also, the news prints what sells. People want to hear about the pope loving people. People want to know a man who represents the real Jesus that we see in the Bible, whose mercy and love for the world led to a sacrifice for us all.
Why my heart broke:
For the same reason I rejoiced: this was a headline. This small act was viewed as so extraordinary to the world that it made the news. And my heart broke to think of how we, the Church have so failed to love an entire group of people, who are created by God.
If you didn't read the article, the Pope met with his former student, an openly gay atheist, and his partner. The article mentioned multiple times the affection that the pope bestowed upon the men, including phrases such as "warm hug" and "kisses them on the cheek." The writer found it necessary to emphasize to his audience that the pope not only met with the couple but embraced each man with love.
I do not believe that the Church hates gay people. The Church is the people of God, and as part of the Church, I do not hate gay people. Each person is created in the image and likeness of God, regardless of sexual attraction. Someone who is gay is not a lesser person in the eyes of God. But much of the world thinks the Church hates gay people, and I think we as Christians need to take some ownership of that. We are entrusted with being ambassadors, representatives of Jesus, and if we fail to witness who Jesus is to the world, we have failed our mission.
Our love must speak louder.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is God. He is the Savior of the world. He came to heal the sick. He came to save the sinners. He came to carry home the lost. He came to save us- we are the sinners, we are the sick, we are the lost.
"When the Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and the tax collectors, they asked his disciples: 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?' On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:16-17
When Jesus walked the earth in the flesh, he ate with those people who were on the margins, those who were rejected by the religious people. In Jewish customs, eating with such people made a person "ceremonially unclean." In this passage, Jesus is eating at the home of Levi, a tax collector. By name, he should have been a priest in the temple, but instead chose a more lucrative path- being a tax collector for the Roman Empire, a traitor to his people. Tax collectors were known to be greedy, overcharging poor people and pocketing the money. But Jesus embraces him, and Levi, after his life is forever changed by God, eventually becomes Matthew, one of the twelve apostles, someone God used to change the world and spread his message of love and forgiveness.
The pope embraces his former student, and in that act welcomes a man who has felt rejected and marginalized by the religious people of our day. The act is so radical that it makes headlines, but that is the love of Jesus. Jesus still embraces and loves and calls those on the margins. We are all people. We are all sinners. And God so loved us, that he came to die for us so that we might know him and share in his love forever.
Beautifully said, Erica. Each of us are created in His image... no one is less, no one is more in His eyes. We are called to extend His love and His gospel to each person we meet. It's wonderful that the Pope is able to use his visibility to show this to the church and the world.
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