Are Queer Catholics Reading the Same Scripture as Some Church Leaders?

Today’s post is from guest contributor M. Hakes (they/them). M. is a member of the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker Community in Duluth, MN. In both their paid and volunteer work, they are active at the intersection of faith and queerness and engaged in justice and liberation work.

Today’s liturgical readings for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be found here.

“Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.” (Matthew 11:25)

As a queer Catholic, sometimes I sit in Mass and wonder if our church leaders are reading the same scripture that I am. Today’s readings are one of those moments.

In today’s Gospel, we encounter Jesus speaking to a gathered crowd about the disparate reactions people have had to him and to John the Baptist. Jesus highlights the fact that John came as an ascetic, living a strict and disciplined life, but people accused him of being possessed. On the other hand, Jesus was labeled as a glutton and a drunkard who associated him with sinners.

When Jesus asks the crowds about John, the Gospel writer has Jesus using the second person plural (“you”): “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? […] A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet” (11:7, 9).

Then, as Jesus explains his parable about “this generation,” he switches from the second person plural (“you”) to the third person plural (“they”): “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (11:18-19a).

Why this grammatical shift? Who are these unknown critics? Who are “they”?!

“They” certainly can’t be the listening crowd, who are most often described in Matthew’s gospel as being open and eager to receive Jesus’ teachings. However, we see earlier in Matthew chapter 9 and later in chapter 12, the writer of Matthew referring to the Pharisees in this way.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus has little time for religious hypocrisy. Jesus’ harshest words are often directed at religious leaders ready for a theological fight, focused on the minutiae of orthodoxy, or right belief, and orthopraxy, or right practice, rather than the compassionate, pastoral accompaniment of believers. Jesus insists on genuine faith and obedience to God over simple adherence to religious traditions or legalistic practices. True righteousness and spiritual authority comes not from religious titles or theological credentials. Such authority derives from the depth of a loving relationship with God, and it is demonstrated in how we care for others and the world around us, especially those most marginalized.

Given the rise in anti-trans and anti-queer rhetoric and policies in Catholic circles, and in our society as whole, I can only conclude that I am reading a different Gospel than some of our religious leaders. Beholden to rigid theologies and legalistic practices, they seem to have somehow forgotten that the inclusive vastness of God and God’s love are not bound by Church teaching. Indeed, Church teaching should be adaptive to our ever deepening understanding and experience of God, God’s love, and the diversity of God’s creation.

How would our world change if we began re-centering our numerous debates by focusing on people rather than ideologies, on individuals rather than institutions, on lived experience rather than rigid expectations? What if we started listening for God’s voice all around us, especially in the most unexpected places.

It has never been easy for people who buck social norms to embrace their God-created uniqueness. People who buck social norms to embrace their God-created uniqueness have always come up against obstacles. When we claim our true identities we will always be met with resistance. Once we begin to live out the fullness of our intricately woven selves, however, we are obligated to help others do likewise: to embrace them in their exquisite individuality and to dismantle the ideologies, morals, and systems that oppress. This is the way of Jesus. It is the way Mary sang about in the Magnificat. An updated version of this gospel hymn might say:

God has scattered the proud in their conceit. God has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

God has sat in the middle of a freeway singing an end to police brutality. God has blocked the building of a pipeline, reminding us that water is life.

God has embraced Her trans daughter on the day her name change was made legal celebrating the ever-fuller way she is living into herself.

When we center ourselves in God’s love and liberating grace, transformation happens.

At the end of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus invites all those who are burdened and weary to come to him, promising rest and relief. Truly, Jesus’ yoke of love and liberation is far easier to carry than the heavy burdens imposed by religious legalism and the expectations of the world.

May we each opt for the lighter load, especially church leaders who not only burden others, but burden themselves by limiting their imaginations and understandings of God’s love.

—M. Hakes (they/them), July 9, 2023