The E-catechism: May 1998

Homosexuality

Pentecost

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Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter. We look forward to hearing from you. Homosexuality When someone realises that they are homosexual it comes as a shock, a wound and often means solitude; whether the discovery is made during adolescence, in adult life or even once the person has married. It is not easy to find someone that will listen and talk among those who are closest. To live one's life while respecting one's humanity, to be a citizen while wanting to be an active part of society, to want to live one's faith in the heart of the Church, cannot be taken for granted. Intolerance is damning. Discrimination is destructive. Attitudes change slowly. In various countries, Amnesty International has denounced the repression of homosexuals. It is not by chance that totalitarian regimes make them "outlaws" and persecute them without pity. The condition of being a homosexual remains an enigma and often also a taboo, both for society and for the Churches. Sexual differentiation is essential. It gives structure to society. In the Bible, it is the human being, masculine and feminine, who is created in the image of God. Sexuality only takes on meaning when it signifies the welcoming and the respect of the other. After the coming of Jesus, we know that the love of God does not exclude anybody. Those who are wounded are God's favourites. Homosexuals are not condemned but rather loved by God. The sign of the rainbow is rising up, as the symbol of homosexual assertion. Gays and lesbians are pleading for the recognition of their rights. Homosexual Christians give are witnesses of real and faithful love, as well as of a living and fraternal faith. If Christian communities do not wholly welcome those who feel excluded, they are refusing openness and of a better understanding of the Gospel.

Pentecost Fifty days after Easter, the feast of Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the Church by God. The promise of Jesus to his disciples becomes reality: "you shall receive a strength, that of the Holy Spirit who will come unto you; you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and up to the ends of the earth" ( Act of the Apostles 1,8)   On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem. After the events of Easter, fear had taken hold of them. They remained among themselves, cut off from the world. But the Holy Spirit, a gift of God, came unto them. They are delivered from fear and can now go forward. They receive strength and are now able to speak out. The small community of apostles has the audacity of going out to meet the large community that had come to Jerusalem for the feast. The group of disciples shows the way to the large human family, made up of a great variety of people. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, communication is established, the message is received, the witness is given. There has been a meeting of the two communities. In the crowd each person as an individual feels involved.   Pentecost means successful communication, in spite of the diversity and the barrier of languages, of cultures and of religions. The Church of Pentecost is a Church that dares to speak and to act. It is a Church that practises what it preaches. This language is understood by all even if it is contested. The church of Pentecost is a Church that never ceases to welcome the Holy Spirit so that, beyond the frontiers, it may go and meet the people of the world. Not to dominate but to witness with respect.

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