WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Ordinary time
February 13, 2020: 1 Kings 11: 4-13; Mark 7: 24-30
Some may find this difficult to accept. But it is anyway true, what Gustavo Guttierez the famous theologian says, that Jesus was taught by the Syro-Phoenician woman. He was taught to open up his mind and see that everyone was God's child, loved and sought after by God, not just the so-called 'chosen' people. Every one is chosen, and every one is acceptable in the presence of the Lord, provided the person feels called and is serious about his or her call.
This is an essential sense of openness that every son and daughter of God should possess - this is exactly what Jesus teaches us too as his ongoing revelation of a Father who wants every one unite as one family of brothers and sisters. An openness that is needed today all the more, when religion becomes an easy reason to divide, turn people against each other and cause inhuman violence!
But we have to learn it the right way - it is not to say anything is alright, everything acceptable and everything is same. Solomon falls prey to that falsehood, and gives into compromise. Openness is not compromise, it is not a cocktail or a hotch-potch of everything that is there.
Openness is true respect for the other, without making them one among the many and at the same time not excluding anyone from the circle of hospitality. Let good thoughts come from any side, it is said. Yes, that would help only when you know the absolute good and hold on to it. When there is no true ground, you would be swept to nowhere.
Let us pray today for the true wisdom from the Spirit, that we may know the One True Beautiful God, and see how we are connected to each and every person, in and through that Loving Father and Mother.