Bridging the Gap: 'Yeah Archie...'

By Bishop David Zubik

	Bishop David Zubik

One of the most popular television series in the history of that medium was All in the Family. It was also recognized as a television series of groundbreaking proportions. It claimed to show life in the home, not sugar coated, but just as it is.

The show was both refreshing and distressing at the same time. On the one hand, it showcased many of the scenarios that depict everyday life in the home. On the other hand, it uncovered the ugly face of bigotry. Each week, Edith and Archie Bunker together with their daughter and son-in-law portrayed an inside picture of a lower middle class family.

In one of the episodes, Edith and Archie Bunker are attending Edith's high school class reunion. Edith meets an old classmate and friend nick-named "Buck" who, since his high school graduation, has become particularly obese. Edith and Buck have a delightful conversation, reminiscing on the good times they had together and on the friendship they had as high school chums. Interestingly enough, Edith doesn't even seem to notice how heavy Buck has become.

A blimp or a friend?

That particular episode of All in the Family concludes with Edith and Archie driving home at the end of the reunion. Edith says to her husband, "Archie, ain't Buck a beautiful person?" Archie replies, "Edith, I'll never figure you out. You and I can look at the same guy and you see a beautiful person and I see a blimp." To which Edith replies, "Yeah Archie, ain't that too bad!"

Edith got it right! "Ain't that too bad" that bigotry exists in our world and prejudice in our hearts.

Over the past weeks, I have become much more sensitive to public bigotry that takes an Archie approach to people who look differently, speak differently, act differently, and quite honestly are different from you and me as you and I are in fact different from them in their eyes. Whether in the civic community or in the Church community, we are all peoples from different backgrounds, with different histories, made up of different talents - people with different differences that make us special to God which should also make us special to each other.

Unfortunately, what should be isn't always the case. My guess is that most of us at one time or another harbor a prejudice against another and sometimes that bigotry becomes public! What should make our society and our Church beautiful and enriched, becomes in fact a contradiction to who we are as daughters and sons of God - whether we are an immigrant, an ex-criminal or someone whose experience of Church is different than "my" experience or wish.

Church's birthday

These thoughts came to mind as I prepared for the Feast of Pentecost which we celebrate this weekend. Pentecost, the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit by Jesus, marked the birth of the Church. Each Pentecost in reality is a celebration of the birthday of the Church. The Pentecost event and what followed are the focus of a second book in the New Testament written by the evangelist, St. Luke. Often called Luke's Second Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the birth and the growth of the Church following the Pentecost event. We have been reading steady installments of that story since Easter Sunday.

One of the things that becomes immediately apparent in the story is that the growth of the Church was not always easy, nor was it always a pretty sight. The early Christians had lots of different ideas about which they felt passionate. The Spirit that descended upon the Apostles was the same Spirit that guided them through all their deliberations. Despite the differences among early Christians, following honest and respectful discussion, the leaders of the Church, Peter the first among them, made decisions that have created our Church as it is today - a Church open to all people. One of the hallmarks of the Church then and the Church today is the necessity of human respect which we absolutely owe each other.

The respect that we owe each other is born of the truth that each of us has been created in the image and the likeness of God. God is within each of us. Each one of us is but a bit of the mosaic that reflects the very face of God.

What we believe as Church is something which we all, each of us, must live as members of the Church. It was Jesus Himself who told the Apostles at the Last Supper, "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 13.34). The charge that Jesus gives to us is not simply something that we strive for while we are in Church. It is something that we are to embrace as Church - in our homes, shopping centers, work places, classrooms, on our highways ... wherever we are and wherever we go.

Like Archie, or like Christ?

As you and I are faced with the choice between the The Acts of the Apostles and All in the Family, Jesus calls us, God expects us, and the Holy Spirit helps us to be, not an Archie Bunker but an Alter Christus, another Christ.

You and I are called to live what a professor acquaintance of mine calls "Ecclesial Charity," a love born of what it means to be Church. Jesus expects us to look at life and its various chapters through His eyes, eyes that see us as equals.

Each day we are faced with making choices that either respect or disrespect each other. We can either talk about and to each other with respect or discolor each other with bigotry. If we choose the latter, we deserve the chiding of Edith Bunker, "Yeah, ain't that too bad!" If the choice we make reflects that of Jesus, then His Words of judgment offer us a guidepost, a challenge and a promise: "Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt. 25.34).