Readings for the Day:
Reflection:
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When I was serving in Montana, there were two people I remember who were there almost every Sunday and often sitting in the front row. One, who we'll call Claire, was a woman who, at the time I met her, was homeless. The other, who we'll call Gregory, was a young man in his mid-30s living with some form of mental disability.
Both came from populations that are often looked down on. Yet both felt so much a part of the community that they felt they could come to the front of the church. Gregory later would even serve at the altar whenever he wasn't sitting at the front.
The acceptance Claire and Gregory received is the same we are called to give others in our readings today. Throughout most of our lessons, particular in Proverbs and in James, we see this acceptance in our welcoming of the poor. We are called on to let all people in to have the opportunity to hear God's words, even if they have nothing they can offer us in return.
However, we are also called to accept those who we might not normally. The Syrophoenician woman was a Gentile, those who the Jewish people did not normally associate with. Matthew's version of this story is even starker by calling the woman a Canaanite, a people from a tribe that had a lot of history of conflict with Israel. Yet in the end, Jesus grants this woman her request and frees her daughter from her demon. Jesus continues to interact with Gentiles, and even provides healing for them, up to the end of our Gospel reading today.
We are not called to be an insular community. We are called to be a place where all might have the opportunity to meet God. This is regardless of whether they are the kind of people we normally associate with or if they are able to provide us with anything in return.
If we are to be this kind of Church that focuses on what our Lord is saying and showing to us, we must go and do likewise.