“Be Creative.”

Last Sunday’s homily revolved around the family. I had my eyebrows raised as the priest was starting his homily with ‘lost values’. I wasn’t expecting anything different from him anyway. He was the spiritual director of our lector ministry when I was still there. And it was because of one of his statements during a meeting that made me quit anyway.

But he mentioned something different this time that caught my attention. “Be Creative.” He was exhorting the LGBT community to exercise more ‘creativity’ in creating labels. He begs the community to use terms other than ‘marriage’ or ‘family’ as we argue for our civil rights. He mentions the biblical context of ‘marriage’ and ‘family’ as so ‘traditionally-held’, even sacred, to the religious. Hence, our arguments fall on deaf ears every time we talk about same-sex ‘marriage’ and redefining the ‘family’. Surely there our other terms, he contends. Reframing the argument for same-sex civil unions and households with same-sex parents may move the cause further.

Though some we still find his position disappointing, I choose to see his homily as a softening of his stand. And I become a little bit more hopeful in 2018.



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