I write this piece on the anniversary celebrating eight years of All Inclusive Ministries, and three months into the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. So much has happened in the growth of AIM since it began eight years ago in the “upper room,” that is, in the library of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto, yet so much more has come about during the three months of the current pandemic. For the first time in our lives, we were not able to gather in church for Mass, and even as restrictions have slowly been easing up at the end of June 2020, it is not suitable yet to gather as the AIM community for the anniversary Mass.
Then, in the midst of finding meaning and community while being isolated due to the pandemic, we lost one of our priests to COVID-19, Fr. Peter Larisey, SJ, who served as a priest for the AIM Mass a number of times, and who was a welcoming presence to many LGBT Catholics returning to the Church. Fr. Peter, a Jesuit for 68 years, passed away on April 30, 2020, at the age of 92.
More shocking to me as an Egyptian living in Toronto was the surprising death of the queer Egyptian activist Sarah Hegazi, who died by suicide on June 13, 2020, three years after taking refuge in Toronto from the harm she had faced in Egypt. Her death created new shock waves around talking about LGBT rights in Egypt and more broadly in the Middle East. While she was outspoken in the media, her words usually fell on deaf ears, and they were frequently rejected in the name of religious morality.
The recent deaths of both Fr. Peter Larisey and Sarah Hegazi provide me the space to reflect on the place of AIM and its monthly Mass as it intersects with the lives of LGBT Catholics in Toronto. In the monthly Mass, the choir sometimes sings “Song of the Body of Christ” as the Entrance Hymn. The refrain of this song goes as follows:
“We come to share our story.
We come to break the bread.
We come to know our rising from the dead.”
“We come to share our story.”
As a community, we gather in church for Mass, but we do not attend just to hear a priest or watch a performance, and then leave. Rather, we come together to reflect on Scripture, and with the Lectio Divina, we share our own stories. We speak together, we speak with the priests, we socialize and know each other as friends within a larger community of LGBT people and an even larger community of Catholics. It is this sacred space of friendship, where we share our story, that I found was missing in the short life of Sarah Hegazi. She spoke her story out loud, but it was never welcomed, and so it was never “shared.” In sharing, there is a bond of acceptance and love, which strengthens and grows as a community, as the Church, which is the Body of Christ. Gathering as AIM, this is our song.
“We come to break the bread.”
It is strange how we took for granted our gathering together once a month for breaking the bread in the Eucharist. I’ve only come to realize this during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused all Christians to fast from the Eucharist as a health precaution. We went through Holy Week and Easter without communion. Yet, AIM was creative enough to stay connected as a ministry through online Liturgy of the Word celebrations using the video conferencing program, Zoom. There, we gathered with familiar and new faces, people who broke open the Word of God from their various backgrounds and experiences. Yet, we are eager to gather physically again one day to offer our sacrifices in the breaking of the bread.
“We come to know our rising from the dead.”
As a community that has a safe space to share our stories, and to receive the grace of the Bread of Life through the Eucharist, we find in this deep mystery of love our share and communion in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity. Despite the brokenness and challenges of being members of the Body of Christ, whose body was once broken for us, we know that we will rise through our daily suffering in this world. And as such, death is not the end, nor is it a solution to our suffering: with Fr. Peter’s compassionate mission among LGBT Catholics, his legacy and love continues in the AIM community; and while Sarah may have never found her safe space to share her story, may she be remembered not as someone who gave in to her suffering, but as a courageous lesbian who taught us about human dignity, and alerted us to attend to the needs and rights of LGBT people, both locally and across the world.
“We will live and sing your praises.
‘Alleluia’ is our song.
May we live in love and peace our whole life long.”
+ In loving memory of Fr. Peter Larisey and Sarah Hegazi.
