“We Too Were Once ‘Foreigners’.”–the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time–Year A

My Sisters and Brothers:

In the very first sentence of today’s reading from Exodus, its author tells us that we “must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way.”  It also exhorts us “to remember that we ourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt” (see Exodus 22:21).  This entire sentiment is then linked to the message of today’s Gospel in which Jesus speaks clearly about love of God and neighbor.  He states a nearly universally accepted commandment for people of all faiths that they must “love the Lord, their God, with all their hearts, with all their souls, and with all their minds.”  Jesus clearly states this teaching about love for God “is the greatest and the first commandment.”   Then he adds a decisive factor in measuring one’s love for God when he proclaims that the second commandment is “like the first.”  He says: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself . . . and the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (see Matthew 22:37).

Simply put, these teaching proclaim that if we fail to show love and respect for all our fellow human beings, it’s impossible to love God.  Also, we can clearly link them to another maxim observed nearly universally by people of every faith, and known as “the golden rule.”  It states: “do to others whatever you would have them do to you” (see Matthew 7:12).  Jesus tells us this way of treating others also “sums up the teaching of the law and the prophets.”

In response to the Scriptures, and as people of faith, the questions for us today are quite simple: (1) “who are the foreigners among us?” and (2) “how do we treat them?”  I believe those “foreigners” might simply be people “who are different from us.”  They might also be those among us who “don’t share our faith or our values.”  They might even be our own family members, friends or acquaintances who have greatly disappointed us, and/or with whom we have had difficulties.

There are laws in this great country of ours that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, and the list goes on.  And so, considering last week’s Scripture readings (see Matthew 22:15-21 that challenged us to be good citizens while always remaining faithful to God), perhaps we might also pause for a moment and examine our own consciences today.  How do we treat “the foreigners” among us, or those against whom we might wish to discriminate in our own time and place?  If we regularly excuse ourselves from our obligation to show such people the most basic forms of respect and kindness, how can we ever truly claim to love God?

My sisters and brothers, if in all honesty we can admit we have truly neglected to love God as well as our neighbor, then today is the day to change our hearts and to begin anew!   May we always be committed to, and never fail to put into action, the words we proclaim to believe!   And let’s never forget that, like the Chosen People of God, we ourselves too were once “foreigners.”

Praise God!  Friar Timothy


** I originally posted this reflection on October 26, 2014  

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