Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was healed, then all of you… should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, and was raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.
Rulers of Jesus’ time had great difficulty in admitting and accepting good deeds and the powerful people who practiced them. Jesus fed people who were poor, healed people who were sick, and created peaceful communities – and the rulers persecuted and killed him. Followers of Jesus’ Way did the same and were treated the same by the rulers. The rulers could not accept good deeds as emanating from any other culture than the one they devised; from any people or belief system or ethic other than their own. They had a difficult time accepting how the goodness of life comes to us and from whom. It is the same difficulty the rulers had who lived during the time of today’s saint, Hildegund (d.1188). Thanks to Robert Ellsberg in All Saints, we learn that Hildegund wanted to travel with her widowed father to the Holy Land. To do so she needed to be disguised in clothing and mannerisms as a boy for safety. Her father died while there and for safety’s sake she retained her identity as a male – for the rest of her life. Hildegund came to understand she could not be the good and powerful person she knew herself to be if she reverted to the attired and mannered body and identity confined by masculine and feminine stereotypes dictated by the rulers and the culture they devised. Is this the same understanding people who identify as trans are experiencing? Are there rulers and a devised culture who cannot admit nor accept good deeds and the powerful trans persons who practice them? Are there some individuals who come to understand that they cannot be the good and powerful person they know themselves to be if they remain in the body and identity confined by rulers and the culture they devise as being either masculine or feminine? Is part of the questioning happening in the conversation of transgenderism needing to shift to the questioning of a culture? Does culture dictate attire and mannerisms under stereotypes of masculine and feminine and thereby diminish humanity, including as male and female?
“To be sure, (our) search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.” (Viktor Frankl)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, may we receive the goodness of all people.
Question: What are questions about gender that may help in our search for meaning?
April 21, 2024 Gospel John 10:11-18 Fourth Sunday of Easter