To the Ends of the Earth
As Jesus begins His public ministry in St Matthew’s Gospel today, we hear that the word has gone out to “Galilee of the Gentiles”. St Matthew reminds us that Jewish Messiah is meant for all. Nobody has special claims on God’s Love. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, for whomever will accept Him.
Yet, the tendency to distinguish between “us” and “them” that characterizes so many human relationships still seems to typify many of us as Jesus’ followers. How frequently do we ourselves make distinctions among people? Who is Christian? Who is American? Who is more preferable?
Several years ago, a professor reminded his students to “Beware of the ism’s”. An “ism” is an ideology by which we evaluate others in terms of a selected category. If they measure up to what we think is desirable (usually, a mirror of ourselves), then they get preferential treatment.
So, we utilize a variety of “ism’s” in our lives. When one pre-judges people by their race, then, one is guilty of racism. When one pre-judges people by their sex, then, one is guilty of sexism. When one pre-judges people by their economic class, then, one is guilty of classism. When one pre-judges people by their age, then, one is guilty of agism. The list goes on and on and speaks for itself.
Our Catholic Church is the Body of Christ in space and time. Yet, we are an incarnational church.
Jesus breaks through, sometimes, in spite of us, rather than through us. We have our flaws and wrinkles. The scandal of the Incarnation is exactly that. Some say that our Church is guilty of more than a few “ism’s”. With the Help of the Gospel, let us try to address these flaws and mirror more authentically the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The ironic thing is that this call to break down barriers is clearly germane to the Gospel. Somehow, however, so many of us build, rather than tear down, barriers.
Father Richard Rohr, a noted American Catholic theologian, has said on numerous occasions, that there are only two world organizations that reasonably have the opportunity to break down barriers among the people of the world, viz., the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church. He reminds us that “catholic” means universal, “according to the entire or the whole”, etymologically.
As we hear the beginnings of the public ministry in St Matthew’s Gospel at the start of ordinal (not ordinary) time, 2002 AD, let us ask Jesus for the Help to assist Him in His plan to implement His vision (the Kingdom of the God of Life) by living daily lives which reflect the values of that Kingdom. We cannot make the world perfect, but we can, with His Help, build “better human communities”. Whatever dimensions these communities take, may they not be circumscribed and limited by the various “ism’s” to which we all can so blithely, at times, subscribe. 012702 AD jfq
