The Prayer Vigils and the God of Little Things. Will They Be Heard?
Thoughts from Innocenzo, a Gionata Project volunteer
As we organize the Prayer Vigils for Victims of Homophobia, I’ve been asked to talk about how things are going. After a fleeting twinge of panic, I started thinking, “Where do I start?”
The last few weeks have been really hectic. My daily life revolves around running from one part-time job to the other, while trying my friends from gionata.org and I prepare for the Prayer Vigils for Victims of Homophobia and Transphobia.
Indeed, with new participants, info requests, LGBT Christian groups and Christian communities needing liturgy materials, it seems like all we are doing is answering and forwarding emails, updating the Prayer Vigil website, doing translations, recording personal stories, and so on.
Sometimes it seems like it’s my third job, but it certainly doesn’t pay very much – actually nothing at all! It’s actually incredible to see how many Christians and communities across Italy, in many parts of Europe and in the Americas are joining us everyday.
Just think, we’ll be praying for victims of homophobia with people around the world and in many different languages. However, we’ll be united in the same strong faith and hope as we invoke our God together. We’ll be asking for a better world, one where the violence of homophobia doesn’t kill, hurt or exclude our gay, lesbian and transsexual brothers and sisters.
It may seem childish, but I get emotional just thinking about all this. Especially if I think that this initiative came about through simply word-of-mouth online, along with the commitment of so many people of good will.
Looking back at the results, I think that God’s hand is truly at work here. I can’t come up with another explanation for what’s happening. The God of little things is truly at work.
Above and beyond all other considerations, I intimately believe that we are never left alone as we travel along the path of life. Indeed, I’ve always thought that our Christian God was wonderful precisely because He accompanies us each day as we walk along our way…
I see God as someone who knows how to laugh with us when we get mad because we’re stuck in traffic, someone who can look us in the eyes when we’re all alone in the kitchen holding our head because we’re too tired to think, someone who holds us in a tight embrace during those dark moments we have and we don’t even know why…
Is this a strange God we believe in? I don’t know, but I feel that this God is a professional meddler. When we’re angry, frustrated and want no part of God, He is still there and continues talking to us, no matter what. Maybe it’s through a friend breaking our silence with a random phone call or a dinner with friends that somehow removes the shadow over our heart.
Ours is the God of little things, yet He has a big heart. Maybe He really is a strange God. In spite of all the things we do, He never tires of us. He’s there to listen to our complaints, our hopes, our fears and I’m sure that he continues to be our biggest fan.
How can I be sure? Well, I certainly never talked to him directly but sometimes life really can be funny. How many times have I been heading down a dead-end street just to find suddenly that something appears and a new beginning is before me! Maybe I don’t understand why, maybe it’s Him pushing me to keep on going …
I think this is the God we’ll be talking to during the many Prayer Vigils for the victims of homophobia and transphobia.
Will they be heard? I don’t know. What’s important is that we are able to feel how close he is to each one of us. He is our travel companion on this long and rocky road of life.
