Whom You Seek

Who do we want in our lives?  Who are we looking for?  In the answers to these questions, we define ourselves.  You show who you are by the company you keep.  You make clear your identity through the people you want to have around you.  Through who you welcome into your heart, you not only fix your relationship with your neighbor, but also your relationship with God.  

Today as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene, through her example, we are reminded that we show who we are by who we seek.  In today's Gospel reading we are told of how she went looking for Jesus after He had been buried.  There we hear that 

On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him." 

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?"
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
"Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me, 
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
'I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord,"
and then reported what he told her.*   

Mary Magdalene saw that Jesus' tomb had been opened.  She not only ran to tell Saint Peter and the other disciple who Jesus loved, who was Saint John, but, since she sought Jesus, she returned to the tomb.  There she encountered Jesus.  Yet she did not realize she had once again been visited by Jesus.  Jesus comes to us.  Do we recognize Him?  

A homeless woman showed up at my doorstep yesterday.  Did I see Jesus in her?  Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  Whatever we do to the homeless person in front of us, we do to Jesus.  

We can become passionate about Jesus.  We can become so intent on finding God that we can fail to recognize Him when He is standing next to us.  Then Jesus, in the impoverished person before us, may ask us, "Who are you looking for?"  

Everyday we are presented with precious opportunities to love which are wrapped up with, which are inextricably intertwined with, our eternal destinies.  When we have gotten to the other side of death, then we will meet Jesus no longer in poor persons, but Jesus as Himself.  Then He will address us according to what we have done.  

If we have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the ill, and visited those in prison,*** Jesus will bid us to inherit the Kingdom.****  If we have failed to perform these corporal works of mercy, Jesus will tell us to depart from Him.*****  For whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.  And whatever we fail to do to those who are the least among us, we fail to do to Him.******  

So, now, while we still have the chance to be merciful to our neighbor, especially those who are the least among us, do we recognize Jesus among us now, in the poor persons in front of us?  Do we seek Jesus in the impoverished person, in the homeless person, who is literally reaching toward us, asking us for just a little bit of food to ease the hunger pains crying out towards us?  

In whom we seek, we define ourselves.  For in whom we seek, we decide our eternal destinies.  In who we are looking for, we determine our relationship with God.  Let us turn toward God, by opening our hearts to love, by loving our neighbor, right now, right in front of us.  Amen.  

* John 20:1-2, 11-18
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Matthew 25:35-40 
**** Matthew 25:34 
***** Matthew 25:41 
****** Matthew 25:45 

Humility Gives Help

From time to time I remember a certain day from a couple of months ago.  I was outside the van I use to transport supplies.  I had unloaded some cardboard boxes onto the sidewalk since I was going to discard them.  

A well-dressed, carefully manicured stranger was walking down the sidewalk.  She was absorbed in her phone.  She didn't even look up when she neared me.  

Right around the same time, a homeless woman who I'll call "Lisa" walked up to me and asked me if I would like some assistance.  She started to help me to rip up some of the boxes.  

I was struck by the contrast between how the two women treated me.  The one who society sees as a well-adjusted individual did not interact with me.  The other one, who society views as a maladjusted person who fails to meet economic expectations, was the one who offered to aid me in my work.  

Lisa, who is homeless, gave of herself.  She volunteered to serve.  
Someone might say that I knew Lisa, and that is why she inquired if I would like some help.  Someone might further point out that strangers are unlikely to walk up to people they don't know and ask if they need any help.  

However, Lisa is not the only impoverished person to ask if I needed assistance when I am working on a task outside the house here.  Other poor people of various levels of acquaintance with me have volunteered to help me when I am occupied with work outside.  

People help when they are humble.  When people are poor, they have been humbled, and so they help.

Humility drastically increases the likelihood that someone will volunteer their time.  A humble person, having lost, sees the necessity to give, and thus is ready to give of themselves.  

We receive from humble people.  When we are surrounded by poor persons, we receive.  

