American Conservatives were miffed this year when Sleepy President Joe announced Easter Sunday as the Trans Day of Visibility. In years past, I may have ranted like the Michael Knowles’s of the world, denouncing yet another secular encroachment on religious rights and freedoms. But much to my surprise, I was amused, and even chuckled a little.
Every Easter Sunday, nearly two billion people on this planet commemorate a man who’s body was mutilated by government officials, all because people disagreed with how He self-identified.
Well, to be fair, that’s what happened on Good Friday. Easter Sunday was when that man broke through the confines of preconceived notions, political powers, social structures, a rock-hewn tomb, and even death itself, promising us the ability to do the same.
Easter Sunday was the day that man’s transformative transcendence became visible. Some of His followers were lucky enough to see Him that day, and the joy from those encounters was so effusive, so electrifying, that they couldn’t contain it. They had to run to others, and to the whole world, to share the good news.
This year, as His followers ran again to share the same, timeless, joyous news, the American President stopped them along the way and said, “don’t forget our minorities.”
Some lashed out and said, “how dare you defile this our holy day.” But I’m fine with rendering unto Caeser what is his, and to God what is God’s. I wasn’t planning on ignoring anyone, anyway.
The message is universal, and the invitation’s open to all:
There is a man who knew you before you were in your mother’s womb, who dreamt of your most perfect identity before you were even born. He never went to medical school, but has given sight to the blind, and mobility to the paralyzed.
He’s never been elected to office, but He reigns over our world as its King.
He knows your thirst, your pain, your frustrations, your suffering, your yearning, and your desire to be seen, to be loved, and to be validated; your desire to be someone else, something more. Come, meet Him, and He will make you new.
About The Author
I'm a former Catholic seminarian turned Canadian physician, specializing in psychiatry.
