When I refused to confess my sin,
my whole body wasted away,
while I groaned in pain all day long.
For day and night you tormented me
Psalm 32:3-4a (NET)
Next Sunday will be a little over a week since the Orlando Massacre. Many Christians from all over our country will worship around a table in a ceremony called Holy Mass. At the most dramatic point of this ritual, bread and wine will be given away with words such as: “the body of Christ, given for your” and “the blood of Christ, shed for you”. According to our scriptural myths, these are the words that Jesus of Nazareth said on the night in which he was betrayed.
Traditionally, the church teaches that the way to properly prepare to partake of Holy Communion is to make confession of one’s sins. I think that next Sunday, before we all dare to approach the altar, we need to mourn our Orlando Martyrs and repent of our participation in their deaths.
We need forgiveness for our history of fostering and tolerating theologies that call LGBTQ people "intrinsically disordered".
We need forgiveness for our “orthodoxy” that drives people to suicide.
We need forgiveness for our doctrines that make families reject one of their own because of sexual orientation.
Let us repent publicly, through ritual and song, and only then approach worship with trembling and holy fear. For our calling in this season is this: to walk with those who suffer and fight for liberation and justice, to end our evil theologies that kill our LGBTQ siblings, and to have assault rifles banned from this land.
On Sunday we cannot ignore the relationship between the bodies slaughtered at Pulse and the crucified body and blood of Jesus the Christ. Both are the result of hate fostered by religious institutions and a culture that persecutes those who dare to love boldly. Our altars and vestments are stained with the blood of these innocent martyrs who paid with their lives the price of our prejudice.
This Sunday, the church is called to confession for our complicity in causing pain and death to thousands of LGBTQ people across the world. Let us turn our faces towards God and ask for forgiveness and hope that God’s judgment doesn’t fall upon us.
Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy!)