Homily: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
The ancient Jews thought that they
were a “chosen race”; and this, for good reason. Throughout the Old Testament in the Bible, we
read how, time and again, God called this people and set them apart by making a
covenant with them: a sacred contract which united this people to God by an
irrevocable bond. Because of this
covenant, God demanded that his people would hold to a higher standard of
living. Now, I’m not talking about the
house they live in or the clothes that they wear, but rather about their
conduct: both with him and with each other.
They were to treat each other justly and to keep themselves from the
defilement of sin—most importantly, the defilement of in any way acknowledging
or worshiping the false gods of pagan peoples.
What this led to, as you might
imagine, is that the ancient Jews became very strict about how they interacted
with non-Jewish people. They feared that
any interaction with any non-Jew would lead to defilement before God and so
they severely restricted the ways in which a Jew could interact with a non-Jew.
Nevertheless, throughout their
history, God revealed to his “chosen people” that one day even non-Jews would
be acceptable to him. In other words,
that he would extend the benefits of his covenant even to those who were not
direct descendants of one of the sons of Israel. Our reading from the prophet Isaiah is an
example of this. In it, he states that “foreigners
who join themselves to the Lord…” following his statutes and commandments, will
be acceptable to him and God will lead them to the place of true worship, the
temple in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, where they will offer sacrifice and praise
and, thus, receive blessings from him.
Isaiah concludes by saying “my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
For an ancient Jew, who perhaps had
gotten quite comfortable with the idea that their race was a race “set apart”
from all others and, thus, held a distinct privilege above all others, to hear
this prophesy that all peoples will one day be united under God might have
upset some of them. Everyone likes to feel
like they are special and that they are part of something special and
unique. Grateful as the ancient Jews may
have been for God’s favor, they nonetheless were reluctant to accept that God’s
favor could be given to anyone. They
feared that, by allowing other races to enter, they’d lose their
distinctiveness as a race and, thus, the particular favor that they enjoyed
before God.
At the time that Jesus walked the
earth, those fears were at fever pitch because of the Roman occupation of the
holy land that God had given to his chosen people. The Jews, therefore, were greatly
anticipating the Messiah, the one who would liberate them from the oppressive
Roman regime and usher in the kingdom of heaven: a new springtime in prosperity
for the Jewish people. As we know, Jesus
is the Messiah for whom they were waiting, but he didn’t conform to their
expectations. Instead of closely
guarding and reinforcing their racial boundaries, re-isolating the Jewish
people from the non-Jewish races, Jesus broke through them: opening the door to
fulfill what Isaiah had prophesied centuries before.
Just look at today’s Gospel reading:
Jesus “withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon…” This was Gentile territory and we aren’t
given much of a reason why he went there.
Then we’re told that a Canaanite woman approaches him. There are many social taboos that are broken
here: 1) that she was an unattended woman approaching a man; 2) she is a
non-Jew speaking to a Jew; 3) this is all happening in public. In spite of all of this, she pleads for Jesus
to heal her daughter. At first, Jesus
tows the line: ignoring her, and then brushing her off as a non-Jew. Finally, he accedes and grants her what she
asks because of her faith. In Isaiah, it
says “The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him,
loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants … will be acceptable…” Jesus, recognizing that the covenant belongs
to the Jews, but also that, through the Jews, God desires all peoples to come
to himself, finds this woman “joined to the Lord” in faith and so grants her
the benefits which belong properly to the people of the covenant.
Saint Paul, in another place, wrote “There
is no longer Jew, nor Greek, man, nor woman, slave, nor free…” in the eyes of
the Lord. Therefore, we know that, with
Jesus, all who profess faith, “joining themselves to the Lord, ministering to
him and loving the name of the Lord,” are able to receive the benefits that
rightly belong to the Jewish people, the people of the covenant. And so we are here today.
My brothers and sisters, our
Scriptures today ought to make clear to us that it is unacceptable for any of us
to think that we are somehow a “chosen race”, privileged above all others
(regardless of which race we belong to).
The events of this past week, particularly the ugly events that took
place in Charlottesville, Virginia, ought to reinforce this fact. Rather, we must be bearers of the Good News
that God has made it so that all persons, regardless of race, now have access
to his divine life: granted that they meet the strict conditions: that they join
themselves to the Lord, minister to him, love the name of the Lord, and become
his servants.
Friends, regardless of whether you
were born and raised here or if “you ain’t from around here”, God desires you
to be united to him in his Church, here
in this place. If you aren’t on
board with this plan then you have chosen not to serve the Lord and you risk
separating yourselves from him. Nobody
is saying, of course, that you have to stop being “Berries”, “Kings”, “Panthers”,
or “Comets”, or that you have to stop being “Italian”, “German”, “Irish”, “Mexican”,
“Guatemalan”, “Salvadorian”, “Honduran”, “Vietnamese”, or “Pilipino”. It does mean, however, that you have to see
in this great diversity your brother, your sister, your co-heir to the kingdom
won for us by Jesus; and that you have to accept your mission to go out from
your own group to seek out those who still are not joined to us, so that they,
too, might share in God’s divine life.
Brothers and sisters, this Eucharist that
we share is not the exclusive reward for one privileged group, but rather God’s
divine life, given for all. As we
receive it today, let us be ready to bring our brothers and sisters to this
table and thus bring God’s kingdom to fulfillment.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – August 19th & 20th,
2017
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