In giving of themselves, humble people implicitly welcome others.  Since homeless persons here in Redwood City often are considerate and give of themselves, I feel such a sense of community with them.  I feel supported by them in my efforts to follow the teaching of Jesus that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.*  

Being implicitly encouraged to love my neighbor, I am being welcomed into joy.  Love leads to joy.  

I feel joy here in Redwood City because the homeless people here teach me how to give of myself and encourage me to love my neighbor.  When we give and love, we feel joy.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Forgiveness Welcomes Love

Who do we fear?  When we fear, we close our hearts.  

Who do we forgive?  When we forgive, we love.  When we love, we open our hearts.  

When we will not forgive, we cling to the past.  Through refusing to forgive, we will not let go of the hurt we feel.  

When we forgive, we leave the past behind us.  When we forgive, we let go of the pain which has been enslaving us, binding us to the past.  

When stubbornly we will not forgive, we insist on remaining wounded.  Similarly, when we choose to live in fear, we stay paralyzed and cannot move forward.  

When we forgive, we heal.  When we forgive, we open our hearts to a new future with our neighbor.   

When we will not forgive, and when we fear, we refuse to give.  In failing to forgive, and in fearing, we close ourselves off from our neighbor, and thus refuse to love our neighbor.  

When we forgive, we give.  In forgiving, we give the gift of love to our neighbor.  When we forgive our neighbor, we give the gift of reconciliation, and the hope of a new future together, to our neighbor.  

When we fear, and when we will not forgive, we refuse to receive.  By fearing, we wall ourselves off from what our neighbor has to give us.  

When we forgive, we receive.  Through forgiving, we receive the gift of the hope of a restored relationship with our neighbor.  Even if our neighbor refuses to be reconciled with us, still we have received the gift of our own freedom, insofar as we have been liberated from the chains of selfishness which had been restraining us from loving our neighbor.  

To whom do we give?  From whom do we receive?

This week here at the Catholic Worker House we received a call from a generous, thoughtful person.  She called us to tell us we could come to her place of employment and pick up free items.  A couple Catholic Workers went to where she works, and there she gave them free furniture.   

To paint a little more of a picture of this magnanimous person, in her home, this individual has a collection of crosses hanging on a wall.  At some point in the past, this person was convicted of committing a felony.  

If we get stuck on a label someone has been given, on how someone has been categorized by society, we can end up hostage to our fears.  Or we can approach someone with open minds and open hearts.  If we are open to what someone has to give us, then we can be open to receive from that person.  If we forgive someone, we love that person, and we allow that person to love us in return.  

If we open our hearts to others, we welcome them.  If our hearts are open to others, we accept the hospitality they extend to us.  

Who do we welcome?  From whom do we accept hospitality?  

We are told, "Remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.*  By extending hospitality to strangers, Abraham received the news from his guests, who were actually angels, that his wife Sarah would bear a son.**  By offering hospitality to strangers, Lot was delivered from death when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.***  

If we are busy fearing the stranger, we cannot listen to what they have to say to us.  If we are closing our hearts to someone, we cannot at the same time open our hearts to receive what they have to give us.  By fearing our neighbors, we deprive them of the gift of loving us.  When we fear, we do not let others love us.  
One of the Catholic Workers who went to pick up the free furniture was helped by another person who has repeatedly extended hospitality to others in her home.  On countless occasions, she has given them food and drink.  She has invited people to stay at her home, offering them shelter when they had no place else to stay.  She has showed abundant generosity in the unrestrained love she has for her neighbor.  Yet years ago she too was convicted of committing a felony.  

If we get hung up on how someone has been stigmatized by our society, we can become blinded to seeing the goodness in that person.  If we open our hearts to someone, regardless of what he or she may have done in the past, we can welcome what he or she has to give us.  If we welcome someone, then we can receive the help we need from the person who is present to assist us in our time of need.  

We are called to see the love being offered to us.  We are called to love each other as Jesus has loved us.****  We are called to welcome each other into our hearts, regardless of the unfortunate decisions we may have made in the past.  Others might not understand how we forgive, and might question our judgement.  

