St. Paul’s letter to Galatians 3:28

Oppression and abuse harm, not only the oppressed and abused, but equally the oppressor and abuser. There is a saying that declares: he who holds someone to the ground also holds himself down. The person who mans the door to the banquet hall to make sure that certain people do not join the feast will himself not be able to join the feast until he stops manning the door. The history of salvation relates how certain people have always tried to compute who has access and who does not have access to God, even though the Bible consistently teaches that all humankind should have ready access to God, the father of all.

Salvation history is divided into the old and the new testaments with Jesus, the highpoint of God’s revelation, standing between the two. In the Old Testament, humanity was effectively divided into Jews, who were believed to be nearer to God than the Gentiles who were believed to be outcasts. This unnatural division led to injustice and conflict. Jesus came, and with His teaching and example, corrected this imbalance.

Jesus reached out to the Gentiles without driving the Jews away, even though He was condemned to death by the Jewish, religious leaders. Still, Jesus abolished the Jewish-Gentile divide. It is an unfortunate fact of history, however, that the oppressed very quickly become the oppressors. Abused people quickly learn abusive ways, even as they are being liberated from their abusive past. They often relate to others abusively, having learned the highhanded ways of their erstwhile tormentors.

Today, many walls of division and discrimination still exist in our society and in our churches. A few come readily to mind: racism, gender discrimination, religious intolerance, homophobia, and the caste system of India and several African nations. All such discriminatory systems and practices are against the will of God who loved into being all men, women, and children. Jesus came to create one family of human beings. Is that not the lesson we learn from the story of the Magi in St. Matthew’s Gospel? (Matthew 2:1-12).

Let us ponder then our responsibility towards each other and join our voices with that of Jesus in proclaiming the same peace and equality to all in our world today, without any exception. In doing this, we are not only saving others; we are also saving ourselves.

Fr. Hugh Duffy