thE PEOPLE WHO MOST NEED OUR LOVE
A beggar was walking past a posh restaurant, then she stopped at the big window, looking longingly at the rich people wining and dining at tables too small for all the food they had ordered. One lady, with an indignant look, called a waiter and whispered something to him. He then went to the window and, with an angry gesture, drove away the beggar.
Many people tend to think of themselves better and look down on others. This has caused a lot of suffering and misery throughout history. Think of the Christians who, for centuries, called the Jews “Christ-killers” and persecuted, even killed them. Think of the black people in the United States who, for centuries, were considered second-class people and abused as slaves. Today, in many parts of the world, Muslims, gays, slum dwellers and people from so-called Third World countries are looked down upon by others.
That happened in Nazareth, too, when Jesus praised a pagan widow and a pagan army commander. Jesus had come back home from a triumphant tour of healing and preaching. No wonder His town mates expected that He would do even more for them. After all, they had grown up with Him and He was one of them. They expected even more spectacular miracles here than He had worked in Capernaum. But He refused to satisfy their curiosity and lust for sensation. Not only that, He praised pagans! At that, they got nasty.
In Luke’s Gospel, we will realize that it was a pattern in Jesus’ life to turn to those who were marginalized and looked down upon by the rich and the educated, even by the middle class. Jesus reached out to the poor, the widows, the lepers, the sinners, the women and tax collectors.
We are in this world to make Christ visible — to continue what He began. This truth wakes us up from peaceful dreams, for people like those whom Jesus reached out to are still around us. And not a few at that. What’s our attitude towards them? Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How do you react to people whom you think are of lower status than you are? Do you discriminate or do you act like Jesus?
Lord, teach me to act with love especially to those who most need love in our society.
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