August 15, 2014
This is a homily for the Scripture readings for Sunday, Aug. 17.
I’ve been hearing it all my life. “Don’t go down 63rd street or the Spanish people will jump you.” And the Puerto Rican mothers would say, “Don’t do down into the 50s, the Irish are gangsters.” And we knew what parts of New York were Italian mobster havens, didn’t we? Walk in Harlem in the 1980s … are you nuts? And it even plays out in the suburbs, with our gated communities, our high end developments, or “areas that are changing.” All my life I’ve been hearing it: this was a great neighborhood until “they” moved in.
Our Gospel reading is shocking. We need to let it hit us in the face. Jesus comes into contact with a non-Jewish woman from Syria-Phoenicia, and she wants a healing. Jesus, very clear on his mission to bring the Kingdom of God into full view among the Jews, God’s chosen people, puts her off. His line is almost insulting: “We don’t take food for children and throw it to the dogs do we?” But she’s a sharp as he is: “Even the dogs get the crumbs. That’s all I’m asking for. Some crumbs.” And she gets that, and more, because of her faith – faith which crashes down any barrier.
Ever since the beginning Christians have been confronting and engaging with people who seem different: we hear it throughout our readings during the year – Samaritans, people from Crete, Ethiopia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greeks and eventually Romans. And it wasn’t always comfortable. As the Gospel shows, there was learning on both sides as Christians found their faith lived in out in new cultures and languages. I’m thinking of West Side Story where generic Tony meets Puerto Rican Maria, and then follows the explosion.
But the threads of God speaking through the Jewish people to the world have a long pedigree as we see in Isaiah’s startling vision: non-Jews from around the world will find their place in God’s people – the Temple will be a house of prayer for all peoples. We Catholics see this vision fulfilled in us. In the second reading, Paul continues his thoughts to the Romans about Jews and Gentiles. God, in Jesus, has now opened salvation to everyone, without restriction. He longs for the days when chosen and so-called non-chosen will see that, in Jesus, God has chosen all.
So where do we see ourselves as followers of Jesus? Are we the persecuted chosen folks with a strange and hostile world around us? Are we believers who kind of live just like everyone else, hiding our faith, or even stifling it? Are we the interface between grace and everyday life, bringing the Gospel to life by the way we live, engage with others, and reflect God’s grace? We should make no mistake. God has not called us to be disciples to keep faith to ourselves. We have been baptized precisely to be agents of the God’s Kingdom in the world – not looking down on people, thinking we’re better, but helping them see the signs of God right in their midst.
We’ve been called to pray for Iraq today – but whether it’s Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Central African Republic, Harlem, Baltimore or St. Louis: enough of this group in opposition to that group. God is in favor of us all, and wants to bring salvation to all. He sends Jesus to say that. And Jesus sends us to continue the message.