Love and truth September 7, 2023By Father Matthew Buening Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Amen, Commentary The publication of “Like Every Disciple,” the recent guidelines for LGBT ministry from Archbishop William E. Lori, allows me a moment to reflect upon the current state of this important and growing ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. As the archdiocesan coordinator of LGBT ministries and as the pastor of St. Matthew and Blessed Sacrament, I have been blessed by working with and getting to know so many faithful Catholic homosexuals, transgender individuals and their many family members and allies. To hear their stories of hurt and hope has expanded my soul and sent me to my knees in prayer. The primacy of love is the hallmark of these ministries in our parishes. This is the fertile ground needed for the truth to be planted and grown. Like every ministry in the Catholic Church, love and truth leads to the flourishing of human life as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. Recently we held regional gatherings for leaders of LGBT ministry, and much was made of the tension between love and truth. However, I liked Archbishop Lori’s take on this relationship better. He used the example of my favorite combination of chocolate and peanut butter. They naturally go together, and you lose something wonderful if you separate them. “What is truth?” That famous question, famously asked by Pontius Pilate, was asked many times in our gatherings. It refers to the church’s teaching, guided by the Holy Spirit and based on Scripture and tradition, in regard to human sexuality and the understanding of the human person. However, the real answer to this question was staring Pilate and all of us in the face. Jesus is truth and love personified and united. A quick glance at his ministry is to notice his loving acceptance of everyone. It is also to see his insistence on repentance and continual conversion for everyone. We all know Jesus is the way. This way of Jesus is to embrace the truth and to live a life of love; we need to do both to be a disciple. What if the truth of the church’s teaching and the love of Jesus do not go together? This is what our secular world seems to be trying to convince us. We are led to think that the church is “behind the times” or that modern views on sexuality and gender require us to change our truth if we want to be truly loving. You might as well say that chocolate and peanut butter no longer go together. This is the same false dichotomy that says reason and faith cannot coexist. I admit that seen through a worldly lens, love and the truth of the church seem at odds and are a source of hurt and irreconcilable tension. However, Jesus always sees things differently than the world and we see with him the unity of love and truth. As the church, we know that truth and love go together. Instead of rejecting the truth of our teachings we need to better understand them. This work of better understanding and living in the truth of the church with love and compassion is not easy in our culture of today. It is complex and very sensitive. It requires creativity and great mercy. We must be humble and open to new ways that express the reality of LGBT Catholics within the loving embrace of the church. I pray these new guidelines in “Like Every Disciple” help and inspire us to grow in our understanding of the truth of the church’s teachings with clarity and charity. A life lived in love and faithful to the truth is so sweet. Like every disciple, this is the fullness of life to which we are called and that all our ministries in the church work should encourage. For a full report on “Like Every Disciple” and for a link to the document, visit bit.ly/cr-disciples. Read More Commentary Family and friends, the 2024 election and Thanksgiving A Eucharistic Word: Waiting In my end is my beginning A pilgrim reflects upon traveling hundreds of miles with the Eucharist Question Corner: Is Dec. 9 a holy day of obligation this year? ‘Don’t leave us alone’ Copyright © 2023 Catholic Review Media Print
