Sr. Donna McGartland
Today’s post is from guest contributor Sr. Donna McGartland. Donna is one of the authors in Love Tenderly: Sacred Stories of Lesbian and Queer Religious published by New Ways Ministry.
Today’s liturgical readings for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be found here.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus visits his hometown, and the neighbors began to question who he is, asking, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? … Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” The gospel then says that “they took offense at him.”
Jesus responds, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” These same people who witnessed Jesus growing up could not accept that he became capable of having much more wisdom. Could they ever be open to the possibility of Jesus being a prophet?
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, often describes a prophet as “one who structurally lives on the edge of the inside,” living neither totally inside nor totally outside of an established society. How aptly this describes Jesus’ experience! This was his hometown and family and yet the people who should know the most about him clearly know very little and were even offended by his wisdom and ability to heal others. Their familial blindness kept Jesus from being able to transform their lives.
How often we can resonate with this feeling of living on the “edge of the inside”! As LGBTQIA+ persons and allies, we have experienced well-meaning individuals who have been offended by their own perception of who we are. Their ignorance has limited our ability to fully live and be accepted in the mainstream of society. How often we are not given the honor of being accepted as we are because we are judged to be something less. We are the prophets living on the margins of society, on the “edge of the inside.”
In today’s reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes that he was given a “thorn in the flesh … to keep me from being too elated.” Nowhere does he say what this ‘thorn’ is for him, but he finally recognizes through God’s grace that “power is made perfect in weakness.” We, too, have thorns, weaknesses that we would like to overcome. Our ‘thorns’ change as we grow more fully into ourselves.
For many years, I saw my sexual orientation as a thorn, and I begged God to rid me of this part of myself. In my weakest moment when I realized that I had no control over my orientation, I discovered that I was wonderfully made as I am. I am a gift! As I embraced my truest self, I allowed God’s grace and power to be perfected in me and I experienced the strength of God’s expansive image and likeness reflected through me.
This gift can only be fully experienced from the ‘edge of the inside’, from the margins, because, in truth, the closer we are to the center, the more we hold onto the blindness caused by our own orthodoxy and control. The closer we move to the edge, however, the more our perceptions change as our creative vision becomes much wider. Life becomes somewhat simpler, and we let go of many of the ideological “-isms” that hold others and ourselves bound. From the edge, I find it’s much easier to accept and love others as they are and I rejoice in the image of God manifested in the person I encounter.
On the edge, I am accepted and loved and I can respond likewise to others. When I move toward the center, however, I discover that I am more guarded and seek to control to protect my vulnerability. This is not life-giving for me.
So, with Paul, “I boast gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
–Sr. Donna McGartland, July 7, 2024
