In his book, Biblical Meditations for Ordinary Time, Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., begins his meditation for the 20th Sunday in Cycle A with these words: “What we take for granted within Christianity, universal mission and world salvation, was spotted only as flashing insights within the Old Testament. In the early church it turned into a major controversy with St. Paul pitted against many others. It was not even clearly announced by Jesus who pronounces in the Gospel today that his “mission is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Yet in today’s Church we may take this doctrine of universal salvation so much for granted that we pay it only lip service and fail to realize its consequences for our daily lives and prayer.
Each of the Scripture readings for this Sunday speak to the issue of universal salvation; namely, that God intended from the first moment of creation that all people would be saved. Isaiah speaks of the foreigners, i.e. non-Jews, who will be fully welcomed in the Temple and whose sacrifices will be viewed as acceptable by God the Creator. The Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ conversation with a Canaanite woman who asks for his assistance in casting a demon out of her daughter. His disciples are upset by her insistence. She has broken with ordinary courtesy and custom which did not envision a woman speaking directly and publically to a man whom she did not know. Jesus himself is reticent to engage her and is brusque in his response to her. Yet he eventually concedes and accedes to her request.
In today’s passage from the Letter to the Romans, we see St. Paul for what he is through and through. He describes who he is in the Letter to the Philippians, “he was circumcised on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, in observance of the law a Pharisee.” Despite his heritage, here in the Letter to the Romans he identifies himself as the apostle to the Gentiles.
Now it doesn’t take a great intellect to realize that Jews and Gentiles did not get along very well. It is more than obvious from today’s Gospel story. The terms that the Jews, specifically St. Paul himself, use to describe the Gentiles are usually extremely derogatory. In the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Peter enters the house of a Gentile, his fellow disciples think that he may have crossed the line. St. Luke, the Gentile evangelist, puts these words in St. Peter’s mouth: “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” While we may not find these words particularly difficult to accept, remember that they were so revolutionary that they started a movement that eventually caused the Church to come together in Jerusalem to debate whether Gentiles could be baptized without first converting to Judaism.
Even more interesting to me, however, is the fact that St. Paul reveals his true motive in preaching to the Gentiles in the passage we proclaim today. He says, “I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.” In other words, he thought that if he could get the Gentiles to accept Jesus that his Jewish brothers and sisters would accept Jesus out of jealousy. No matter how we look at it, this isn’t the purest motive for his ministry among the Gentiles. At the same time, he goes on to say that the Jews were just as guilty as the Gentiles in their disobedience of God’s Law.
We know that St. Paul was constantly hounded by others within the early Christian community because of his efforts to bring the Gentiles to Jesus. When he would leave a community, he would often be followed by others who would come and preach a different Gospel; namely, that in order to be a Christian one first needed to be a Jew. This went on for years and years and eventually resulted in St. Paul being pursued by those who wanted to see him dead.
The acceptance of all people into the Church did not resolve itself until the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire. Christians became a target of persecution and were barred from the synagogues. Since the Jews chose to treat Christians as if they were Gentiles, they became more tolerant of their Gentile brothers and sisters.
Today we have to admit that racism and prejudice are still very much alive in our world. Sadly, we still find signs of it in the Church as well. Today’s Scriptures are a very real reminder that all men and women who profess their love for God are welcome within his Temple.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator