Word to the Wise
Saturday, October 9, 2010 - Saturday in the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
[Galatians 3:27-29 and Luke 11:27-28]For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
What St. Paul makes clear in this famous passage is that God doesn't discriminate when it comes to faith and love. Right? Well......? Is the answer one of those, "Yes, but...." replies? Are we speaking of "pie in the sky by and by" in which we are promised there is no discrimination in heaven, but all kinds of it on earth? Does God's non-discriminatory policy not apply in this life? History seems to make it clear that whether or not God likes it, human beings are prone to create distinctions that cause a lot of sorrow for some and satisfaction for others! Paul himself did not take the step of advocating equality of the sort that we Americans piously proclaim in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and vastly ignore in our practice. He did criticize discrimination on occasion based on wealth (1 Corinthians 11), but women of our time certainly feel that Paul's writings have been used by the church to discriminate against them! The same is true about the way in which Paul's writings have been used to justify slavery! Can we advocate an equality in faith "in the sight of God" and fail to practice it in everyday life? Where, in the life of Jesus, can we find any basis for this? He regularly ignored "class lines." Do we simply rationalize systemic discrimination on the grounds that humans and their systems are always going to create destructive distinctions? Perhaps we need to look to one of the Letters of St. John and recall that anyone who says they love God and hates their brother or sister is a liar! Our national history in regard to our Black and Native American citizens (and other non-Anglo persons) is a national disgrace. We still have a lot of work to do to make equality in faith an equality in life! AMEN
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