Readings - http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092511.cfm
Each Sunday during Ordinary Time the Readings offer us an opportunity to reflect on some aspect of our daily lives. Today, it would seem to be how we relate to those around us. Do we see them as Children of God worthy of love, or do we focus on their flaws?
I say this because in the Gospel Reading, Jesus was responding to a common charge leveled against his disciples by others who probably should have known better. Jesus’ disciples were being accused by the priests, elders and scribes of their time to be “a bunch of tax collectors and prostitutes.”
So let’s ask ourselves, how many of the first apostles actually were tax collectors? One, Matthew, who _himself_ calls himself a former tax collector. The others were simple – four fisherman, a zealot (local “PLO guy” basically) a bunch of others of non-descript occupations – but _not_ the worst possible of sinners (collaborators with the Romans).
And then how many of the women around Jesus were actually prostitutes? Possibly one, the future St. Mary Magdalene. And even then there’s some question there. Da Vinci Code aside, it is clear that St. Mary Magdalene was an important figure in the early Church. In the Gospels, she is the first person to see Jesus after his Resurrection. Perhaps out of jealousy, this particular aspect of her past was raised-up against her and it did stick. Was it true that she was a Prostitute. At this point we can not know. What we do know is that even if she had been, she had changed. And there would be some reason to believe that perhaps this aspect of her life before meeting Jesus was exaggerated to hurt her, indeed, supporting my point.
The “tax collector and prostitute” reputation of Jesus’ followers was being exaggerated by opponents of Jesus and the early Church to hurt them. One tax collector and one possible prostitute does not “a den of tax collectors and prostitutes” make. But no matter, that’s what they were accused of.
This then comes to our present day, and effects all kinds of relations, from home, to parish, to community to even Ecumenism.
I remember that when I was in Rome during my years in the seminary, the Professor teaching our Course in Ecumenism, a teacher who was in fact a leading functionary at the Vatican on the question of Ecumenism, pointed out to us that doctrinally speaking, we are really close to the Orthodox Christians. The only matter in which we really differ is in the our understandings of the authority of the Pope. We say that when push comes to shove, the Pope can speak on his own for the whole Church. The Orthodox maintain that while he is the “first among equals” he must speak in concert with the other bishops (patriarchs). But when it comes to the Sacraments, Mary, morals, etc, we hold the same doctrinal views. Yet, my Professor noted we do almost nothing together.
And separately, I do remember finding myself a few years back in an argument with a Serbian Orthodox Christian my age over the question of why U.S. Catholic Relief Services was doing relief work in Bosnia. I told her that I get the history the Balkans, but that certainly U.S. Catholic Relief Services were out there in Bosnia simply to help, that American Catholics generally aren’t out to convert anybody (true almost to a fault), and that actually the bigger problem with Americans is that most probably wouldn’t know where Bosnia is. But to her it was an affront for Catholic Relief Services to be out there feeding hungry people, including hungry Serbs...
Now my Professor contrasted that with our relations with the Protestant faiths, saying that there are all kinds of doctrinal issues with the Protestants but that all over the Western world and especially in the English speaking countries, Protestants and Catholics (even the most radical of Protestants, like the Baptists or Pentacostalists) naturally work together to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide basic services to the poor. And he made it a point that this kind of PRACTICAL ECUMENISM needs to be given its proper recognition as well.
But this cooperation extends even beyond the Christian denominations. Every 3-4 months, a Moslem group now feeds the homeless at the Soup Kitchen at our Sister Parish of Our Lady of Sorrows. Why? Well partly because thanks to the legacy of slavery (white Christians enslaving blacks many of whom were actually originally muslims or lands that have become muslim since) a not insignificant portion of the African American population is muslim. And if knows a little about Islam then one would know that there are basically two commandments that moslems are to follow – (1) pray and (2) give alms, feed the poor. Just because someone is wearing a head scarf ought not to disqualify them from helping us help the poor.
I just happen to note this case at Our Lady of Sorrows where the local muslim community periodically helps us help the poor, but if one were to go north, into the more Jewish communities of Skokie and so forth, similar cooperation takes place among the Christian and Jewish communities there as well.
We can choose to look for reasons to not like each other, or we choose to work together for the benefit of all, and then especially of those in need.
But then, let’s go back home to our own lives...
I am absolutely positive that if we don’t like someone, we can find all kinds of reasons to not like them, and some could even be rather solemn sounding / impressive. That’s easy.
But we should really ask ourselves:
(1) Is this negative opinion that we have of someone even true (or even largely true)? Nobody is simply the sum of their flaws. (Even John Wayne Gacy, probably wrote a number of very nice Mother’s Day cards when he was a child. And probably some aunt somewhere probably remembered him fondly). God who sees all, sees those good aspects of others as well (and therefore sees the good aspects in ourselves as well).
and (2) even if it is true, that someone is horribly flawed in some way, what good is it really to dwell on it? Because either the person is quite aware of his/her flaws and is trying actually quite hard to deal with them, or the person is in great denial and is happily pursuing the positive aspects of his/her life, and chances are is probably doing both, dealing with his/her flaws and trying really hard to utilize the positive aspects of his/her life as well.
If we dwell on the negative in others, it brings us down, makes us less likable and almost certainly results in others judging us as harshly as we judge them.
In contrast, we all have the ability to choose to be positive, to try to see the good in people, that which they can offer to others.
Because honestly folks, life is hard enough as it is. We really can’t afford to throw people under the bus. Those people we dismiss or put-down are people who have gifts that could help raise us all up.
But it’s really our choice, we can choose to complain, to put people down and even accuse God of being unfair as we hear in Ezekiel. (Ezekiel reminds the people that it’s actually they who are being unfair because they choose not to see the repentance that God sees).
Or we can choose to try each other like God sees us. After all, we’re reminded in that second reading that Jesus didn’t come and die just for the “good people.” Jesus came and died for everybody, because every one of us is child of God worth saving.
Can we try to start seeing others in the same way?
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