One of the themes of the Gospel that is easy to miss is the message of inclusiveness. The Gospel story is an ever-expanding circle of embracing outsiders to the community. First and foremost, Jesus had a consistent and pervasive attack on the prejudice against women. The many stories of Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, Mary and Martha the woman with the twelve-year plague, the women on the way of the cross and the very special women at the foot of the Cross. Then there is Mary his mother.
In these incidents, the dignity of the woman is proclaimed and celebrated in contrast to the rampant prejudice of the times that held women only slightly better than the dogs.
In his ministry, Jesus included several other groups who were considered outcasts at the time. The sick, the possessed and the lepers had both psychological and physical barriers of separation. The Samaritans and the Gentiles were the victims of extreme hostility. Tax collectors were welcomed to the table in contrast to their daily rejection by the people.
The mentality of Trump’s wall has been present throughout human history. In contrast, Jesus was constantly building bridges with his message of inclusion. Jesus was revealing the universality of the Father’s love. On God’s part, no one is excluded from the Kingdom.
All of this is clear and easy to understand until we encounter the ambivalence and brokenness of our own distortions and prejudices. Much of the Christian journey is expanding our horizons to include those who culture, economic interests, social mores or personality have led us to exclude. For most of us, it is a long and painful journey to expand our heart. Many walls have to come down and many bridges still need to be built.
II
I grew up in a predominantly Irish parish on the Southside of Chicago. My formative years were the 1940s. In many ways, it was a beautiful experience. It was, however, like all human experiences, an expression of the weeds and the wheat. Much of my life has been a journey to include people I was taught to exclude as part of my upbringing. While there were degrees of exclusion, I was raised in a world where it was “us” and “them”. The most immediate and obvious outsiders were Protestants. They were a minority but they were going to hell. We shared the society’s standard prejudice against the Jews. Then there were a growing number of divorced Catholics followed by fallen away Catholics. The biggest threat, and victims of the grossest stereotypes, were the African Americans. For all practical purposes, Hispanics were an inconsequential stereotype in the movies. The truly invisible were the homosexuals and even more so lesbians.My life journey has been, in good part, a process of expanding my horizons to include these and many others to make “them” part of “us”. Muslims and transsexuals are newly arrived in my circle of inclusion. In seemingly countless instances, this is the pattern. There is a challenge for a period of years. Then a conflict leads to a choice, either rejection or acceptance. Finally, there is an acknowledgement of blindness that calls for change. This is the process of conversion.
III
On the Cross, Jesus did not have a list of the good ones and the bad ones, the acceptable and the unacceptable, the worthy and unworthy. We are all bathed in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus tells us “This is my new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:12)Thomas Merton points out the total absurdity of us labelling certain persons as worthy of our love. There is no one on Jesus’ list of the unworthy. He asks us to destroy our lists of exclusion and include everyone.
The call is simple. The call is clear. We need to enter the struggle to continue to expand the circle of our love. There are always new horizons to challenge us. Our control, our comfort and our convenience are under constant assault by this new law of love.
