Ordinary 28

The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

It is said that “the devil is in the details” and that can be true for the sacred scriptures. Without biblical scholarship and other sciences we miss cues in these ancient writings removed as we are in time and culture by thousands of years. I expect this Lord’s Day there will be many homilies offered on healing and thanks. I want to draw our attention though to two details we probably do not take into consideration revealed in two individuals, namely Naaman and the returning person who offers thanks to Jesus for their healing.

Regrettably the edited passage omits that Naaman is a Syrian; a commander in the armed forces. He is an enemy of Israel. The person who returned to thank Jesus was, it is noted, a Samaritan; an outsider. Jesus calls this person a foreigner.

Yet in both stories it is the enemy, the foreigner, the outsider that are placed before us as examples of gratitude. It may be easier to learn a lesson by being so distanced in time but what if we reflect on examples closer to home.

I immediately thought of the compassion and care shown by gay men to their friends and partners who were dying during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Society and churches condemned the gay community and declared this disease a punishment from God for sin. Many people blinded by hatred and fear never saw the deep care and compassion offered to the dying and the presence of God revealed in that care. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the lives of the outsider.

I thought of the response of the Amish community to the West Nickel Mines School shooting in 2006. Ten students were held hostage; five were killed including the gunman. On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives, “We must not think evil of this man”.  Another member of the community explained: “I don’t think there’s anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts”.  The family of the gunman was comforted by an Amish neighbor hours after the shooting.

Some commentators criticized the quick and complete forgiveness with which the Amish responded blinded to the forgiveness that God offers each of us revealed to us by Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”.  To have the willingness to forgo vengeance does not undo the tragedy or pardon the wrong, but rather constitutes a first step toward a future that is more hopeful. The Amish live on the periphery of society and Christianity. Even Christians can be outsiders within Christianity.

Yet it is the virtues at the core of our Christian faith: compassion and care, forgiveness and reconciliation, and gratitude that are often taught to us by outsiders, foreigners, and those we consider the enemy.

Have we not considered that Jesus was an outsider?

He counted himself among those who were outsiders: sinners, tax collectors, drunks and gluttons. To be crucified is to be put outside the city walls, the place of the living. To be crucified is to be put beyond humanity. To be crucified was to reveal God’s act of compassion and care, forgiveness and reconciliation for sons and daughters that had themselves through sin become outsiders.

What do you consider yourself, an insider or an outsider?