By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
23rd Sunday in Ordinary time: September 5, 2021
Isaiah 35: 4-7; James 2: 1-5; Mark 7: 31-37
The readings this Sunday miraculously coincide with a world event that comes to its close the very Sunday, September 5! When Isaiah speaks to us of the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking, the blind seeing and the lame walking, we cannot but think of the so called, deaf and blind, lame and crippled, winning gold, silver and bronze, adding pride to their nations, in the paralympic that closes this very day. The persons with disablity proving their mettle at Tokyo these days, stand witness to the hope that if only we change our perspective and look at the whole truth, the holistic reality, the universal harmony, instead of dividing, stratifying, exploiting and manipulating the other, on whatever be the count.
It is in this context that we confront a question today: Is God partial? Ideally speaking, we say, God is never partial, God is just and God is upright! But let us think a while… who said God is not partial! Now consider a situation, a case in concrete: you see a man in the act of stealing, and you also see the man who is being robbed of his something – what would you do? By calling out the thief, are you not putting him into danger and favouring the one who is being robbed? Is it being partial? No, it is being truthful, it is being just, it is being upright… isn’t it? And that is why, we say…
It is logical that God is ‘partial’… God is Truth, God is just, God is love, God is compassion – which logically says, God sides with truth and never with the lie; God sides with justice and never with injustice; God stands with those to be love, those who need understanding and compassion. It is only logical. James says today, God chose the poor! God chose those who are being oppressed. God chooses those who are suffering. God stands by those who are exploited, those who cannot fend for themselves, those who are unfortunate, those who have less than what they legitimately need to live their life to the full. Thinking in these terms it is very clear that…
It is not being ‘partial’, but being ‘integral’… Being integral is being in perfect harmony without contradictions – between words and deeds, between what is public and what is private, between what is preached ans what is practised. God is integral; God is integrity! There is no need for God to choose between good and evil, truth and deception, virtue and vice – God is integrally good, truthful and virtue personified. Jesus embodied this quality; he naturally stayed with the suffering, the less fortunate, the struggling in life – that is where love and compassion was needed; it is amidst the injustices that ray of justice was needed – and Jesus was there. Can we claim to be neutral, when there is some one who is exploiting and someone who is suffering? Have we not to take a concrete side? That is why we say…
God does have favourites… Blessed are the poor, the humble, the weak, the suffering, those who cry, those who are hungry, those who are persecuted… but why are they blessed? Because God has taken their side already! A Christian view of suffering and struggle in life, has to be a sense of hope and optimism, because God is very close to a person in these circumstances. It is not a very Christian question to ask: if God is, why is there suffering! Instead it is very Christian to understand and believe that wherever there is suffering, there is God! Amidst the people today who are suffering out of political crisis in Afghanistan, beside persons and families who are reeling under sadness, grief and crisis due to the prevailing pandemic, on the side of the poor farmers and economically downtrodden people everywhere who are oppressed by the corporate bullies… there is God present with compassion and strength. It is the call today to every disciple of Christ, to hold on to this Christian hope and instill the same wherever we are – that is the true spirit of the Reign!
The Reign of God is all about the so-called partial God, a God who stands by truth, by justice, by fairness, by uprightness of life – to ensure that all may have life, life in abundance. The Reign of God therefore is not a neutral pacifism, nor is it an inhuman antagonism. It is an ongoing struggle, a battle waged by truth against deceptions, a rebellion of peace against violence and a continuous self assertion of loving justice against selfish exploitations. Today as true disciples of Christ, inspired people of the Spirit and loved children of God, we are called tod be builders of the Reign. Can we claim to be neutral? Can we avoid taking the side of the oppressed? Can we choose not to feel one with the suffering?
Building the Reign here and now, means making the blind see, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the lame walk… that is to become the eyes, the ears, the mouths, the legs and the hands of those who are affected with disabilities of all kinds – cultural, social, economic, political, religious and spiritual. God invites, even challenges us to be truly representatives of God initiating such processes in our concrete contexts. And what do you call God who is the protagonist of this very process… a partial God?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.