Having battled health issues since a stroke in December 2010, he was planning on retiring from Harvard in 2012. Not only considered one of America’s most prestigious preachers, Gomes was also a staunch advocate in hopes of improving Americans’ acceptance of homosexuals. Well-known for his open-houses and afternoon teas, he was loved and revered by those who knew him and will be missed.

Yes, the sermon was about Harvard FML.

Perhaps the greatest part of the sermon is hearing Reverend Page read aloud some of the embarrassing and outrageous posts from Harvard FML. Yet, he also explores with a critical eye the nature and the “disturbing” mentality that the website fosters, warning against the kind of cynical reduction which the three letters, “FML” may propose.

“Expressing frustration through FML might work, instead of just saying ‘don’t worry, be happy’…but is it ideal? Is that the way we should cope with the bumps of our life?” Page asks. “Everytime something bad happens you shrug it off with the phrase, ‘F my life.’”

Reverend Page strikes a chord in every Harvard student’s heart when he warns against seeing the world “through FML glasses.”

“You turn a written assignment, which might be an opportunity for learning and expanding your horizons, into a burden,” he says. “You take the complex world of relationships into the simple calculus of sex.”

Yet, Harvard FML does seem to have some redeeming qualities. Page explores some of the more serious FML posts that express deep pain, the ones that use FML as “a coping mechanism,” making light of difficult situations “so that others may see.”

He quotes a few of these painful FML’s: “April 26: ‘I’m 19 and I have a drinking problem. What am I supposed to do when I am allowed to drink?’” The one great benefit of Harvard FML, Reverend Page suggests, is that it is a forum for people who feel that they have no one else to go to.

Page ends the sermon by saying that perhaps we need the presence of God instead of ” shifting responsibility to some nebulous ‘out there.’”

The Voice appreciates Reverend Page’s critical take on Harvard FML and is glad to see that the website has fostered much discussion, even research papers, around the phenomenon.

You can listen to the sermon online (or download it) here.

See our April 2009 issue on a profile of Reverend Jon Page.