The Gospels and homosexuality. What did jesus really Say?
Song taken from the book by Carolina del Río Mena*, ¿Quién soy yo para juzgar? Witimonios de homosexuas católicos, Editorial Uqbar, Santiago (Chile), year 2015, pp.273-276, freely translated by Dino
In the Gospels there are neither mentions nor explicit condemnations of homosexuality. It is Paolo who speaks with greater hardness of some homosexual acts, but we will see in what context and what is referring to.
However, there are other biblical texts that can make us think, but in another direction. For example, Matteo 8.5-13, in which Jesus healed the "Pais" (boy) of the centurion. We remember the episode: Jesus finished preaching what we call the mountain speech, the beatitudes. A leper in which he comes across Capernaum, says the text, the text comes down from Monte:
A centurion approached him and prayed to him saying: "Lord, my boyfriend (Pais) lies in the paralyzed house and in the grip of terrible suffering. "Jesus said to him:" I will go to heal him. "And the Centurione replied:" Lord, I am not worthy that you enter under my roof; Just say a word and my boyfriend (Pais) will be healed. Since I too, who I am a subordinate, have soldiers to my orders, and I say to one: 'Go', and he goes; and another: 'Come' and he comes; And to my servant: 'Do this' and he does it. "hearing this, Jesus was admired and said to those who followed him:" I assure you that in all Israel I have not found such a great faith in anyone. And I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and will sit in canteen with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, instead the children of the kingdom will be left outside the darkness; There it will be crying and screeching of teeth. "Jesus then said to the centurion:" Go ', who happens for you as you believed ". And at that time he healed the boy (Pais)".
Today we know that the term "Pais" (in Hebrew) can mean not only a boy, as in fact translates it, could also mean something more ... If the Roman soldiers did not move with their own wives, but with other men, this "pais" could not have been something more than the servant of the centurion, that is, the lover? The Mexican theologian Manuel Villalobos Mendoza claims yes. And if it was something more than a servant, how would it change in our reading of the text?
In this essay it is not possible to carry out a detailed analysis of the traditional biblical exegesis, nor of that created by homosexual specialists, but it would be appropriate to start listening to what they have been saying for several years, when it has started to spread a biblical queer reading. Queer means rare, strange, bizarre, twisted.
Rictor Norton, a North American historian established in England, a specialist in history of Renaissance literature and culture, states that the term queer was used with a clear insulting and worse sense. The biblists Queer, however, and a few years later also the theology that bears the same name, appropriate the term to demolish the insulting sense of this word, legitimize the struggles for the rights of homosexual people and develop the theory of sexual dissences, giving a completely new meaning at the end.
Queer theology has not yet entered the academic circuits and is the subject of strong criticism by the magisterium, but this does not mean that it does not exist and that it should not make us reflect. Xavier Pikaza, Catholic priest and theologian, says:
"It may happen that without going through the 'Queer theology' we cannot consider the spiritual marginalization of homosexuals as a sin of the same caliber of oppression, of the exploitation of the poor by the rich; (...) The risk consists in not discovering the state of need and the marginalization of which many homosexuals suffer ... since the same that stated: "Blessed are the poor, because of them is the kingdom of God", today he shouts to those who want to listen to him: "Blessed homosexuals, because of them is the kingdom of God" ...
Homosexuals are not only scandal stone for each on an individual level, but also for the same church: it no longer makes sense - if it ever had - to speak of 'preferential choice for the poor' if this expression is not accompanied by a 'preferential choice for lesbian, gay people, bisexual transgender (LGBT) (cit. taken from Pikaza Xavier, Queer theology. ValueS y limitasses, 2007).
In the Gospels there is no reference to homosexuality, despite existing convictions in the rabbinic literature of the time. Jesus, Jewish in all respects, was very free, since he distanced himself from everything that in some way led to discrimination and has always placed himself "on the wrong side", That is, alongside the marginalized and excluded: for example of the Adultera (Jn 8,1-11) and the public sinner (Lk 7,36-50), who transgressed the sexuality of the time. However, reiterates Awi,"Jesus did not add one word to homosexuals, nor to attack them, nor to defend them."Why? Bernardino Leers says:
(...) This silence highlights in the message of Jesus something more significant for the discussion of the problem of homosexuals. In the missionary consciousness of Jesus there is a communications core that exceeds specific sexual problems and puts them in the background. Thanks to this, the active presence of the father is in the center, with his kingdom, in which all human beings become brothers of the same family, relating to each other through the practice of mutual and fraternal love. With this, in the horizon of the problem of homosexuals arises a light: "The love of the father for all people and the solidarity love that must concretely characterize human relationships and social coexistence, free from discrimination and prejudices" (cit. taken by Leers B., Homossexuais and ética de libertacào. Uma caminada"In Perspective Theological 52, 1988, p.305.)
* Carolina del Río Mena is a Catholic theologian and Chilean journalist, mother of four children. He obtained a master's degree in fundamental theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and is a teacher at the Center of Espiritualidad Santa María, he also collaborates with the Teológia Center Manuel Larraín of the "Círculo de Estudio de Sexualidad y evangelio". She is the author of the book "¿Quién soy yo para juzgar? Witimonios de homosexuas católicos"Published in 2015, and is co-author of"The irrupción de los laicos: Iglesia en crisis” published in 2011.
