Jesus doesn't exclude

Thursday, September 21, 2017

The Feast of Saint Matthew

From the Gospel of the day (Matthew 9:9-13):

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.

Jesus was severely criticized by the “upright” religious leaders of His time. He associated with the types of people that were scorned, despised, judged, excluded and ostracized. Tax collectors, prostitutes, the despised Roman soldiers (consider the centurion whose servant he healed), the downtrodden and outcast, the lepers, the blind, the lame, those possessed by demons, notorious sinners of all stripes. He ate with them, He healed them, He brought them Good News, He comforted them, He drew them to himself, He touched the untouchables, He fed the starving. He looked on them as sheep without a shepherd and His heart reached out to them again and again and again.

There is a tendency in religion to exclude, to judge who is worthy and who is unworthy, to create “black sheep” by imposing codes of conduct which broken humanity is so often incapable of living up to. I once heard a woman tell me that she couldn’t go to Mass anymore because whenever she did, she was disgusted by all the people in “mortal sin” who were going up to receive communion. I asked her when God gave her the ability to look into other people’s souls and to judge. In her obsession to exclude the people around her she ended up excluding herself. But religion is full of people like that. Even priests, bishops and cardinals are so often tempted to exclude as well. And sometimes we can be like that ourselves.

Jesus breaks down those walls and barriers and extends His arms in welcome. You may not agree with me, but I strongly believe that when Jesus extended his arms on the cross it was to welcome into his embrace everyone, even the men who had pounded the nails into his hands and feet, even the terrorist who was hanging on the cross beside him. Jesus does not exclude me in my sinfulness and therefore, if I read the Gospels correctly, I in turn must not exclude anyone else.

Pope Francis, on his first Holy Thursday as pope, went and washed the feet of prisoners, some of whom weren’t even Catholic or weren’t even Christian. Some of them were even female, something which would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago. People whose feet were actually dirty. I remember one time I was invited to have my feet washed, and I made sure, before attending the service, that my feet were very clean. I suspect everyone with me that day had also done the same. But the Holy Father chose not to kneel before the well-washed, but rather to kneel and minister to imprisoned young men and women, many of whom (I suspect) had never even had an encounter with a truly holy man until that day. It pains me so terribly to realize that there are cardinals in the Church these days who scorn and criticize Pope Francis as he extends his arms to welcome the unwelcomed in imitation of his Savior.

If you were alive in Jesus’ time, would you have been able to sit with Jesus at the table in Matthew’s house that day, or would you have stood outside with a scornful look on your face? This, in my humble opinion, is an important question for each of us to ask ourselves.

God bless you!