Ordinary 23

The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015 – Cycle B Isaiah 35: 4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2: 1-5; Mark 7:31-37

She approached me at the conclusion of Mass. The woman was elderly and very over dressed in many layers for that time of year. I presumed she may have been wearing everything she owned. She was Armenian Orthodox and came to the Maronite Catholic Church; the closest Eastern Christian Church she could find. She smelled and told me she had walked a good distance to come to church. Suddenly she was being ushered away from me by parishioners. The perennial justification, “Father’s busy”.  I stopped them.

Have you ever been ushered out of a place?

It might not have been physically; often it is not so obvious. We can be ushered out by being ignored, judged and excluded or not taken seriously because… Because of what?

Because of age? Are you too young or too old? Either end of the age spectrum is not considered in the “now” and thus easy to usher out; you don’t know much and have little to offer.

Like the Armenian woman or the shabbily dressed man in the biblical passage from James, was it because of how you were dressed? How many students from elementary through college are judged, bullied, or belittled based on how current or not they are in this seasons fashion.

Our culture has always been drawn to the beautiful at the expense of other people. This is particularly in regard to girls and women, who are politely spoken of as stocky, sturdy, and big but not accepted, ushered out, as airbrushed nonexistent women grace the covers of magazines and anorexic-like models walk down the catwalks of Paris, New York and Milan.

The media, like many of us, are drawn to the rich, the powerful, the bold and the beautiful. Who are the Kardashians? Who is Donald Trump? Why do such people get so much media attention? And why are so many people following them on Twitter and Facebook?

Consider how Pope Francis is being made into another superstar like Pope John Paul. Near the Vatican, a Roman graffiti portrays him flying like Superman; while his smile beams off “Rolling Stone” Magazine(?) When our culture is confronted by serious issues, it either ridicules or embraces the messenger. Either way, the culture transforms the image of the messenger into itself so as to easily discard, that is, usher them out of the public square.

I don’t text. My phone is old, it has no keyboard. A friend has become so enamored by this particular type of communication that people like me are being ushered out of his life.

Are you a woman? Have you been ignored, ushered out of a situation or discussion. People don’t like assertive, educated and experienced women who assume positions of authority. This is evident in our Church from the parish level up the ladder of authority. Is it at the root not allowing the ordination of women?

No one has directly said anything, but I often feel ushered out by younger priests; it’s a look, a distancing, nothing overt. We senior clergy have nothing to offer.

Have you been “ushered out” of consciousness as a man because you don’t fit the culture’s idea and stereotypes of masculinity? Your interests, manner, profession are perceived as questionable; that is, gay or bi-curious? But not a real masculine, red-blooded man.

Have you been ushered out because of “first impressions”: no second chances, no benefit of the doubt – just a one-time opportunity that we are not even conscious of that ensnares us in the grip of another person who ushers us out?

What is going on here?

The letter of James directly instructs that people, committed to faith in Jesus, are to show no favoritism among people. He instructs us to live a radical equality with each other. Yet, have not all of us shown such favourtism based on the superficial qualities of gender, age, fashion, cultural ideas of beauty, first impressions, cleanliness, technological prowess, and mannerisms? Why do we divide the Christian community and society, making judgments about the worth of people, and bad judgments at that?!

Have not all of us also been found wanting and judged by other people based on the same shallow qualities and preferences?

Who is really important? What constitutes importance? Who are the Kardashians anyway?

What does it feel like when you have been ushered out?