John 3:16 and the Equality Act

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
(Jn 3:16–17)

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

I have received numerous requests in the past few weeks for guidance and/or a statement on the Equality Act of 2021, also known as H.R. 5, a Bill that was passed by the House of Representatives and apparently will soon be considered by the Senate.

One statement that I would offer is the statement and guidance issued by the Bishops of our country, which can be found at the USCCB Website (Action Center).

I will quote here the first lines of that statement:

“Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. The Equality Act, which is being voted on in the U.S. Senate soon, in many ways does the opposite and needs to be opposed. Instead of respecting differences in beliefs about marriage and sexuality, the Equality Act would discriminate against people of faith.”

I support this statement and believe that we need to urge our Senators to vote against this Bill, because it discriminates against people of faith and could potentially seriously limit the exercise of our constitutionally guaranteed and protected Freedom of Religious practice.

As I thought about some of the requests that I have received and some comments that I have heard concerning the Equality Act, I also listened to and reflected upon the Gospel for this past Sunday, which included one of the most well-known and, some would say, most important lines in Scripture, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world …” I believe that we must always take great care that when we teach or strive to share the Truth revealed to us by faith, and articulated by Scripture and the Church’s Magisterium, we must always strive to do so with love.

In doing some additional research on the USCCB website, I typed in the words, “teach the Truth with love” — at first I was surprised and then I was encouraged to see that those words produce 819 results. It seems that our Bishops are and have been striving on a consistent basis to “teach the Truth with love. As we have heard much in the past few years about the political climate in our country, I am becoming more and more convinced that we can be both faithful citizens and also the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” that Jesus calls us to be, by asking the Lord to teach us and show us how best to teach or witness to the Truth with love.

Pope Benedict XVI warned against the relativism of our modern and pluralistic culture, which leads many to misunderstand or reject the Church’s belief in the Truth of revelation and Jesus’s commission, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:19–20) Many in our society would question anyone’s ability to know “the Truth,” as well as the possibility or existence of objective truth.

Perhaps the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death and her teaching on human sexuality and marriage are accepted by fewer people and even fewer Catholics now than in the past, even the very recent past. We could be discouraged by this or we can see it as an opportunity to ask Jesus to help us be more authentic witnesses to the Truth. The 17th Chapter of John’s Gospel is sometimes called the “Priestly” or “Final” Prayer of Jesus, offered as he prays for his apostles at the Last Supper, just before entering the Garden of Gethsemane and into his Passion. In the course of that prayer, Jesus asks the Father, “… Consecrate them to the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they all may be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (Jn 17:17–22).

At that moment, Jesus was praying for all Christians, praying that we “may be one.” When we pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for the Bishop of the Diocese by name at each Mass, we are praying for unity in the Church and for those who have been entrusted with the ministry and authority of teaching. As Bishop, I am grateful for the prayers of all in the Diocese of Paterson and I pray that, working together, we can strive more and more to faithfully “teach the Truth with love.”