When the Pharisees saw Jesus and his disciples eating with tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus replied that those who were well had no need of a physician, but only those who were sick.*****  Jesus welcomed those who would listen.  Jesus welcomed those whose hearts were open to Him.  

And so Jesus told a parable to those whose hearts were not open enough.  He said 

"What is your opinion?  A man had two sons.  He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'  

He replied, 'I will not,' but afterwards he changed his mind and went.  

The man came to the other son and gave the same order.  He said in reply, 'Yes, sir,' but did not go.  

Which of the two did his father's will?"  

They answered, "The first."  

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you."******  
There are people among us who have been committed crimes, but who have repented, and who now love their neighbor.  We who are not convicted criminals may think well of ourselves.  Yet if we merely say that we will do what God asks, but do not actually do it, we are not doing the will of God.  Despite appearances to the contrary, we might very well be entering the Kingdom of God after those who have been convicted of crimes.  We might be entering the Kingdom of God after those who our society calls outcasts, rejects and failures.  

We have our own ideas about who is bad and who is good.  We decide why people are bad and why they are good.  Yet we are all sinners.  We are all in need of God's mercy.  

Therefore Jesus instructed us, "Be merciful, just as your Heavenly Father is merciful."*******  We are to forgive our neighbor, just as God forgives us.  We must forgive our neighbor if we want to be forgiven.  

Since we must always forgive our neighbor, we must always forgive as God always forgives us.  Thus God calls us to strive to be like Him.  And so Jesus has directed us, "Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect."********  

God calls us to love our neighbor.  If we love, we forgive.  If we forgive our neighbor, we give love to our neighbor.  If we forgive, we receive the love we give.  When we forgive, we free ourselves and our neighbor from the shackles of selfishness.  When we forgive our neighbor, we are freed to choose the bonds of love which Jesus offers to establish with us.  

Jesus, always with us,********* patiently waits for us to turn inward and welcome Him into our hearts.  Jesus asks us to let Him love others through us.  Jesus wants us to become like Him.  He came to help us become like Him.  Saint Athanasius said, "the Son of God became man so that we might become God."  God asks whether we will consent to become more and more and more like Him.  

* Hebrews 13:2 
** Genesis 18:2-15 
*** Genesis 19:1-3 
**** John 13:34 
***** Matthew 9:10-11; Mark 2:16-17; Luke 5:30-31  
****** Matthew 21:28-31 
******* Luke 6:36 
******** Matthew 5:48 
********* Matthew 28:20 

Ray Of Hope

This morning, as the sun was rising, I was helping my fellow Catholic Worker, Susan, clean up our front porch.  We walked out onto the porch this morning and saw that, as usual, there were some items there that no one took from the previous night.  

Here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, our front porch is a free zone.  Anyone can come and take anything that's sitting on the porch.  Persons here in Redwood City have come to be familiar with this practice.  People have become so accustomed to coming to the porch that some of them identify this ministry of giving free goods, which happens on the porch, as being synonymous with this particular Catholic Worker House.  Many times I've heard homeless folks refer to this Catholic Worker House simply as "The Porch."   

Since so many people know that they can drop off donations on our porch, people regularly show up to give clothes, toys, and household items and leave them on the porch.  In the morning, Catholic Workers clean up the porch, and remove items no one took away the previous day.  

After Susan and I had finished straightening up the porch this morning, I was walking to the van I use so I could put an empty box in it for usage sometime in the future.  As I was walking down the sidewalk, a young woman came out of the apartment complex next door to us.  

Before I moved in here at the Catholic Worker House, in that building next door lived low-income individuals.  Then the building was renovated, rents in it were raised, and middle-income persons moved into it.  As Larry, a Catholic Worker who co-founded this house dozens of years ago, has noted, due to rising rents and changing demographics, we have been witnessing changes in who we serve and where they live.  We have seen impoverished people forced to move due to lack of funds.   What part does compassion play in determining whether rents go up?  

As rent prices rise, our neighbors change.  Neighbors move, yet we gain new neighbors.  Interpersonal dynamics shift in the neighborhood.  While we used to have closer interactions with certain neighbors and feel more of a sense of community with some people who have moved on, now we cross paths with neighbors we hadn't met.  Yet they are our neighbors and provide opportunities for exchanges between us.  

