The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Glory to you,
O Lord.
Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Then out came a Canaanite woman from the district and started shouting,
Sir,
Son of David,
Take pity on me.
My daughter is tormented by a devil,
But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples went and pleaded with him,
Give her what she wants,
They said,
Because she is shouting after us.
He said in reply,
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet.
Lord,
She said,
Help me.
He replied,
It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the house dogs.
She retorted,
Yes,
Sir,
But even house dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered her,
Woman,
You have great faith.
Let your wish be granted.
And from that moment,
Her daughter was well again.
The gospel of the Lord,
Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.
What an unpopular concept equality truly is.
Human beings love to measure ourselves against others and other situations and compare,
And there's always competition,
Always,
Always,
Always competition.
And yes,
It is part of survival.
We need to be better to survive.
And so many people have capitalized on that and focus on our seemingly different expressions of life.
And they use it to perpetuate this false idea that we are separate,
Complete opposite what Jesus came to teach us.
We love saying that my way is the right way.
My way is the way.
I was quite upset yesterday yesterday afternoon when I got home and a piece of paper was under my gate.
When I picked it up and I read it,
It was a advertisement,
A religious little writing of a specific prophet of a specific prophet that had been hearing God's word,
He says,
For since the seventies and how different peoples are all going to burn in hell unless you listen to what he says.
If you dare love somebody outside of your race,
If you dare love somebody who is the same sex as you,
You are destined for hell.
Needless to say that piece of paper was thrown out very,
Very,
Very quickly.
I don't understand that.
When Christ came,
Christ came to teach us that there's nothing that separates us but the illusion of separation.
Isn't that what he came to teach us?
To rip down these walls of separation,
These illusions that you look different.
So you are wrong.
You call God something different.
Hence,
I must kill you and the angels weep.
This is why today is such a emotionally loaded day for me,
20th Sunday in ordinary time,
Telling us that God does not just love Christians,
That God loves all.
In my mind,
God is so much bigger than any religion that we can think of.
The mere fact that I am standing here wearing a white chasuble as a Catholic does not mean that my way is the only way,
The way that I understand God is the only way.
It is a way of understanding God because I sure as heck cannot understand God as a whole.
My mind cannot handle that and I don't think any human being's mind can handle that.
And so what if instead of saying,
My right is righter than yours,
My right is the only right,
In more than just religion,
Maybe in many,
Many,
Many different ways of life and experiences of life,
What if we say,
I don't necessarily understand your expression,
I don't understand your life,
I don't understand the reason why you do things the way you do,
But it's not my place to understand.
I can still love you,
I can still show compassion to you,
I can still hug you when you need a hug and reach out a hand when you need a hand.
My philosophy of life can be completely,
Completely different to yours.
I can still show you respect,
I shall still follow the commandment of Christ that we as Christians have been given,
Love God and love each other.
So my prayer and what I ask you to pray as well this week and to focus on,
Let's recognize the divinity in each other.
Let's recognize that each person has their own unique viewpoint,
Which is part of the whole,
That the person you look up to is not holier than you,
That the person that you look down on is your equal,
That all are equal and that God loves us all completely without reservation.
Amen.
