Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary time
(Jonah 1:1-2:2.11; Luke 10:25-37)
Several years ago a leading Catholic university removed
the crucifixes from its classrooms.
Having a multi-ethnic student body, the university administration reasoned
that the crucifixes might offend students of other religious traditions. One Muslim student, however, was bothered by
the removal. After all, he asked, what
kind of guest would he be if he could not respect the symbols and artifacts of his
hosts’ religion? Eventually, the
crucifixes were returned to the classrooms, and their removal, no doubt, was attributed
to political correctness.
The Book of the Prophet Jonah similarly testifies to
people from other religions showing greater sensibility to true religion than they
of the dominant tradition. Jonah, the
Jew, is disgusted with the Lord for his parallel love of other peoples. He flees when God commands him to preach in
the city of Nineveh, Israel’s captors. In
his flight the sailors on the ship that transports Jonah show more regard for
the Lord than he. They pray to God for
help and shudder to think that their act of appeasement may not please God.
We find Jesus making a similar point in the gospel. He describes the heretical Samaritan who
comes to the aid of the dying stranger as giving God greater praise than the
priest and Levite. The Holy Spirit works among different peoples and religions
just as surely as it lavishes graces upon us.
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