Don’t Twist the Saints

The devil will never stop trying to trick us away from God’s path. He fooled Eve using her ego to taste the fruit, and she died along with Adam. He fooled Judas using his ego to betray Christ, and he died. At every turn the devil uses our ego against us, always to fool us away from Christ.

To feed our ego we search for any example of sin in others that can justify our behavior. We say, “See, he does it too!” We even use the lives of the saints to justify our sinful behavior. When we twist the saints lives, we don’t do them justice and we don’t help our ego. We fail.

Today is the feast of Saint Euphrosyne, who pretended to be a man and joined a monastery. She did this to escape the wealth of her father. She pretended to be a man, and was not discovered until her death almost four decades later. She was not transgender!

I can’t believe I need to say that, but her story is twisted by those who defend the current transgender movement. They seem to ignore not that she did not believe she was a man. She pretended to be a man, and she did it to join a monastery to avoid sin.

Nothing in her story is in the least bit like the current transgender movement. The current movement has nothing to do with avoiding sin let alone joining a community of ascetic prayer. It’s not far off to say that if Saint Euphrosyne could have joined a convent, she would have.

She wasn’t running away from her gender. She was running away from the wealth of her family. She wasn’t a man in a woman’s body. There is absolutely no evidence that she thought God ‘made a mistake’ by giving her female anatomy. She knew she was a woman. She was hiding.

The current transgender movement is being used by the devil to fool us away from God. The movement feeds our ego-centric society’s lie that we choose who we are not based on what God wants for us, but what we want for ourselves. Transgenderism is just the newest lie.

For generations we have struggled with our ego. Our modern society has been feeding the ‘self-identity lies’ for generations. Every time we tell a child, “You can be whatever you want to be,” we are feeding the lie. It is better to tell a child, “You can be whatever God wants you to be.”

I do not doubt that some people think they are something they are not, gender or otherwise. We all struggle with ‘who’ we are in ourselves and in society. Rather than pretending we need repentance. Rather than living a lie, we need to live the truth of God.

Brethren, since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we shall live with him by the power of God. Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed. But we pray God that you may not do wrong – not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. What we pray for is your improvement. I write this while I am away from you, in order that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

2^nd Corinthians 13.3-13

Saint Paul is encouraging us to ‘test ourselves’ to see whether our life reflects the life of Christ or not. In our baptism, we join ourselves to Christ. In His incarnation, He joined Himself to us. One way or another, we are joined to Christ. That is our true identity.

The lives of the saints teach us how to realize our true identity, not live a lie. We cannot take a rare story like Saint Euphrosyne’s and twist it to perpetuate our modern lies. We do a disservice to the saints, but also remain in our foolishness.

Saint Euphrosyne’s story doesn’t defend transgenderism any more than the stories of saints jumping off a cliff to avoid torture is a defense of suicide. The stories of the saints inform us how those before struggled to live the truth of their unity with Christ, not feed their egos.

If you want to follow in the footsteps of Saint Euphrosyne then run from wealth and join a monastery. He story isn’t as simple as her pretending to be a man. She was running away from sin and temptation. Start your imitation by running away from sin.