“Let all the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you!” SAY “NO” TO RACISM

A few weeks ago, I was out walking on my sick calls. As I walked near Christie Park, I found myself approaching a group of rough looking young men who I noticed were pointing at me and started smiling and laughing among themselves. Not recognizing any of them, I tried to look away from them and hoped that their attention would turn to another matter. Soon one of them started to yell at me “Yo man.” Because it was a pretty large group, I was sure that I was in for a bit of trouble. I started to pray that I would find the right things to say and keep my calm. I still hoped that they would find someone or something else that would catch their attention. As the group approached, the largest member of the party said to me “Yo man, are you a priest.” Not knowing what kind of trouble I was in for, I meekly said that “yes” I was. As soon as I said I was a priest, this man’s face lit up and he said to me: “Yo man, you used to visit my school. I loved it when you came into our class.” Although he had changed significantly from when I had known him years ago, as soon as he told me his name, I remembered what a kind and wonderful person he had been, and, as I discovered, still was beneath his rough and tough exterior. We had a great talk about what he was up to since I last knew him in school and he introduced me to all of his friends, some I had known from the same school, with whom he had just finished playing sports in Christie Park.

As I walked away from this incident, I could not help but think of the number of times I have misjudged people and situations as a result of some of the prejudices that I carry. Not all of these prejudices simply assume the worst of people. We can on occasion have good prejudices about people which are just as false as the bad ones that we have about other people. Let me give a few examples:

At a parish I once served at there was a man who appeared to me to be very holy. He came to Mass everyday and was always very kind to me at the doors of the church. At a certain point he became sick and could no longer come to Mass. I started to take him communion when he could no longer come to church. As I visited him at home, I would take some time to speak to him afterwards and ask him how he was doing. To my amazement, he was a man who hated everyone. He was angry that so many immigrants had come to Canada and had a racial slur for all of his neighbours. It turned out that he was fighting everyday with his neighbours and constantly causing them difficulty. This man who appeared to be holy was anything but that.

A few years ago I was introduced to a couple through some common friends. She was a medical doctor and he was a very successful executive. Because of their success and the fact that they were both very highly educated, I assumed they would not have much interest in religion or especially in the kind of “institutional religion” that I as a priest might be associated with in their minds. As I tried to talk to them about matters that I thought would be of interest to them, they kept drawing the conversation to spiritual matters and their interest in the teaching of the Church. It turned out that despite my prejudice, they were people of deep Catholic faith and were highly involved in their parish and diocese.

There was a young couple at a parish that I had served at a few years ago. I had never met a couple who seemed to be such good parents. They spoke to their children with love and respect and yet were effective at maintaining discipline with their very large family of young children. I decided from the loving way in which they spoke to their children that they had to be school teachers. When I asked them what school they taught at, they told me they were police officers. They turned out to be police officers who both worked in very rough assignments here in Toronto. I had prejudged them based on my prejudices.

This Sunday in our Gospel reading from Matthew, we hear how the Canaanite women is misjudged as being a person without faith in God because of her origins. As she cries out to Jesus for help, the disciples want Jesus to send her away and dismiss her. They hope to deal with her and dismiss her in the same way that we might try to dismiss people today according to our own prejudices. Jesus uses this prejudice that is felt against the Caananite women as a teaching moment. He articulates the prejudice that his disciples have against this women as a way of eliciting from her a deep confession of faith. Faith has brought this women to seek out Jesus as she calls after Him using the titles “Lord” and “Son of David.” At first, Jesus plays into the prejudice of His followers in order that He might reveal that the Messiah has come to save all persons who have faith in Him and confess Him as Lord. Using the very unpleasant name of “dog,” Jesus tells this women that it is not fair to share the salvation that He has come to bring for the Jewish people with those who are strangers— “dogs.” He uses this term, which is an unkind way to refer to strangers and foreigners, in order to give this women an opportunity to reveal her faith and to show that God’s salvation is for all people who seek and accept Jesus as Lord. Through this example, Jesus reveals to His disciples that we are all God’s children, made in His image and likeness, and deserving of the respect that God has created us for as His people.

