I hope everyone has had a good week!
GospelMT 10:37-42 The Gospel for today
Jesus said to his apostles:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
The Gospel of the Lord! Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!
There are several points here that strike me. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Now just to make sure we are all on the same page, the cross does not tickle, it doesn’t feel good. But we are told to take up our cross and follow Christ. Christ took up His cross, and it looked like He lost, but He instead opened the Gates of Heaven to all who follow Him.
Racism and slavery do not belong in the Christian life. We must remember that God does not will bad or wrong. However, when we, due to our fallen nature do wrong, to ourselves or others, He does bring good out of it, if we let Him. In the Old Testament, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and in time ran Egypt and thus saved his family. St. Patrick was a slave, and after escaping, returned as a Bishop to the people who enslaved him and converted Ireland! He took a bad and with God’s help made it good. St. Josephine Bakita was a slave, became free, entered Religious Life and became a Saint. She took a bad and made it good. I’m sure if I looked I could find several other Saints who had been slaves, and or experienced racism.
Yes, slavery is wrong! But why spend time trying to get rid of the evidence of it, but rather learn from it so as not to repeat it. Sadly the USA is not the only country that has a history of slavery. All races, cultures, peoples have a history of slavery somewhere in there past. Ireland does, the European Counties do, Asia, Africa, etc. It is all a part of our fallen nature that needs to be fixed and healed.
As Catholic Christians, lets work on getting rid of today’s slavery!!! Slavery is alive and well today, I’d venture to say almost the world over! From physical slavery of someone owning another, (one of these forms is trafficking) to slavery to addictions and sin. Notice that 2 past slaves I mentioned became Saints! In bringing a person out of Slavery, physical or addictive, you bring them into a relationship with Christ. A new way of living!
Some other thoughts from this week. God is pure spirit, He isn’t any color or nationality or race. Jesus, the 2nd person of the Most Holy Trinity, while He is and was and ever will be, (see John 1) was also born in time and place. Jesus was born in Israel, in the Middle East.(Matt. 1 and Luke 1:26-2) He wasn’t black or white. He had the features and color of one in the Middle East. Otherwise He wouldn’t have blended in with His people, He would have stuck out in looks from Infancy on.
Each race, culture, nation has claimed Jesus as their own. There are statues, dating way back, and to the present, of Jesus and also Mary with the features, skin tone, and dress of the people of that culture. Even Mother Mary, when the Trinity sends her to a people, she appears the same race as those people. In Japan, she was Japanese, in Rwanda, Rwandan, in Mexico as Our Lady of Guadalupe, Indian. I have a wooden statue of Our Lady and it was carved in Africa, and the facial features are of the people of Africa, I also have one that was carved in the Philippines, and the facial features are Philippine.
Let’s look at the Saints, they are from every tribe, people, race, culture and nation on earth! God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, shows us that we are all His! He created us, and our color, nationality, race, ethnicity are all gifts from God to each other. We have to accept and respect each group of people as our brothers and sisters in Christ! And being that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, we want to bring to Christ and the Christian life, all who don’t know and live it!
The Catholic faith is not simply a collection of doctrines and ideas, or a body of knowledge or even a system of beliefs, although all those things are important. At its root, Christianity is an experience; a life-changing, personal experience of the Risen Jesus Christ. Everything else in St. Paul, and everything else in our life as Catholics, flows from that personal encounter with Jesus Christ. If we truly seek him, then we will always find him. But when we find him, we need to be ready for the consequences, because nothing about our lives can be the same. (From a section of a writing by Archbishop Charles Chaput April 30, 2009)
