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February 2024
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Break Down the Boundaries3/3/2024 BREAK DOWN THE BOUNDARIES
Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent - Year A Delivered at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Albany, NY Recently a program called “With Malice Toward None, With Charity for All: Reclaiming Civility in American Politics” was held at the Washington National Cathedral. [1] Leaders from two political parties discussed their differences. This event was timed at the start of an already contentious election season. In the words of Ruth Okediji, a professor at Harvard Law School: “If we don’t encourage and teach and preach and pray and speak about the strength of institutions that can be gathering places for us, then we leave this generation and ourselves with nothing but contempt and hate.” [2] In this gospel of John (Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42) we hear a story about putting an end to contempt and hate. John describes the uneasy meeting between Photina, the Samaritan woman, and Jesus, a Jew. [3] After the initial and scandalous dialogue between them, Jesus listened to the woman’s story but, contrary to other commentaries, he never actually judged her as sinful. Rather, he offered her a drink of “living water.” Because she did not harden her heart ( 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9) she would never again be thirsty. Theologian John W. Martens comments: “Ultimately she grasps that what Jesus offered fulfills more than material desires: it is exactly what she and everyone needs.” [4] After meeting Jesus, Photina felt better about her own identity; she grew in self confidence and she became an ardent disciple of the good news. But there is more to this story. Although Samaritans and Jews held some beliefs in common, according to biblical scholar Pat McCloskey, “both politics and religion were involved” in this meeting between Jesus and Photina. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other for a long time. After the Babylonian exiles the Samaritans, a mixed race, were ready to welcome the Jews back. The Jews, however, despised the Samaritans because of their inter-marriages with the Assyrians. They also emphatically disagreed over which mountain was the correct cultic location for worshiping God. The battles in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East are current examples of raging bi-cultural tensions that have resulted in deep seeded acts of hate, murder, and crimes against humanity. In this country, too, there is a painful socio-political-cultural divide caused by competing policy-making idealisms, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and a reckless interpretation of biblical texts to justify moral agendas that suffocate people’s freedoms and rights. Christian denominations disagree over what is best for America. Heidi Pryzbala wrote: “People’s sense of right and wrong often is shaped by religious conviction.” It is OK to be influenced by our individual Christian faith. Many social movements fuse Christian theology with Christian activism. e.g., the civil rights movement. Tension occurs, however, when it is asserted “that there should be Christian primacy in politics and law … [because] it can manifest itself through ideology, identity and emotion.” [5] The same tensions occurred among mid-first century Christians in Rome. Paul appealed to the Christian Gentiles and Christian Jews to end their divisive ways. He worried that those arguments would threaten his hope-filled message that Christ’s mission modeled a way of living whereby all human beings could live in harmony with one another. But for Paul hope does not fail. (Rom 5:1-2, 5-8) In her comment on the gospel the late biblical scholar Gail R. O’Day wrote: Jesus showed that the grace of God he offers is available to everyone. “Jesus breaks open boundaries in his conversation with the Samaritan woman: the boundary between male and female, the boundary between ‘chosen people’ and ‘rejected people.’” [6] Through these texts the Christian water bath - baptism - takes on new significance for us as we march toward Easter. To drink deeply of the “living water” is to be fully immersed in the life of Christ. For our elect — Kathy, Alexander, Dylan — baptism celebrates their acknowledgement and reception of the call to make a difference in the world. For those of us who have been baptized a long time we are reminded to confirm our obligations as Christians. For all of us it involves a life long learning curve on how to be more effective Catholic Christians. How are we recognized in the public square through acts of witness to the gospel — attending rallies, writing to elected officials. By what measure do we share our convictions with others? Once she was immersed in living water the Samaritan woman spread the good news to others. Theologian Terra Schwerin Rowe adds another thought: “There is no more an important task before humanity in the twenty-first century than to rethink models of relationship and exchange among humans and between humans .…” [7] In that Washington, DC meeting diverse political agendas and opinions were aired in an effort to come to a common ground that would serve all people in this country and around the world. That is our goal as baptized Christians — to break down boundaries and barriers like Jesus did, to work effectively in both small and large ways to assure that all people no matter who they are, what language they speak, what they look like, where they come from … it is our responsibility to make sure that they too can drink of the “living water.” ------- 1. The title of the Conference held on February 21, 2024 is borrowed from a line at the end of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address that lasted just five minutes. 2. See Adele M. Banks <https://religionnews.com/2024/02/22/at-national-cathedral-leaders-of-different-parties-perspectives-call-for-civility> 3. Photina is a Greek word that means “enlightened one.” She is a saint in the Greek Orthodox tradition. 4. John W. Martens. The Word on the Street: Sunday Lectionary Reflections. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), 29. 5. David French. “What is Christian Nationalism, Exactly?” In New York Times February 25, 2024. 6. Gail R. O’Day. “The Gospel of John” in Women’s Bible Commentary, Newsom, Ringe, Lapsley, Editors (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2012) 517. 7. Terra Schwerin Rowe Toward a Better Worldness: Ecology, Economy, and the Protestant Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), xxxix in Joerg Rieger Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class and Solidarity. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2022) 100. Comments are closed.
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