“IN truth, God shows no partiality,” St. Paul wrote to speak of one of God’s attributes. It’s true in the sense that God does not favor anyone but sees all of us as his beloved children. It does not matter what status, means, education or background we have in the society. He’d pour his graces of love, mercy, and forgiveness onto anyone who turns to him. Each one of us is his beloved child.
It’s difficult to grasp this truth if we base our perceptions on human standards. Indeed, we, human beings, do not see things as God sees or act as God would do. We’re people who tend to focus on prestige, power, image, and wealth and we often treat one another based on these values.
There is a story of a new pastor who dressed up as a homeless guy on the day that parishioners came together in the church to welcome him. He sat at the back of the church to observe everyone who attended. No one talked to him. No ushers greeted him. In fact, everyone avoided sitting next to him. They thought that he was another homeless man who is a sore sight in the church vicinity.
When the new pastor noticed that everyone in the packed church is patiently and anxiously waiting for the arrival of their new leader, he walked up to the altar, took the microphone and introduced himself eloquently. “Good evening,” he shouted, “I am Msgr. Dan, your new pastor.” The people could not believe that the person they avoided and ignored was the man dressed poorly and was sitting alone at the back of the church.
The motive of the new pastor’s strategy was to make his parishioners realize God’s vision of inclusivity and openness, especially to the people at the margins of society and to those who feel alienated. And that’s what he wanted to share with them from the start as he began his ministry with them.
This Sunday’s Second Reading from the Acts of the Apostles illustrates this vision of God. The circumcised believers were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they could hear these people speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?” He then ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
It takes a lot of efforts and conversion for each of us to exercise the same attributes of inclusiveness and openness. It’s easy to say that God commands us to love one another and to remain in his love, but it’s hard to practice it.
The Gospel this Sunday gives us a clue to fidelity and strength to follow God’s commands. It’s our friendship with Jesus in prayer. As friends, he’s at our side to strengthen us, to enlarge our hearts so that we can welcome others in our lives, forgive, and let go of prejudices, anger, and resentments.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser calls this connection as drinking from a source outside ourselves. He says that “unless you drink from a source outside of yourself, your natural proclivities for paranoia, bitterness, and hatred will invariably swallow you.” This outside source is God when we relate to him in prayer.
Jesus modeled this life of prayer to us in his relationship with his Father. He would come away to a deserted place to draw source from his Father. As Fr. Rolheiser explains, it was only by drinking in strength from the Source that Jesus was able “to meet hatred with love, to genuinely forgive others, to endure misunderstanding and opposition without giving in to self-pity and bitterness, and to retain with himself a center of peace and non-violence.”
Let’s drink in strength from the source of love for He is love. In this way, we can rid ourselves of arrogance, discrimination, misunderstanding, bitterness, and anger, and remain in love with one another. Amen.
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1991-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
