Today we are faced with a fundamental choice: do we fear, or do we love? Do we close our hearts to those in need, or do we open our hearts and our doors to people desperate for help?
We face this choice each and every day. At times this choice is brought into sharp relief by what is happening in our world.
We have been encountering this tension since before we can remember our history as humans. Two millenia ago, Jesus and His disciples were subjected to exclusion because people feared them as strangers. In today's Gospel reading, we hear that
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs
who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him
and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
"What have you to do with me,
Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"
(He had been saying to him,
"Unclean spirit, come out of the man!")
He asked him, "What is your name?"
He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
"Send us into the swine. Let us enter them."
And he let them,
and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank
into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man
who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident
explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
Then the man went off
and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him;
and all were amazed.*
Today I heard a brief sermon on this Gospel passage which provided new insight about it to me. This morning here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, as we usually do on Monday mornings, we gathered with each other and with other Catholic Workers from around the San Francisco Bay Area. After updating each other about our lives, we moved into the living room for our liturgy together. Our dear friend Steve, who is a Jesuit priest, presided at our house Mass here. In his brief sermon, Steve explained to us that in these verses, Jesus and His disciples had traveled out of Jewish territory. During this story, they were strangers to the people they met.
The residents of that area asked them to leave. We are told that they were afraid when they saw the man who had been possessed by a demon, who used to scream and bruise himself with rocks, now sitting in his right mind.
Why did they ask Jesus and His disciples to leave? Jesus and His disciples were strangers to them. Jesus had just performed a miracle, expelling a demon out of a man who had been hitherto known for his screaming and bruising himself with stones. The people living in that area could not understand how this man had just been miraculously transformed from being a madman into a mentally stable, sane person.
People fear what they do not understand. People fear what and who they do not know. People fear the stranger. People fear someone else they haven't gotten to know, when they haven't spent time with that person.
We make judgments about people based on little or no information. We fear people when we know nothing about them.
If we're busy fearing someone, we are closing our hearts to them. If we fear our neighbor, we are closing our hearts also to God, for we are closing ourselves off from the love which God wishes to shower upon us through our neighbor. If we fear our neighbor, we cannot open our hearts to be able to love our neighbor.
In love there is no room for fear, for perfect love drives out fear.** When we purely love, we do not fear the person in front of us. If we purely love, we do not fear what might happen through our decision to love. When we perfectly love, we simply extend the love which is needed by the person in front of us.
Unfortunately people are often motivated by fear to exclude others they do not know, have never or barely met, and who they do not understand. As the mayor of Philadelphia recently described, at the airport there this weekend, officials detained and then turned away Syrian refugees. He related that by all accounts they had waited to obtain months to obtain the proper documentation to be able to legally enter the U.S. He added that they were being sent back to a war-ravaged nation. They will be endangered for various reasons.
Jesus was similarly endangered. When Jesus was a baby, He and Saint Joseph and Our Blessed Mother Mary were refugees. They fled from their home country to Egypt.*** As if these details of their flight into Egypt were not enough to make us recognize Jesus in refugees among us, Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**** Jesus has explained to us that when we fail to welcome the stranger, we reject Him.***** When we turn away refugees, we refuse to welcome Jesus.
When we fear what might happen to us from loving someone else, we cannot love that other person. When we fear, we wall ourselves off from love. In fearing our neighbor, we close ourselves off from what we might learn from our neighbor. By fearing our neighbor, we refuse to learn from our neighbor.
I have learned in my own life that we have much to learn from people of foreign cultures. When I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, I enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Moroccans who were Muslim. I had never before been offered such generous hospitality by anyone in the United States.
Which of us living here in the United States would invite a stranger into our home to share lunch with us? Many foreigners who visit Morocco receive exactly such a welcome. After being treated to such a meal by Moroccans they have just met, guests are often told by their Moroccan hosts that if they would like to lay down, and even nap, they may do so. Which of us here in the states would extend such hospitality to someone we had just met?
