What should Peter say to a transgender sanhedrin? (Sunday homily)

When we hear in the first reading, 

the Apostles saying what the Lord sent them to say, 

and they are met with hostility...

Let’s hit the obvious point: 2,000 years and nothing has changed.

You and I face the same choice as Peter: Do we obey God or men?

An urgent case right now is what’s happening in the medical field.

There are powerful forces, including in the federal government, 

who believe doctors, nurses, pharmacists, 

and others in the health profession, 

must not be allowed to refuse to take part in an abortion, 

or in a suicide, 

or in providing drugs or surgery that facilitate someone to say, 

I’m not a girl anymore, I’m a boy, or vice-versa.

I’m going to take a couple of minutes on the transgender question, 

because this is still pretty new, it’s confusing, 

and people don’t know how to respond.

A great deal of what you hear on transgender issues 

is propaganda and outright lies.

They refer to so-called “transgender medicine.”

No! It’s not medicine, it’s abuse, it’s quackery, it’s magical thinking.

I’m now going to state, not theology or faith, but biological fact; 

as much a fact as that this planet is round, and we circle the sun:

human beings are either a boy or a girl.  

In extremely rare situations there can be some physical ambiguity, 

but the fundamental male or female identity is still there.

And there are all manner of ways people’s thinking or self-perception 

can be out of sync with themselves or the world around them.

So, people feeling at odds with their physical bodies is not fake.

It’s not a joke. This a difficult trial deserving real help.

Even so, whether you are male or female is not a choice or a mindset.

And no surgery, no drug, nothing can undo the basic biological fact.

By the way, this isn’t the only way this happens in life, 

that we long to change something about ourselves, but we cannot.

Some things we can change. Others are beyond our control.

If the latter, it becomes a matter of better or worse ways 

to carry our cross and make peace with the hand we’ve been dealt.

One more key detail: this whole thing is largely aimed at children.

Again, children. Not just under 18, but pre-puberty.

And you should know that counselors and psychologists 

and other medical personnel are being told, 

that if a child comes to you, you must – MUST – “affirm only.”

What does that mean?

It means you are not allowed to assist that child 

to get back to a place of self-acceptance. 

Instead, you can only say, OK, you are now a boy, 

here’s a drug, here’s a surgery, your life is altered forever.

All before you hit 15 years old.

All that is only one way you and I must be Peter today,

and obey God rather than men. 

There are lots of other hard things our Lord had to say: 

about money, about possessions, about the poor,

about clearing my own eye before dealing with your flaws.

And sooner or later, you and I aren’t actually Peter being brave.

We’re the Sanhedrin saying, I don’t want to hear that!

Notice Jesus asked Peter about his love three times.

They were using two different words translated as “love.”

Jesus was asking, Do you love me with a go-to-the-cross love?

Peter comes back with a, yeah-you’re-kind-of-cool “love.”

Peter’s love was weak, but Jesus built on that, 

and Peter ultimately did go to the cross.

Give Jesus your little bit of love and he will get you there.

When you and I face our Sanhedrin, our “stop saying that” moments, 

there is no excuse to forget that we want the good, 

including the final good of heaven, for each person we disagree with.