Jeremiah 1:4-5,17-19; I Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 4:21-30
“A woman named Nora had worked for many years in a large downtown business office. No one had ever managed to get close enough to her to know her very well. Nora had a way of quickly turning off anyone who tried to befriend her. She was a loner and a disagreeable one. Whenever a new employee was hired, the warning went out to “stay away from Nora.”
One day, a new employee named Margaret arrived on the scene. In spite of all the warnings, Margaret made an extra special effort to let Nora know that someone really cared about her. Surprisingly, this honest expression of kindness eventually brought results. Nora was breaking out of her shell. She was communicating more easily. She even began to develop a friendship or two.
Then, early one morning, the entire office staff was shocked to learn that Margaret had died suddenly the night before. When Nora heard the news, she cried and said over and over again: “She was the only Christ I ever knew! She was the only Christ I ever knew!”[1]
Our scriptures today point out to us the importance of loving people in the name of Christ. If we do not have love for others, all others, our religion is not authentic, it is only a religion of the head. We can know things about Jesus. We can memorize his teachings. We can diligently practice our faith on a daily basis, following all the rules and commandments. But if we do not also love people in deed and in fact, then we do not have faith at all. Our religion is not only a religion of the head, it is also a religion of the heart. If we are to be true to Christ, then we must make sure that head and heart work together.
Loving those who love us is a fairly easy thing to do. Loving those whom others would reject is not. By loving the outcast you yourself may also be pegged an outcast, an undesirable, a sinner, a good for nothing. Jesus knew this and it is no wonder that the people in the synagogue wanted to kill him that day. They could not accept the message so they tried to kill the messenger. They couldn’t accept the fact that the kingdom of heaven was open to all people, not just Jews.
A very serious problem happens when we choose to love some people and choose not to love others. It is called prejudice. This is the problem that Jesus was posing to his Jewish brothers and sisters. They knew they were the first to be called the chosen ones. Because of this many of them felt a superiority towards others which resulted in them rejecting others. This was especially the case in those who were in the synagogue that day. They were the faithful ones. They were the ones who followed all the rules. Their self-righteousness resulted in them rejecting anyone who did not think like them, or act like them. They rejected sinners. They rejected the poor. They rejected the sick and the imprisoned.
And so what did Jesus do? He confronted them with the truth of God’s kingdom.
If I were to ask you what the Kingdom of God means, many of you might answer: the Kingdom of God is heaven. But the Kingdom is not just something in the future. It is here and now. It is within each one of us. But in order for the kingdom to be real we have to let it happen. We have to let the kingdom flow out of ourselves to others. How do we let the kingdom flow out of ourselves? By loving others as Christ would love them.
The Kingdom of God is God’s love, and wherever God’s love is found, there is the kingdom. When we recite the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “Thy Kingdom come . . .” We are praying that one day God’s love will fill the whole world and everyone will have His love in their hearts. On that day there will be no more attitudes of “we and they,” there will be no more prejudices and divisions among people, there will be no more “haves and have nots,” because everyone will live in perfect union with one another. That kingdom is heaven.
But because we believe in this truth, then we have the obligation, and the ability, to help make heaven happen here and now. We can only do this by first examining our own attitude towards others. Because of our own Catholic history of rejecting other Christian churches we ought to start there. What are my attitudes towards people of other Christian churches? Do I really accept them as brothers and sisters in Christ? Do I support them in their efforts at spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, while at the same time sharing the richness that we have in our Catholic faith, or do I feel that we are superior to them?
What are my attitudes towards sinners, especially those who have sinned against me? Do I hate them? Do I judge them and condemn them? Am I willing to forgive them for what they have done?
What are my attitudes towards the poor, the homeless, those who live on welfare or unemployment? Do I feel like they are lazy, or stupid, or undesirable? Do I feel a sense of compassion for them and do I participate in things that may help to ease their financial burden?
What are my attitudes towards people of other nations or national origins? Am I comfortable being around “people of color” or people who speak a different language? Do I recognize our common union as people of the one human race who share this one planet called earth?
What are my attitudes towards life? Do I truly feel that all people are precious, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the unborn and the dying? Do I accept the belief that every man, woman, and child is created in the image and likeness of God?
What are my attitudes towards people I encounter on a daily basis, especially those who are hard to love; the chronic complainer, the grouch, the gossip, the busy-body? Do I ignore them or at best simply tolerate them? Do I ever try to love them so that they can break out of their negative attitudes?
The command that Jesus gives us is this, “that we love one another.”
[1]Proclaim, February 1, 1998 @Parish Publications, Inc.
I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing