God's mercy extends to all who repent

January 28, 2007 -- Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

Schools have canceled classes. Even some businesses have shut down. People are staying home, if at all possible, because of the ice storm that has paralyzed much of the Midwest. That's where I am, as I write this article. Hopefully, by the time that it goes to print, people will have emerged from the snowbound confines of their homes. But for the moment, it is pleasant to have this unexpected holiday, to have the opportunity just to stay at home. Sometimes, a bit of isolation is exactly what is needed.

Taken to an extreme, though, isolation can prove unhealthy. Translated into political terms, the desire to focus upon one's homeland is known as isolationism. This policy approach advocates an emphasis upon domestic issues. It attempts to steer America away from international affairs. It calls upon our country to avoid foreign entanglements.

Isolationism can easily lead to hostility towards the foreigner. It can look with suspicion upon the new immigrant, as a threat to the American way of life.

Several thousand years ago, the people of Israel felt similarly beleaguered. A small nation, they were frequently caught in the crossfire between the superpowers of the time, Egypt and Assyria. The Middle East was as full of turmoil then as it is now. If the people of Israel could have pursued a policy of isolationism, they probably would have. But they did not have that choice.

At the same time, they took steps to preserve their identity as a people, even when under foreign occupation or in exile from their homeland. They emphasized the distinctive characteristics of their culture. They drew lines to separate themselves from the rest of the world. They thought of themselves as the chosen people, God's favorites.

On one hand, this approach preserved them as a people and cultivated in them a healthy self-respect. On the other hand, at times this approach also leads to arrogance on the part of the Israelites and a belittling of the Gentiles. The prophets were quick to criticize this narrow-minded view of God's grace. For example, the book of Jonah insists that God's mercy extends to all those who repent of their sins, even to the pagan city of Nineveh. Similarly, another prophet instructs us, "Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the LORD, 'The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.'" (Isaiah 56:3)

In Sunday's gospel reading, Luke 4:21-30, Jesus continues this approach of the prophets. Like them, he opposes an intolerant nationalism which would limit God's mercy to the people of Israel. That is why he refers to the prophets Elijah and Elisha in his conversation with the crowd in the synagogue. Specifically, Jesus points to the way God reached out to the Gentiles through these prophets.

We must read between the lines to understand why the crowd reacts so violently towards Jesus. They want to kill Jesus, not because he has innocently reminded them about thoroughly familiar incidents from the Bible, but rather because Jesus has condemned their attitude of exclusivity. Jesus' criticism of the crowd has earned him exactly what it earned the prophets of the past. But the time for Jesus to pay the price for his words has not yet arrived. That will come at Calvary.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)