Prisoners, or Pilgrims of Hope?
‘As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you’ (Zech. 9:11,12).
'Why aren’t you dating women?’ asked my frat brother. Good question. Why not? I had left ‘queer’ stuff behind with others’ help. Still, I had stalled. Though no longer bound to childish things, I wasn’t reaching for a manly ‘yes’ to women.

I was on that threshold. The truth? In those last couple years of Christian growth, I had changed. My legitimate, God-given needs for same-sex friendship had been met well. I liked being a man and no longer abdicated my masculine goodness for a fantasy version.
I received what I needed. But would I reach to realize the whole of my masculinity? That had everything to do with activating my sexuality in relation to a godly woman.
My roommate nudged me in that direction, and I heeded his, and I think God’s, call to be true to how He made me. Receiving good stuff in the place of counterfeits and reaching for more requires responsibility. I took the right step in a direction that grew me into the man I am today.
Perhaps that’s the meaning of ‘pilgrims of hope,’ Pope Francis’ words to describe this jubilee year. It tells of a person on his way, not claiming to have reached the goal but one who is realizing, one step at a time, the purpose of his sexual humanity.
That is just Christianity 101. A truly hopeful pilgrim stirs up magnanimity, which to Aquinas is ‘the jewel of all virtues’ because it decides, over and over, to realize one’s best. God didn’t make me nor redeem me to pine away in a perpetual adolescence of porn and ‘queer’ relationships. He destined me to be fruitful. I chose that.
And it’s a commitment I make every day in His grace. I am hopeful: more chaste today than yesterday! To remind you, ‘chastity is not a denial of sex but an orientation of sexuality towards a desired finality. It is a function of wholeness sought and healing found’ (Varden).
Yet it’s weird. The Church no longer has the courage of her convictions. She tends to settle on ‘queer’ stuff in general and homosexuality in particular as a kind of lifetime imprisonment, a chronic condition that people should accommodate. One rarely hears these days about the transforming power of Jesus and community. We just hear dramatic stories of pain and abuse that rainbow folk experience at the hand of the cruel Church.
Then comes the confusing rap of Pope Francis and others who try to pacify hurt people by mumbling blessings (Fiducia Supplicans), followed by the roar of conservatives who insist that they will never bless ‘gay’ sin. Gotcha.
Church, how about acting like Jesus and extending the hope of a real pilgrimage for persons bound by immaturity and disturbing symptoms? How about helping fellow Christians receive what they need and reach for more? How about giving them a real choice to shed rainbow rags and become men and women of substance?
Let’s activate our Truth: setting captives free from prison and for pilgrimage. That’s a hope worth celebrating.
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Beautiful hope.
Jubilee year of mercy and freedom.
We believe and receive.
Amen.
Amen!