Daily Reflections - February 3,2013

SPIRITUAL EXCLUSIVITY

 

A long brewing issue regarding salvation is about who and how many will be saved. Through the ages, various religious movements — including numerous Christian sects and denominations — have claimed that their respective groups are surely and only the ones certain to be saved.

The people of Nazareth also wanted to put a hedge around Jesus. They believed that since Jesus was their compatriot, He ought to have made them the first beneficiaries of all the good things He had begun to be known for, among which were His miracles of healing. Instead, Jesus made His early signs and works more known in Capernaum.

Beyond what had happened, Jesus seemed to have further enraged His listeners from Nazareth when, reading the scroll from the prophet Isaiah, He broke off the quotation in mid-sentence (cf Is 61:2), omitting all reference to divine vengeance against the Gentiles. Jesus even went on to refer to the stories about the prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha who, in their respective ministries, blessed a Sidonese widow and a Syrian general respectively.

The religious, it seems, have a great tendency towards exclusivity and elitism. We make classifications that lead to the exclusion of others. We label each other in Church: between the baptized and the unbaptized; the ordained as against the unordained; the covenanted as distinguished from the ordinary members; between diocesan priests who have but a promise of obedience to their bishops, and the religious priests who profess the three evangelical vows; between nuns who are contemplative and those in active mission. While we preach about various callings and charisms as works of the same Spirit of God, we cannot help but compare many times — which one could be superior in graces and in privileges? Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are you more welcoming than discriminating, embracing than alienating? What does today’s Gospel challenge you to do in your ministry and in your relationships with people?

 

Lord, I pray for a heart that is like Yours: open, blessing and all-embracing.