The faith of the Caananite women is what allows Jesus to come to her and be her saviour. This Sundays readings are a powerful reminder that Jesus has come to save all people. In the first reading this weekend from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, this great prophet from the Old Testament speaks of the salvation that will come to all people. His message is clear, that all people who observe the ordinances of God shall all one day be welcome into God’s House. This was a radical idea for a Jewish prophet— one that would be fulfilled in Christ’s coming to save all people. The Responsorial Psalm expresses the hope that some day all people will praise the Lord, not just the Jewish people, as it proclaims: “Let the peoples praise you O God, let all the peoples praise you!” In the second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of the fact that he is going to minister to the Gentiles, because the Jewish people at his time seem set on rejecting Christ. It seems to me, that there are several important lessons that we can all take away from this Sunday’s readings.

The first thing which this Sunday’s readings are intended to remind us of is that not only has Jesus come to save all people, but that we might also be surprised at who will be saved on the last day. We cannot really judge from exterior experiences who is a good Christian and who is not. In fact, perhaps the simplest lesson from these readings is that because we are all God’s children, perhaps we should assume that God desires to save all people. These readings are a warning against the kinds of prejudices and labels that we might put on people. Only God knows the hearts of others and what they have suffered and gone through to become the people that they appear to be.

Today’s readings are also a timely reminder against racism and the kind of divisions that can result in judging people based on the colour of their skin or where they were from. While I was on holidays, I started to read a three volume history of Canada to mark the 150th anniversary of the country that we are celebrating this year. As I read of the early years of our country, I was surprised by the way in which people were excluded from politics in our country because they were either Aboriginal, French or Catholic. In the early days of our country, when it was a nation made up of Aboriginal People, English and French speakers and only Catholics and Protestants, people who were Aboriginal, Catholic or of French origin were excluded from the politics of our country. It was considered a big deal for a Catholic or French Canadian to be admitted to political office; while it was impossible for a Native Canadian. I could not help but think how sad it is to hear on the news reports of stories of similar strains of racism and prejudiced thinking developing again in our country and around the world. As Christians we are called to speak for the dignity that belongs to all people because they are children of God, who are made in His image and likeness. Christ’s treatment of the Caananite women is intended to draw our attention to the incorrectness of treating people in different ways because of their ethnic backgrounds. The types of Nationalistic ideologies that are developing around the world, which seek to reject persons as a result of their origins, are not only dangerous, but against the teaching of the Gospels.

Ultimately, Jesus heals the daughter of the Caananite women for one reason— she is a daughter of God. It is her faith and openness to God that allows Jesus to act in her life and heal her daughter. We, and all people, can be touched by God’s presence in our lives, if we open our hearts to His presence. All we need for this is faith. Jesus shows us an example of discrimination and prejudice in today’s Gospel and we all instinctively sense that there is clearly something wrong with the way that he is treating the Caanainte women. Our first reaction on hearing the way Jesus speaks to her is to feel that there is something unchristian in the way He is treating her. Jesus does this to draw our attention to the fact that He has come to save all people. He also does this to let us know that if it is is unchristian for Him to treat people in this manner, it is equally wrong for us to prejudge people and treat them in this way. There are no “dogs”,or whatever other name we might call people, among God’s people— only brothers and sisters made in God’s image and likeness. Jesus speaks a message of hope to all peoples. All we need, no matter what our origins, to access God is faith. We are not to dismiss people because of their origins or appearance or other labels that we might attach to them. Salvation is for the foreigner, the drug addict, sinners of all types, as long as they turn, like the Caananite women, to the Lord and allow Him to heal them. Like the Caananite women, we to are to hope and pray that Jesus might also touch those in our own lives who have been marginalized from God because of their pasts and the labels that have been placed on them.

The beautiful hope of the Responsorial Psalm this Sunday states the hope that all people might one day praise God as their saviour. The only way that this can happen is if we, who claim to be God’s people, also treat our brothers and sister in such a way that shows them that we recognize them to be our equals, created in God’s image and likeness and show them the dignity and welcome that they deserve. In order that all people might one day praise the Lord, we who are God’s people, must treat all people as though they truly were God’s people. We do this by working for an end to racism and prejudice in all forms.