Let us look beyond our narrow-minded categories

 

I remember the story about a man who grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood in New York in the 50s. From his earliest years he was advised by his mother never to wander beyond the block of buildings that formed his neighbourhood. But he often wondered what lay beyond the boundaries of his Jewish neighbourhood. Eventually curiosity got the better of him and he crossed the road and ventured into this strange world on the other side. He came across a park where a group of young boys, his age, were playing baseball. These kids saw him and invited him to play with them. After an afternoon of fun and games, as the boys were sitting around, one of them asked this Jewish kid where he came from. When they found out, one told him to go home, another spat at him, one punched him, they called him names, some threw stones and chased him out of the park. He had wandered into an Irish-Catholic neighbourhood. He ran back to the safety of his own world and his home. As his mother was putting bandages on his wounds, he looked up at her and asked, “Who is Jesus?” The reason was that one of the kids yelled out, “Jesus-killer.” During his adult years he became an atheist and in his old age he was cared for by religious sisters of an Irish Catholic order. And despite the tenderness shown him in his old age by women who lived out their belief in Jesus as Son of God, he never came to know Jesus. Sadly we are all raised to categorise people - as male or female, black or white, gay or straight, Jew or Irish, good or bad. And we only see appearances or we create images base on our categories. As Jesus says in today’s gospel (Luke 11:37-41), “All that you Pharisees see are the outside of people. You judge people according to categories based on empty laws. You fail to see the goodness in others because you can’t see goodness in yourselves.” Let us lay aside our categories and treat each one we meet as a person, as a good person, especially those who are in need of help and support. And hopefully more people can come to know Jesus as the reflection of the divine in each human person.