The gospel of Matthew, chapter 15:26-28

Think for a moment of your five best friends. List them in your mind. How many of them come from the same racial background as you; have a similar type of education; make the same salary, and are about your age? If you are like other people, you will find it easiest to relate to people who are like you. It is very human to be more at home with those who share our traditions and background.

People have to work at being Christian for it means going outside your group and discovering that, differences aside, we are all one family. Today’s gospel is about Jesus’ concern and love for the Canaanite woman. The Jews found this a bitter pill to swallow. That is why Jesus’ disciples, who were Jews, were scandalized when He reached out to the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel. So, of course, we are inclined act in the same way. If you have any doubt about this, try substituting Communist or Russian where Jesus speaks about the Good Samaritan.

You may remember from the old cowboy movies, that the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black ones. Life was so simple. You could look at the hat and you knew who was good and who was bad. Of course, life is not that simple. Whenever we try to set up a group of only the elect, we run into trouble. Some people think that all Communists are bad and that all Capitalists are good. But, this is not really so. Not all Communists are really bad. Many of them care about the poor and the suffering. And, not all Capitalists are good. Some of them cheat, lie, steal, and oppress the unfortunate.

The truth of the matter is that God loves all his children; Capitalists and Communists, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Moslems. He wants us all to get along and we won’t get along with each other if we keep raising barriers. If we put God’s will at the center of our relationships we can learn to get along.

We are all one family under God. Every time we try to get along with someone who is “different” we give credence to our belief that God is our Father and we are His children.

Fr. Hugh Duffy