While I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, another Peace Corps Volunteer asked me how my life would be different once I returned to the states. I replied that I was looking forward to extending hospitality to others. And so I was influenced in my decision to enter a reformed Benedictine monastic community, since Benedictine monks offer hospitality to visitors. I was influenced in my decision to enter monastic life at the hermitage in Big Sur because Moroccans had implicitly encouraged me to extend hospitality to others through their own shining examples.
Similarly, I was influenced in my decision to become a Catholic Worker, practicing hospitality, and reaching out to those who are homeless, because Moroccans had shown me the importance of providing hospitality. They had provided me outstanding examples of how to extend hospitality to others.
I learned how to extend hospitality from Moroccans, who are Muslim. To exclude all people of certain religions, or of particular nations, as is current practice, is to wall ourselves off from what they have to teach us. If we refuse to welcome entire groups of people, we refuse many opportunities to love, to learn and to grow. If we reject whole groups of people, we reject Jesus many times. If we refuse to welcome refugees, we reject Jesus in our actions, regardless of whether we claim to be compassionate toward refugees.
We choose everyday whether or not we will welcome the stranger. We decide each day if we will open our hearts to love our neighbor or if out of fear we will close ourselves off to our neighbor. We must always be deciding whether we will choose to learn from our neighbor and grow as loving human beings, or if we will choose to exclude our neighbor and refuse to be taught by him or her.
If we have humility, we will want to learn from our neighbor. We will realize that even though someone is different from us, we can learn from that person.
If we have humility, we will embrace opportunities to learn, and thus grow, and thus love better. If we are not humble, we will reject chances to learn from our neighbor, walling ourselves off from how God seeks to teach us through our neighbor.
Always we are presented with these choices on our spiritual path. Everyday we must choose between love and fear.
* Mark 5:1-20
** 1 John 4:18
*** Matthew 2:13-15
**** Matthew 25:40
***** Matthew 25:43
We face this choice each and every day. At times this choice is brought into sharp relief by what is happening in our world.
We have been encountering this tension since before we can remember our history as humans. Two millenia ago, Jesus and His disciples were subjected to exclusion because people feared them as strangers. In today's Gospel reading, we hear that
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes.
When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs
who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him
and the shackles smashed,
and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and prostrated himself before him,
crying out in a loud voice,
"What have you to do with me,
Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"
(He had been saying to him,
"Unclean spirit, come out of the man!")
He asked him, "What is your name?"
He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."
And he pleaded earnestly with him
not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him,
"Send us into the swine. Let us enter them."
And he let them,
and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine.
The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank
into the sea,
where they were drowned.
The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town
and throughout the countryside.
And people came out to see what had happened.
As they approached Jesus,
they caught sight of the man
who had been possessed by Legion,
sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident
explained to them what had happened
to the possessed man and to the swine.
Then they began to beg him to leave their district.
As he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.
But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead,
"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
Then the man went off
and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
what Jesus had done for him;
and all were amazed.*
Today I heard a brief sermon on this Gospel passage which provided new insight about it to me. This morning here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, as we usually do on Monday mornings, we gathered with each other and with other Catholic Workers from around the San Francisco Bay Area. After updating each other about our lives, we moved into the living room for our liturgy together. Our dear friend Steve, who is a Jesuit priest, presided at our house Mass here. In his brief sermon, Steve explained to us that in these verses, Jesus and His disciples had traveled out of Jewish territory. During this story, they were strangers to the people they met.
The residents of that area asked them to leave. We are told that they were afraid when they saw the man who had been possessed by a demon, who used to scream and bruise himself with rocks, now sitting in his right mind.
Why did they ask Jesus and His disciples to leave? Jesus and His disciples were strangers to them. Jesus had just performed a miracle, expelling a demon out of a man who had been hitherto known for his screaming and bruising himself with stones. The people living in that area could not understand how this man had just been miraculously transformed from being a madman into a mentally stable, sane person.
People fear what they do not understand. People fear what and who they do not know. People fear the stranger. People fear someone else they haven't gotten to know, when they haven't spent time with that person.
