I'm A Catholic And I Celebrated Gay Pride

I doubted God for a significant amount of time in my life. I was unhappy with my life, my circumstances and pretty much everything else around me. I was angry at the world and felt as if it was against me.

Then I found love.

No, I do not mean I found the perfect guy who swept me off my feet and who I deemed him as Prince Charming. I finally used my eyes and took a look and saw—for the first time—love within every person and everything around me. I finally started believing in giving others and things the benefit of the doubt and opening my heart to forgiveness, appreciation, and respect. Love, like water, is fluid, I realized. It seeks to touch others, fill them up, and give them nourishment. When I realized how translucent love is and can be, I recognized that it is everywhere. This philosophy changed my hateful heart and brought me to accept the Lord Jesus Christ back into my life. He is love. He inspires through His Word, teaching us that the greatest of all beatitudes is indeed, love!

Jesus, through prayer and reflection, has taught me to love and how to love. I have found that we all have the power to love and we are indeed the ones who control our ability to act upon it. At the San Francisco Pride Parade this past weekend, I felt as if it was the perfect place to practice what Jesus has preached to us.

Almost two years ago, a classmate of mine made the false assumption that "the Bible tells us to stone homosexuals." The Bible has never said a word of that. It does say, yes, being homosexual is a sin, but I think that must not be taken to heart. Jesus revives the Old Testament and focuses more on how we should treat, rather than condemn other people. This is what we need, as Christians, to keep in mind. We need to keep in mind what love truly is and take action upon it.

Love... is not proud... is not rude... is not easily angered... keeps no record of wrong... always protects... always hopes... never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

We must remember these lessons Jesus taught us when we practice love. The San Francisco Pride Parade gave me the opportunity as a Christian to challenge the so called "sin" of the Old Testament and live out Jesus' Word. I do not ever mean to sound righteous, but I think it is important to challenge the lessons we were nurtured with and reflect upon what we have truly learned from it.

Love is all around us, and it is not just for Christians to practice. It should just be a way of life to live out our time on Earth with an open, kind heart. Everyone has intrinsic value - let everyone know that through your actions. Consider how your actions affect other people's feelings because everyone is truly worthy of love. Jesus - divine or an average Jewish man in your book - exemplified this, and you can too.