And so I was conscious of this young woman this morning when she exited the apartment complex next door and greeted me.  Often I notice that wherever I am, many people do not wish others a good morning.  Frequently I notice that numerous people do not even acknowledge the presence of someone else when crossing paths.  

We have opportunities in each and every interaction to display the qualities we wish were present in our society.  What do we want to see in the world?  As Gandhi has noted, we must be the change we want to see in the world.  Do we wish to witness love being shown in the world, hospitality, warmth, and a welcoming friendliness?  Do you like to see the warmth of such light which emerges when others let that light shine through them?  

We should not underestimate the power of such little acts of love.  Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she followed a little way of getting to Heaven by performing little gestures of kindness for others.  

We define ourselves by how we choose to act not only in grand matters but also in tiny ones.  In how we respond in every instant, we articulate the approach we take to life.  We call attention to the worth of every human choice by realizing the value of every action.  And in every little gesture we make, we send little signals of hope, rays of hope which emanate outward from our souls, to the souls of those with whom we come into contact.  Arising out of a consciousness of the value of every choice we make, we can proclaim with Saint Teresa of Calcutta that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  

It may seem insignificant, but at many moments in our day we have the opportunity to welcome the stranger.  Do we do so?  We benefit when we examine our own practices.  Are we friendly to others?  Do we acknowledge others?  To recognize the presence of someone else is to recognize the dignity of that person.  

Are you concerned by how other people treat immigrants?  Do you greet others who you hear speaking in broken English?  Do you smile at them?  Do you try to help them to feel welcome?  

At other times, at first it may be less obvious when we are strongly affirming the dignity and self-esteem of someone by such warm and kind greetings.  The woman walking down the street, whose presence you acknowledge, and thus encourage to realize her own self-worth, may have been slapped in the face earlier in the day by her husband who habitually abuses her.  I am not speaking of a hypothetical scenario here.  Here in Redwood City I have met a homeless woman who, I have been told by multiple people, is regularly beaten by her boyfriend.  When others greet her respectfully, they are tending to her with a healing salve of gentle kindness applied lovingly to the emotional wounds which have been inflicted on her.  

We do well to consider the wounds borne in our midst.  When Catholics pray the rosary, Catholics meditate at times on Jesus being scourged, or whipped, at the pillar soon before He was crucified.*  Jesus was beaten not only at the pillar.  Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  Jesus, present in our neighbor who has been abused, is in the person walking toward us on the street.  When we acknowledge our neighbor, we value the presence of Jesus among us.  When we tend to the wounds of our neighbor, we follow Jesus.  

Jesus explained that we are to attend to others who are suffering along our path.  In the Gospel of Luke, we hear that 

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”  

He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”  

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  

Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.  A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.  He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’  Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”  

He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” 

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”*** 

In hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan, we think of this parable as conveying a duty to care for our neighbor, not necessarily involving someone literally who has been beaten and is lying by the side of the road.  However, in our lives we come into contact with people who have been abused.  We might pass them without acknowledging their presence, without affirming their dignity and worth, and thus unintentionally contribute to the mistreatment they have been suffering.  Or we can greet them respectfully, giving them support which is much more valuable to them than we realize.  

Do we want to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, especially when such small offers of warmth and kindness are easily within our power to share with others?  Do you think that you love your neighbors by acknowledging their presence and thus showing them respect?  If so, then go, and do likewise.    