We make judgments about people based on little or no information. We fear people when we know nothing about them.
If we're busy fearing someone, we are closing our hearts to them. If we fear our neighbor, we are closing our hearts also to God, for we are closing ourselves off from the love which God wishes to shower upon us through our neighbor. If we fear our neighbor, we cannot open our hearts to be able to love our neighbor.
In love there is no room for fear, for perfect love drives out fear.** When we purely love, we do not fear the person in front of us. If we purely love, we do not fear what might happen through our decision to love. When we perfectly love, we simply extend the love which is needed by the person in front of us.
Unfortunately people are often motivated by fear to exclude others they do not know, have never or barely met, and who they do not understand. As the mayor of Philadelphia recently described, at the airport there this weekend, officials detained and then turned away Syrian refugees. He related that by all accounts they had waited to obtain months to obtain the proper documentation to be able to legally enter the U.S. He added that they were being sent back to a war-ravaged nation. They will be endangered for various reasons.
Jesus was similarly endangered. When Jesus was a baby, He and Saint Joseph and Our Blessed Mother Mary were refugees. They fled from their home country to Egypt.*** As if these details of their flight into Egypt were not enough to make us recognize Jesus in refugees among us, Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**** Jesus has explained to us that when we fail to welcome the stranger, we reject Him.***** When we turn away refugees, we refuse to welcome Jesus.
When we fear what might happen to us from loving someone else, we cannot love that other person. When we fear, we wall ourselves off from love. In fearing our neighbor, we close ourselves off from what we might learn from our neighbor. By fearing our neighbor, we refuse to learn from our neighbor.
I have learned in my own life that we have much to learn from people of foreign cultures. When I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, I enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Moroccans who were Muslim. I had never before been offered such generous hospitality by anyone in the United States.
Which of us living here in the United States would invite a stranger into our home to share lunch with us? Many foreigners who visit Morocco receive exactly such a welcome. After being treated to such a meal by Moroccans they have just met, guests are often told by their Moroccan hosts that if they would like to lay down, and even nap, they may do so. Which of us here in the states would extend such hospitality to someone we had just met?
While I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, another Peace Corps Volunteer asked me how my life would be different once I returned to the states. I replied that I was looking forward to extending hospitality to others. And so I was influenced in my decision to enter a reformed Benedictine monastic community, since Benedictine monks offer hospitality to visitors. I was influenced in my decision to enter monastic life at the hermitage in Big Sur because Moroccans had implicitly encouraged me to extend hospitality to others through their own shining examples.
Similarly, I was influenced in my decision to become a Catholic Worker, practicing hospitality, and reaching out to those who are homeless, because Moroccans had shown me the importance of providing hospitality. They had provided me outstanding examples of how to extend hospitality to others.
I learned how to extend hospitality from Moroccans, who are Muslim. To exclude all people of certain religions, or of particular nations, as is current practice, is to wall ourselves off from what they have to teach us. If we refuse to welcome entire groups of people, we refuse many opportunities to love, to learn and to grow. If we reject whole groups of people, we reject Jesus many times. If we refuse to welcome refugees, we reject Jesus in our actions, regardless of whether we claim to be compassionate toward refugees.
We choose everyday whether or not we will welcome the stranger. We decide each day if we will open our hearts to love our neighbor or if out of fear we will close ourselves off to our neighbor. We must always be deciding whether we will choose to learn from our neighbor and grow as loving human beings, or if we will choose to exclude our neighbor and refuse to be taught by him or her.
If we have humility, we will want to learn from our neighbor. We will realize that even though someone is different from us, we can learn from that person.
If we have humility, we will embrace opportunities to learn, and thus grow, and thus love better. If we are not humble, we will reject chances to learn from our neighbor, walling ourselves off from how God seeks to teach us through our neighbor.
Always we are presented with these choices on our spiritual path. Everyday we must choose between love and fear.
* Mark 5:1-20
** 1 John 4:18
*** Matthew 2:13-15
**** Matthew 25:40
***** Matthew 25:43
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