Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
Marinos
the Monk
A Patron Saint of Transgendered People
June
17, 2020
Give us grace, Lord God, to refrain from judgments about the sins of others; that, like your servant Marinos the Monk, we may hold fast to the path of discipleship in the midst of unjust judgments; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I remember clearly the moment when I
understood where the Spirit was calling the church in terms of acceptance of
gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgendered people. I was in discernment for holy orders in a
parish outside of Washington DC that was mixed: it had many progressives, but
it also had conservatives, and it was divided over the question. Some felt that the five or so “clobber
passages” in the Bible teaching that same sex activity was an “abomination”
were definitive in establishing norms for sexual ethics and morality; others thought
that the great narrative of Acts 15 was central: the early apostles voted to accept gentiles
as full-fledged members of the church without them first becoming Jews even
though previous scripture labeled them as unclean. In this story, inclusive acceptance is at the
heart of the Christian calling. I was at
a diocesan discernment conference for those preparing for Holy Orders. My conservative parish priest was with me.
I had been overwhelmed and happy to
see a great variety of people in the seats preparing for the priesthood: all
colors, ethnic backgrounds, and life-situations. But after the conference, my priest turned to
me, and in hushed, conspiratorial tones aimed at letting me know that I might
be included in the Rector’s close circle of intimate advisors and co-workers,
he said this to me: “Tony, did you see
that person in the row right behind us?”
He was referring to a younger person of ambiguous gender identity who
was seeking the priesthood. I had
learned from her in one of the work sessions during the day that she was a
trans-woman, and had started out life as a boy. She was inspiring in the faith
sharing exercise, and was being sponsored by a priest I knew, respected, and
loved. I replied, “Who do you
mean?” The priest replied, with clear
disgust in his voice, “You know, that freak!”
I looked puzzled. He replied,
with acid frostiness, “You had to have seen it: That he who thinks he’s a she
and has mutilated himself to make the point instead of repenting and trusting
Jesus to heal him.” He said this with
loathing and hatred and I flinched. All
I could say was, “Well, I know the priest who accompanied her, and I trust his
pastoral judgment.” He replied, with
anger, “This is exactly the slippery slope I predicted when we began accepting
unrepentant sexual perverts as priests.
The future leadership of the Episcopal Church more and more is going to
look like that damaged freak because we have abandoned the Bible!” I walked on in silence. His unguarded moment of frankness had shocked
me. I was sure I had looked clearly upon the hatred at the heart of those
wanting to divide the Episcopal Church over gays, lesbians, and Gene
Robinson. From that moment on, I was
firmly in the Acts 15 camp.
Today is the commemoration of St. Marinos the Monk, a monastic of the fifth century. The following commemoration is adapted from Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018 (removing deadnaming and mispronouning).
Marinos, also called Marina the Monk, Pelagia, and Mary of Alexandria, was a Byzantine Christian in Syria and Lebanon. Born a girl as Mariam or Marina, he was the offspring of wealthy Christian parents and is considered now to have been a transgender man. Marina's mother died when the saint was very young, and thus Marina was raised in devout Christian life by his father Eugenius. As Marina’s age of marriage drew near, Marina’s father wished to retire to a monastery after he had found his child a husband. When Marina learned of his father's plan, she asked why his father intended to save his own soul "and destroy mine." When asked by his father, "What shall I do with you? You are a woman", Marina answered that he would renounce women's clothing and live as a monk. He then immediately shaved the hair from his own head and changed his clothes to male ones. His father, seeing his child’s strong determination, gave all his possessions to the poor and traveled with Marina to the Kadisha Valley to live in monastic community life, sharing a cell with him under the name Marinos.After ten years Marinos' father died, leaving him alone. Marinos continued to conceal the fact that he was born a woman. Later, a pregnant woman told her father that Marinos was to blame. On hearing the story, the abbot called for Marinos and reprimanded him severely. When Marinos realized what was happening he fell to his knees and wept, confessing his sinfulness (without explicitly stating how he had sinned) and asking forgiveness. The fact that there was no attempt to deny the fault made the abbot so furious that he told Marinos to leave the monastery. He left at once and remained outside the gates as a beggar. When the pregnant woman gave birth, Marinos raised the child. After ten years the monks convinced the abbot to allow Marinos to return to the monastery.At the age of forty, Marinos became ill and died. While cleaning the body, the monks discovered that he had, in fact, been born a woman. This made them very distressed. During the funeral prayers, one of the monks, who was blind in one eye, received full sight again after he touched the body. Marinos is commemorated (often with the dead name Marina) in the Roman Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Episcopal Church.
People
cite passages of the Law of Moses to the effect that non-conformity to normative
sexual identities is an “abomination.” But
the Torah’s logic of “everything in a category to which it conforms” as the
rule for establishing ritual purity and impurity means that “abomination” here
includes sowing a field with two crops mixed, hybrid crops, eating shellfish or
pork, weaving fabrics of blended materials as well as cross dressing or same-sex
intimacy. All these are of a piece, and
this categorical logic was rejected by the Church when it accepted gentiles and
stopped requiring the keeping of kosher laws.
Ancient Hebrew is challenged in
expressing abstractions: narrative, lists of examples, and listing opposites
are the primary ways it uses for this. Polar
opposites are listed when what is intended is a diverse spectrum of reality
between the poles. Examples
include: “Yahweh shall preserve your
going out and your coming in” (Psalm 121:8), where this means “preserve you at
all times”; “I know your rising up and your sitting down” (Isaiah 37:28), where this means “I know
you completely.”
Reading such phrases literally can
make you totally miss the point. “God
created man in his own image, in the image of God, He created them, male and
female created He them” (Gen 1:37 KJV) is often used as a proof text by
Biblical fundamentalists for the immutability and prescriptive normativity of
gender difference, a misreading strengthened by the mistranslation of ‘adam as
“man” rather than “humankind.” This is
where the idea “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” comes from. But here, polarities are clearly
representing the spectrum between them and a much better translation should
be:
God created humankind in God’s image;
in God’s own image God created them;
male, female, and all in between: God created them.
Our
honoring of St. Marinos underscores the fact that God’s grace operates for all regardless
of the spectrums on which they appear.
So should our showing of God’s grace.
Grace
and Peace, Fr. Tony+
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