Fr. Tom Richie
We
read in the Gospel to-day about Jesus and the Apostles going up to Jerusalem
and wanting to stay at a Samaritan village. But the Samaritans refused to let
them stay because they said that they were going up to Jerusalem, the city of
the Samaritans’ enemy. By the time of Jesus Samaritan and Jews had been enemies
for five centuries, ever since the people of Judah returned from the Babylonian
exile. The Samaritans claimed that they preserved the original Jewish religion
and the returning people brought new changes that the Samaritans rejected and
from then on fought over bitterly. The reaction of James and John to being
rejected was great indignation. They wanted to call down fire from heaven and
destroy them. They misunderstood the mission of Jesus. Jesus told them “no”,
that is not what our mission is about, destroying people and punishing them for
lack of respect and cooperation. James and John and the other Apostles have to
learn they have come to serve, to be humble, to accept rejection as a way of
converting their enemies. It is when we
humble ourselves and make ourselves vulnerable before our enemies that we can
win them over.
I
remember when I first went to work among the indigenous people in Papua New
Guinea there were some fundamentalist protestant missionaries who hated
Catholics living about 4 kilometres away from my parish. The only walking track
from one of my churches where I said Mass each week went right past where they
lived. It was a five hour walk and one day when I was walking past their house I
was thirsty and I had an inspiration to ask them for a drink of water. The
woman who opened the door was shocked to find a Catholic priest standing at her
door. At first she could hardly speak but she gave me a drink. It was difficult
for me to ask the first time but I think it was an inspiration from God. Then
each week when I was walking past their house I called in and asked for a drink
of water. Gradually the woman became more friendly and after about a month she
asked me to sit down in the shade and brought me an orange drink and her
husband came and started to talk to me. That was the beginning of breaking down
their terrible prejudice even hatred against Catholics.
Pope
Francis has told us to accept others. In May during a homily he said: “The Lord
has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not
just Catholics. Everyone, even the Atheists. And this Blood makes us children
of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and
the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And
this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards
peace.” The Pope has appealed to us to recognise the good that others do and to
let them know that we appreciate the good that they do. He does not want us to
focus on what separates us but to see what bring us together with those of
other beliefs and even those with no beliefs. For a long time we have focused
on the things that have separated us: differences in doctrine, differences in
the way we do things, but always we believe we are right and they are wrong. Now
we are asked to look at the good things that they do and appreciate them.
This
should apply to all areas of our lives. Instead of being so quick to judge and
condemn others among our families, our friends, our church community and others
let us listen to them and learn of the good things that they have done and the
goodness that is in their hearts even if they see things differently from us.
We can help to bring about the peace that Jesus came to bring.
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