In response to the criticism of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games : If it were today, Jesus would be fluid !
In response to the criticism of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games : If it were today, Jesus would be fluid !
Societas Criticus, revue de critique sociale et politique, Vol. 26-03, Éditos : www.societascriticus.com
Michel Handfield, M.Sc. Sociology (2024-08-08). From the French version (2024-07-30) translated with Google Translate. (1)
If it were today, Jesus would be a fluid !
Who is the most important
female character around Jesus? Mary Magdalene, an easy girl, as we
would say today. Who was the apostle who was the closest to him? Some
will say Simon Peter, but that is to forget the one Jesus loved !
This is what is said in the Gospel :
« Early
on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene
went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the
entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the
tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” »
(2)
This
friendship must have been quite strong, because I don’t know many
men who lie on the bosom of their friends as Jesus does with the one
he loved :
« After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” » (3)
And
what is the main Christian message when you think about it? Love one
another. It’s not to make war or kill one another. It’s to love
one another. It couldn’t be clearer :
« My
command is this :
Love each other as I have loved you. »
(4)
It couldn’t be simpler:
Jesus loved one disciple, Mary Magdalene, and all of us, so much. So
he would be a fluid today, living first for the love of his
neighbour. If God is unique and his love is genderless, then it seems
logical to me that his son would be like that.
In short, the biblical message like the opening spectacle of the 2024 Olympics in Paris tells us the same thing: when we are naked before God and Men, there are no weapons that hold, so stop fighting and love one another ! There is no more peaceful and Christian message, I believe. And to those who think that I am distorting the gospels, I quote John once again :
« Jesus
performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which
are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name. »
(5)
What
concerns me is what was not written and why. Then, through the
gospels, don’t we see a little further when we read what is
written, but also what is described, because there are the words and
the gestures? And, in the gestures, that an apostle, the one Jesus
loved, is « lying
on the bosom of Jesus »
does not seem trivial to me. It is akin to a cryptic message,
understandable only to those who can interpret the gospel’s hidden
meanings from a contemporary point of view. In short, it is a bit
like old movies
that had codes for homosexuals because we could not talk about them,
clearly. But today we understand it better. If there is a scandal, it
is not on the side of this spectacle that we must look, but at the
moral prohibitions that have caused so much harm and sexual abuse
because everything happened in a hidden way. Some lived it, others
saw it, but could not talk about it. And, if they spoke, we did not
believe them. Scandal is rarely on the side of openness, but it knows
how to hide in obscurantism !
Notes
1.
In French « En
réponse aux critiques de la cérémonie d’ouverture des JO de
Paris 2024 : Si c'était aujourd'hui, Jésus serait un
fluide ! »
2. John 20:1 (New International Version or NIV) :
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/20.htm
3. John 13:21 (NIV) : https://biblehub.com/niv/john/13.htm
4. John 15:12 (NIV) : https://biblehub.com/niv/john/15.htm
5.
John 20:30 (NIV) :
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/20.htm