To my gay brothers and
sisters: I know it is not an easy Cross that Our Lord has asked us to
carry, but we are highly favored, for only those that were truly
Faithful to Jesus: His Blessed Mother, Mary Magdalene, and John were
privileged to stand at the Cross. We can be there too, if we embrace
our suffering. Here is a short excerpt from my book:
“...there were so many
guys that I knew with extraordinary aptitudes for art, literature,
music, dance, and design. They were truly gifted by God. I believe
that this is why the devil often singles-out gay men for an
enormously severe form of temptation and torture. For as gay men, we
have often endured a suffering not unlike the Saints. From our
earliest memories, we frequently harbor secretive pains of self-doubt
and rejection...”
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteI've been hearing about your story throughout the internet over the last few days, and I have to admit..you are a true hero.
You have taken a negative situation of personal destruction to one of redemption, transformation and evolution. Also, the sacrifice that it takes to share this story with the world is extremely inspiring, I applaud and support your efforts and continued strength.
There are many interesting perspectives and ideas floating around this subject. Everyone has their 'truth', and is coming from a point of view, or experience, personally or socially informed or reinforced..whatever. All are rational ideas or understandings of the complexity of these issues.
Unfortunately, in the West, many don't clearly understand the occult. This is the crux of the issue. We are taught to form ideas based on tangibilities, on facts, on experiences that we can detect with our 5 senses. With ideas that we can rationalize and understand, ideas that we read about in school, tv or movies, or what just makes sense to us. However, there are very many that understand that there are other dimensions of reality that exist (like there are different spectrums of wireless frequencies, sound or light energy), they have been painted in the core messages of all of the different scriptures of faith. There are destructive forces that exists, and by the choices we make (knowingly or unknowingly) we can align ourselves with them.
The faith problem is, that there have been atrocities and hypocrisies committed in the name of faith. Faith has and is being used as a device for power or control, it exists in all faiths, as it part of our primal nature to fall prey to these ideas. Also, some of the texts have ideas (because of the time they were written) we fail to understand - the differences between symbolism and fact. All of these confusions have cast heavy doubts. Plus, on the other side there is fundamentalism of all kinds now. The unfortunate situation is that the core messages have been lost and ideas of purity (to many) have no weight or justification in our 'modern times'.
In some eastern religions, our bodies are based on pure evolutionary energy managed by Chakras and the root 'Mooldhara' chakra (located at the perineal region) governs our sense of innocence, purity, wisdom and chastity. When damaged, it can be an entry way for negative energies (or as we perceive them, demons) into our bodies and we can loose our sense of whats right and wrong and slowly, without even realizing it begin to destroy ourselves. So, your experiences would truly validate these ancient ideas.
I think if more people understood the language of Chakras (through Meditation), which are absolute (unlike formed identity), then we could understand our true identity and purpose. Many people 'accept' their situations because they feel it's what they are, or were meant to be, but don't realize that all of this is still a rationalization based on thinking, or limitation of understanding. Its a very proud idea to have full acceptance of yourself, but if we understood the full capacity of our 'selves' and accepted that, then we would embrace completely different and enlightened perspective.
We need to go beyond rational and intellectual discourse, of fear and limitation and rise to a level of purity. Only then will our true identities be discovered.
True introspection and facing oneself can be extremely difficult (especially after years of abuse, pain, torment, self destruction, lies, misinformation, mis-identification etc.), but is the true path to the spirit. When we align with our spirit, we have no lust, no greed, no pride, no ego, no impure desire, only Joy.
You have found this path and are paving the way for others. A true warrior and a hero.
:D
Thank you. I loved your post so much, I shared it with my friends on Face-book. I think you prove that all of us: Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, every Faith, can find commonality in the purity of good.
DeleteForgiveness
ReplyDeleteI have been crying in bed these last few weeks. I have been crying not out of pain, not out of sadness, but out of thankfulness and survival.
The same scene keeps playing in my head over and over again. The scene is of a guy—maybe me. He has just arrived at the gates of heaven, and he is talking to God.
He says to God, “Look what I did for You. Look at my life. I was made gay, but I avoided all temptation. I married a girl. I had children, and I built a good family. I never once gave into my temptation to be with another man. I did all this for You.”
God looks down at him and replies, “You fool.”
“I made you that way for a reason. I made you that way because I needed you to be that way for a reason. I needed you to do all these things, but you didn’t.”
“Remember that friend you liked so much? I made you for him. I needed you to bring him to my Kingdom. Together, I needed you together to perform miracles for me. Instead of following the love I gave you, you left him, and Satan took a hold of him. As a result, he suffered a life of depression and anger and was unable to escape the devil’s hold on him.”
“You married a girl you did not love and who I had prepared for someone else. With her you had children, and those children grew up not knowing the full extent of my love because they did not see it in yours. I now have to find them and bring them back to my Kingdom.”
“You prayed to me a thousand times asking me to make you normal, and I always replied I made you exactly as I wanted you. I wanted you to know you are and always were normal. I made you, and therefore I always loved you.”
“You did not do these things for me. You did them to please the people around you. You did those things to please your father and your mother, your friends and your colleagues. You did that because you wanted to look and act and feel normal in front of them. You did all that not for me. You did it for yourself.”
“All those temptations, each one was a lost soul I needed you to collect and bring to me. I needed you to bring me just one of those souls. I needed you to do that by showing him the love I gave you.”
“I needed you to be different because the person I created you to be was amazing, and you were going to be an example and leader to other lost souls. Through you I was going to bring herds of lost souls to my Kingdom.”
“You are forgiven.”
The second poster's story has some interesting insights about God's plan for someone with homosexual tendencies. They need not be something that they're not, which is a family man or husband of a woman, especially if the intention behind it is for their own sake, not for God. But what they can really do is to help each other to find God and do His work, and in this way they can attain the Kingdom of Heaven, instead of being a slave to their own lustful desires for sexual gratification. I'll pray that more and more gay men will discover this truth, with the help of such courageous and brave souls such as Joseph Sciambra. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteWith the 2nd poster, The crux of these perspectives are always wrapped in accepting yourself, accepting your desires, as your desires dictate who you are. True, that is a part of the story. Zooming out however, our desires can also be influenced by many other factors (physical, mental and spiritual). The ultimate truth is, when one is in union with their spirit (and not their desires) one becomes desireless and has no lust in their heart. Thats the ultimate truth, cause its coming from the source. If we're making decisions out of lust, were probably making the wrong decisions.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying reading the comments. God gives us new desires and dreams if we ask Him. It is my prayer that we all continue to be blessed by the Lord and that He enlarges our capacity to receive His blessings. T. W.
ReplyDelete