ALL peoples

Friday, December 16, 2016

Third Week of Advent: from the first reading at Mass today (Isaiah 56:6-8)

The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants . . . them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; . . . for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

This is a rather extraordinary promise considering the fact that the religion of Israel, like many religions today, was exclusionary. There were those who belonged, and those who didn’t belong. But this prophecy blows that way of thinking right out of the water.

Why is it that there is such a strong tendency within religion to dualism: declaring that some people are fit to be members and some are not. And, to be honest, there are many examples in the Scriptures of this mentality at work. I think especially of the time that Jesus refused to heal the daughter of a Syro-Phonecian woman because she was not a Jew, but then changed his mind when confronted with the power of the woman’s faith and persistence. And yet the Pharisees were still busy separating those who were ‘’worthy” from those who were “not worthy.”

Jesus had a subtle way of being subversive in this regard. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be unworthy, and yet in the parable Jesus makes the good Samaritan the hero of the story. And, of course, there was the time he sat beside a Samaritan woman at the well and had a conversation with her, and as a result she believed in him and brought many of her friends and neighbors—Samaritans all—to see him and to come to faith in him as well.

This is a particularly powerful passage to keep in mind at this time in history when there are millions of displaced persons seeking refuge and new homelands, and facing often insurmountable odds against them being accepted into what one might call “comfortable” nations, the U.S.A. included.

God wants us to welcome all into our sanctuaries and homes, and to extend a merciful hand to all as well.

I saw a sad-but-true cartoon this morning. It was a drawing of the manger scene “without Jews, Arabs, Africans or refugees.”  The cartoon depicted a manger where the only inhabitants were the animals.

One last thing: these days of Advent, my heart goes out to the people of Aleppo and to all the other peoples in that part of the world who are being slaughtered because of hatred, religious extremism, or simply filthy politics. I am frustrated because I keep asking myself, “What can I do?” and coming up with no answer---until  I remember that I can pray for them in all of my masses and recitations of the Divine Office, and praying fervently that Jesus will come to show us a way that leads to peace.

God bless you!