A WORLD
WITHOUT FRONTIERS
There are many ‘shocking’
passages in the gospels: Jesus healing lepers, forgiving sinners, calling tax
collectors and washing his disciples’ feet. But the one thing that must have
stuck in their throat was the call to ‘love your enemies’. After all the
oppression they had been through – from the Egyptians, the Philistines, the
Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans – how are they expected to have even a
kind thought towards their enemies, leave alone love them?
Jesus came to announce the
kingdom, a new world of fraternity (the word covers sisters as well as brothers,
as Pope Francis points out in Fratelli Tutti). Paul interpreted it as a
world without boundaries: ‘Christ is our peace. He made both Jews and Gentiles
into one group. With his body, he broke down the barriers of hatred that divide
us’ (Eph 2:14).
In the Old Testament reading
today, we see David sparing Saul’s life when he could have killed him. But David
did not act out of love but out of fear of God’s anger if he killed ‘the Lord’s
anointed’. David was a calculating politician!
Jesus, on the other hand, is
urging us to remove the ‘great gulf’ referred to in the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus at his door (Luke 16:26). Jesus calls us to go to the frontier
where we cannot bring ourselves to say a kind word to some people who irritate
us beyond endurance! They could be in our own family, in our work place or in
our society. ‘If you love those who love you what thanks can you expect?’ our
gospel asks us today.
Jesus wants a breakthrough in our
world; between Russians and Ukrainians, Tigrayans and Ethiopians, migrants and
those who close their doors to them -and all the other divided people in the
world. And with us, is there a message too? Who is my ‘enemy’? Who am I called
to reach out to? To love?
I know it is easy to ask these
questions and they can remain theoretical or abstract. We can also give thanks for
the barriers we have overcome. I often think of how I came to view people who
are mentally handicapped in a completely different way. It was a gift for me.
And I am sure you have had similar experiences. We are called to go on breaking
down these barriers wherever they are. The kingdom is ‘among’ but it is not yet
fully there!
20 February 2022 Sunday
7C 1 Sam 2:62…23 1 Cor 15:45-49 Lk 6: 27-38
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