20231003 INTOLERANCE AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS
03 October 2023, Tuesday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Zechariah 8:20-23 © |
Many peoples and great nations will come to seek the Lord of Hosts
The Lord of Hosts says this:
‘There will be other peoples yet, and citizens of great cities. And the inhabitants of one city will go to the next and say, “Come, let us go and entreat the favour of the Lord, and seek the Lord of Hosts; I am going myself.” And many peoples and great nations will come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord.’
The Lord of Hosts says this:
‘In those days, ten men of nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say, “We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you.”’
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 86(87) © |
God is with us.
On the holy mountain is his city
cherished by the Lord.
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion
to all Jacob’s dwellings.
Of you are told glorious things,
O city of God!
God is with us.
‘Babylon and Egypt I will count
among those who know me;
Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia,
these will be her children
and Zion shall be called “Mother”
for all shall be her children.’
God is with us.
It is he, the Lord Most High,
who gives each his place.
In his register of peoples he writes:
‘These are her children,’
and while they dance they will sing:
‘In you all find their home.’
God is with us.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:36,29 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Bend my heart to your will, O Lord,
and teach me your law.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mk10:45 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Son of Man came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 9:51-56 © |
Jesus sets out for Jerusalem
As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?’ But he turned and rebuked them, and they went off to another village.
INTOLERANCE AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ZEC 8:20-23; LK 9:51-56]
What is it that the first reading and the gospel have in common? It is none other than the importance of the symbol of Jerusalem. This word is very rich in meaning. Unfortunately, sometimes, it has been understood only literally rather than symbolically. Consequently, we can understand why this word can spark such intense hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. For the Jews, Jerusalem is the place where God lives and dwells with His people because the temple is located there. It is their belief that world unity and the restoration of the covenant can take place only when everyone comes to Jerusalem to worship the Lord as the prophetic vision of Zechariah predicted. “The Lord of Hosts says this: ‘In those days, ten men of nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say, ‘We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you.'” And in Luke’s gospel, he presented Jesus as journeying to Jerusalem, the city of destiny.
However, for the Samaritans, they built a rival sanctuary at Mt Gerizim. The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans was long-standing. It goes back all the way to the time when Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom established its capital at Shechem in order to discourage the people from going to Jerusalem. After the fall of Israel to Assyria, the enemies brought with them their pagan idols. There were also intermarriages. As a result, the purity of the Jewish race was compromised. Furthermore, when the Jews returned from Babylon, hoping to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans opposed it and sought to undermine the attempt to rebuild the nation. Within this context we can understand why the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus on learning that He was going to Jerusalem. In fact, they would often hinder any pilgrim from travelling that way to Jerusalem although it was the shortest route from Galilee. But the reaction of the disciples was no better than them. They became angry to the extent of wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy them. They thought it was the right to do.
This situation of intolerance has not changed today. So many religious tensions and wars have been caused because of competition and jealousy. Whilst it might be permitted to claim that one’s religion is right and true, it is another thing to charge that other religions are false and man-made. We have no right to disdain the beliefs of others. To consider other religions as the work of the Devil is going too far. There are many ways to God. As Christians, we claim that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that He is the only mediator between God and man. (cf 1 Tim 2:5) But that is to say that Christ shows us who the Father is in all its fullness. It does not mean that others have no inkling of God as their Father as well. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (Jn 14:6f)
But what is worse is that discrimination against others happens simply because they do not belong to the same faith or the same church. Even in the world today, secularism discriminates all those who have religion. Often, it results in persecution, explicit or implicit. Politically, restrictions are made for people of different faiths to practise their beliefs or build their temples, mosques or churches. Such discrimination happens everywhere, whether it is in the office or in human relationships. Special treatment is given only to those who share the same faith. Those that do not share the faith of the majority are not given positions of authority or get promoted in their jobs. In some places, fundamentalists would even destroy their places of worship and kill them as well.
But such an attitude is contrary to the gospel. That is why in the gospel Jesus, instead of approving what the disciples did, reprimanded them for reacting negatively towards the Samaritans. In other words, Jesus refused to get involved in polemics. His mission was simply to proclaim the Good News and to invite people to be receptive to it. But He did not feel the necessity to impose it on others. In fact, that He took the way of Samaria to go to Jerusalem was an attempt to offer friendship to the Samaritans. Of course, it was not due to His narrow-mindedness that the offer of friendship was rejected. The tolerance of Jesus came from His love and understanding of the Samaritans. He could understand why they were so hostile towards Him and His fellow Jews. Because He loved, He could tolerate them. We too can and should tolerate those who are different from us, or disagree with us, and even hate us, when we choose to love them instead of being angry with them.
It would be good for us to be more aware that their rejection of us is often prejudiced by their past hurts and experiences than due to objective reasons, like the Samaritans who hated all the Jews, and vice versa, because of their historical conflicts. Generation after generation has passed down its hatred of another race to their children even though they might have never met at all. This is so true when it comes to race and religion. We stereotype people of other races so much so that even before any dialogue and friendship could develop, we already hold negative views of each other. We fail to realize that every person is unique and different. We should not label a person because of his race, language or religion. In truth, in every religion and race, there are very good people and bad people as well. Hence, it would be wrong to conclude that just because they belong to a certain race or religion, they are bad. Such bigotry should be avoided.
Indeed, Jesus showed His broad-mindedness even when it came to the question of worshipping at the right place. Jesus transcended the Jews and the Samaritans who fought over the geographical location of worship. For Jesus, Jerusalem should be seen more as a theological symbol than in a literal sense. It should be viewed as the symbol of the dwelling place of God and the focus of the messianic kingdom. That is why in the New Testament, this symbol is transformed into an eschatological symbol. The letter to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse speak of Jerusalem as the heavenly city synonymous with the Kingdom of God. Indeed, in John’s gospel, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.” (Jn 4:21-23) So what is important is that we must worship in spirit and in truth. Having the right church and religion will not get us to heaven if we do not possess the right spirit of love, devotion and charity towards our fellowmen. Only those who are in love with God and their fellowmen are truly men of God.
Consequently, we must recognize that in our relationship with people of different faiths, we must seek to build unity rather than uniformity. We must seek what is really essential to the gospel. What is vital is that everyone lives the life of the kingdom, even if they do not externally profess the same faith. We can be certain that those who live the life of the Kingdom are already worshipping in the heavenly Jerusalem. They have, in other words, already worshipped in spirit and in truth. With the grace of God, they too might also come to know the Lord fully through us and say, “Come, let us go and entreat the favour of the Lord, and seek the Lord of Hosts; I am going myself.” This applies not just to the area of faith but in our daily life. Very often we disagree over the ways of doing things. The differences are not as important as whether our actions promote true love, unity and justice. Thus, in our disagreement, we must determine whether our differences lie in the essentials or in the secondary matters. In non-essentials, diversity; in essentials, unity; in all things, charity. In this way, we can come to accept the different ways of arriving at the same goal.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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