It is not always easy to recognize Christ in others, especially if
we find them difficult or different. And in the Church, even in a monastic
community, it is natural for us to gravitate to a smaller group of like-minded
people. Jesus threatens the whole matter of community in his first sermon in
Nazareth, and it almost gets him killed. He reminds his own
people that God’s sense of community is bigger than theirs. He offends them by
telling not one but two stories about how God had passed over them in order to
minister to strangers- first, the widow from the wrong side of the tracks in
Zarephath, and then Naaman the Syrian, who was an officer in the army of
Israel’s enemies
Even now the “company of strangers” is a huge issue,
as we Americans bitterly debate the question of immigration. And it is a huge issue that
threatens to crumble the European Union, as refugees from elsewhere desperately seek to cross national borders. It is a huge issue among people of
different faiths, and even among Christians, when controversy surrounds
questions such as: “Who’s in? Who’s out? Who belongs? Who’s a misfit, failure
or threat?”
It is easy to see the other as stranger, as soon as we do
not agree with them, or love different things, or define ourselves by different
choices. But it is not a very big step to then begin regarding the stranger as
enemy. If we are honest, we are at least a little disturbed or offended when we
realize that God actually loves the people we don’t like, that they belong to
him just as surely as we do.
Naaman the Syrian and the widow of Zarephath are not simply
distant figures that triggered a violent reaction that day in the synagogue, when Jesus was addressing his own people; they have other names in our lives
today. The company of strangers is no less uncomfortable or offensive to us. Jesus presents himself
in the Gospel as one who cares for the stranger, and he continues to come to us
as stranger, reminding us that while he is with us he does not belong to us,
but rather we belong to him.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Meditation by Father Dominic.
