I wonder if anyone who read the account of today’s Gospel would feel as intrigued as I was at Jesus’ teaching to his disciples. Why on earth would he tell them to treat the brothers who have sinned as a Gentile or a tax collector?
In Palestine during Jesus’ time, tax collectors were considered to be traitors for they worked for the Romans to oppress the Jews. They were probably among the most hated ones of their people because they made their living, some even became wealthy, by collaborating with the Empire. They were a special class kind of sinners with whom no one wanted to be involved at all.
Then, the Gentiles were nothing to the Jews other a bunch of idol-worshipers. They were considered to be defiled and unclean. Thus, they should, as far as possible, be altogether avoided[1].
What Jesus taught us to do does not at all seem to make any sense!Did Christ not preach love and forgiveness? Was he not the one who constantly reminded us that we should love and bless our enemies (Matt. 5:44)? Did he not proclaim in the Beatitudes, which is the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven, that, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy” (Matt. 5:7)? In another occasion, did Jesus not challenge Peter to forgive his brothers not only seven times but seventy times seven times – that is not say endless (Matt. 18:22)?
And here, he told us that we could treat our brothers and sisters who offended us as tax collectors and Gentiles. How strange!
Surely, it would be strange if we look at the way the people of his time treated these fellows mentioned above. However, it wouldn’t be strange by any means if we look at this passage of the Scriptures under the light of how Jesus himself treated tax collectors and Gentiles.
Recall how he scandalized the Pharisees by constantly eating and “hanging out” with sinners and tax collectors. Recall how he chose to dine with Zacchaeus in his home (Luke 19:1-10). Recall how he called Matthew, who himself was a tax collector, to be among his disciples (Matt. 9:9-13).
To the Gentiles, we recall how he treated the Canaanite woman’s daughter (Mark 7:24-30); how he healed the Roman centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10); and how he spoke and offered living water to the sinful Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob (John 4:4-26).
That was how Jesus treated tax collectors and Gentiles!
That is how Jesus is asking us to do the same to our “trespassers!”
By constantly reaching out, loving and forgiving.
St. Paul reaffirms this message as he wrote to the Roman Church saying, “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Or, as the Beatles would put it: “All you need is love. All you need is love.”
Such truth!
Nevertheless, this love, or, as we use the politically correct term, Christian charity, must not in any way be romanticized, for as the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky wisely wrote, “Love in dreams is sweet and pleasant; love in reality is a harsh and dreadful thing.”
I heard of a family in my town in Vietnam who struggled to live by after the war. Their only means of going by was a small herd of swine. Their neighbor one day, after a small conflict, secretly poisoned the swine and killed them all. The only means of living was destroyed. How were they to love that neighbor?
I know of a family of two, a widowed mother and a son, who were as poor as they could be in Modern America without being homeless. Their only source of income was a little shop the mother managed. Yet, one day, a black man came in with a knife and robbed her of everything that she had. How was she to love this “brother” of hers?
Yes, in reality, love is difficult, harsh, and, at times, painful. How so? Because love demands forgiveness of offenses and such a thing is not always easy to do.
But, it isn’t impossible!
An unknown woman in the Ravensbruck concentration camp wrote this little prayer and pinned it to the dead body of a little girl there. “O, Lord,” she wrote, “remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the sufferings they have inflicted on us. Remember rather the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity; the greatness of heart which has grown out of all of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits which we have borne be their forgiveness.”
Betsie Ten Boom, who died in the same concentration camp, steadfastly refused to hate the guards who beat her and eventually beat her to death. Her dying words are both simple and profound: “We must tell the people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.”
Think of someone who have recently offended us and caused us pain. Face the challenge of forgiving that particular person. Then, let us try to take up Jesus’ demand to treat him or her as a tax collector or a Gentile, not as the world, but as he himself has done so by reaching out, loving, and forgiving.
It is not going to be easy. It is going to be difficult. But, it won’t be impossible because “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.”
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