* John 19:1 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Luke 10:25-37 

Fear Not Foreigners

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 

Questioning Our Fears

On Sunday this week we celebrated the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus, when the Wise Men came looking for Him and visited Him as a newborn baby.  That day in the Gospel reading we heard that 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, 
in the days of King Herod, 
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 
"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  
We saw his star at its rising 
and have come to do Him homage."  
When King Herod heard this, 
he was greatly troubled, 
and all Jerusalem with him.  
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, 
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.  
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, 
for thus it has been written through the prophet: 
'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"  
Then Herod called the magi secretly 
and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.  
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 
"Go and search diligently for the child.  
When you have found Him, bring me word, 
that I too may go and do Him homage."  
After their audience with the king they set out.  
And behold, 
the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, 
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.  
They were overjoyed at seeing the star, 
and on entering the house 
they saw the child with Mary His mother.  
They prostrated themselves and did Him homage.  
Then they opened their treasures 
and offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, 
they departed for their country by another way.*  

When King Herod heard that Jesus, thought to be the King of the Jews, had been born, Herod was very troubled.  Herod was king, yet he heard of a king being born.  

Herod wanted to find out where the Messiah was to be born.  Keep in mind that the prevailing conception of the Messiah back then was in stark contrast to how today we view Jesus, as Messiah, as saving us through His dying for us and His rising from the grave, triumphing over death for us.  However, back then, the Messiah was expected to be a nationalistic and bellicose ruler who would liberate Israel from its enemies.**  

In this context, Herod wanted to know where the Messiah was going to be born because Herod viewed the Messiah as a threat to Herod holding onto power.  Thus Herod asked where the Messiah was to be born.  Who did Herod ask?  He asked the chief priests and the scribes.  He asked the people who were most knowledgeable about the sacred Scriptures.  He asked the people who were most likely to know where the Messiah would be born.  

Herod was king of Judea, Idumaea and Samaria.  Jesus born in Bethlehem, which was in Judea, where Herod governed as king.  
From Herod's point of view, the Messiah had just been born where Herod was governing.  Herod thought that the new king was going to become king right where Herod was king.  

Herod saw Jesus as a threat to Herod's power.  Herod thought that Jesus would grow up and rule as king right after Herod.  However, as Jesus told Pontius Pilate just before Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross, Jesus' Kingdom is not of this earth.***  Rather, Jesus' Kingdom is in Heaven.  

Herod feared Jesus since he was convinced that Jesus would take over Herod's kingship.  However, Herod actually had no reason to fear that Jesus would usurp Herod's kingship.  
Yet a little later in his life, Herod had much reason to fear Jesus for a different reason.  When Herod realized that the magi decided not to return to him and inform him where the Messiah had been born, Herod was furious.  Then Herod had slaughtered all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding countryside who were two years old and younger.****  Having ordered such widespread murder of innocent children, then Herod had much reason to fear Jesus, who will judge all people at the Final Judgment after we die.  

Yet when Jesus was born, Herod incorrectly judged Jesus to be a threat to Herod's ruling power.  Herod was mistaken in his assessment of the situation.  Herod feared when he should not have feared.  

Who does each of us fear?  Who do we see as a threat?  Are those people we see as dangerous actually not cause for concern?  

Often we see the stranger as a threat because the stranger is someone we do not know.  As humans we fear who and what we do not know.  

Yet might the stranger actually be someone who has been helping us?  I think of poor people who have come here, often illegally, from Mexico and nearby countries.  Impoverished migrant farmworkers come to the United States from Mexico and Central American countries to work in fields in the United States.  They pick and pack vegetables and fruits, valuable and indispensable work, which is also exhausting and demanding labor, yet for low wages.  Then those of us living here in the United States go to grocery stores and supermarkets and buy fruits and vegetables which have been picked and packed by these very immigrants.  If we propose building a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico, do we think in the same instant of the immigrants who cross that border and of how they do the painstaking work to harvest the fruits and vegetables we eat?  

Jesus instructed us to welcome the stranger.*****  He added that insofar as we welcome those who are the least among us, we are then welcoming Him.******  

Who do we fear?  Who do we welcome?  We will have to explain to Jesus why we did not welcome who we feared.  Let us not fear Jesus; let us welcome Him wherever we meet Him, however He seeks to help us; let us welcome Him into our hearts.  

* Matthew 2:1-12 
** Jerusalem Bible, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (New York, 1990), p. 1661, 1663, note "m" to Mark 1:34
*** John 18:36 
**** Matthew 2:16 
***** Matthew 25:35 
****** Matthew 25:40