Separation is more about believing

March 2, 2008 -- Fourth Sunday of Lent

By Fr. Mike Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

The moment we open our mouths we give ourselves away. When someone from the Deep South speaks, their accent reveals their origins. Similarly, we can easily identify someone from Boston the same way.

L e n t

That is how the apostle Peter was singled out as Jesus' follower, despite all Peter's denials, after Jesus' arrest on the first Holy Thursday. "A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter, 'Surely you too are one of them; even your speech gives you away.'" (Matthew 26:73)

Peter's accent identifies him as a Galilean. Jesus and his disciples were all from Galilee. They were visiting Jerusalem, in the region of Judea. Their speech made them stand out from the natives.

Linguistic differences were not the only thing that separated the Judeans from the Galileans. The Judeans looked down on the Galileans. They suspected the Galileans' religious orthodoxy, since they lived in a region heavily populated by pagans.

Conversely, the Galileans characterized Judeans as arrogant and power-thirsty. They associated the Judeans with the authorities based in Jerusalem.

This antagonism between Galileans and Judeans played into the rift between Jesus and the religious authorities in Jerusalem.

Sunday's Gospel reading preserves a memory of this antagonism between Jesus the Galilean and his Judean opponents. Jesus dares to heal a blind man on the Sabbath, thus incurring the wrath of a group first identified as "the Pharisees," then as "the Jews."

At least, the lectionary translates the word as "the Jews." The word in question, "ioudaioi," also can mean "Judeans." Since Jesus and the blind man are also Jews, but not Judeans, it might make more sense to choose this second meaning to designate their opponents.

On the other hand, this story about Jesus healing the blind man acquired new meaning as it passed down through the oral tradition. Instead of antagonism between Galileans and Judeans, the story reflected antagonism between Jews and Christians. Christianity had begun as a movement within Judaism. Eventually it was sidelined as a heresy of Judaism. Finally, differences grew to such a point that Christianity became a separate religion.

Sunday's Gospel story reflects the last stages in this process of separation. It reports "the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him [Jesus] as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue." This expulsion takes place in the case of the blind man. "Then they threw him out."

Sunday's Gospel reading provides us with a powerful example of a person whose faith undergoes a severe test. The blind man holds fast to his faith, even when he is expelled from the synagogue.

On the other hand, the story about the blind man also retains an attitude towards the Jewish people which is not acceptable. It looks upon them as the enemy. Instead, the Church now encourages us to look upon them as our elder brothers in faith.

What began as a separation between Galileans and Judeans and later was interpreted as a separation between Jews and Christians, can take a new shape. We can view it as a separation between those who believe, and those who do not believe, a distinction which transcends ethnic and cultural differences.

Jesus points us into that direction in the Gospel reading, in his words about spiritual blindness: "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind."

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