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What
Labels Convey
Fr.
George Smiga
August
13/14, 2005
Matthew
15:21-28
A
religion teacher brought a clear glass jar into her classroom
that was filled with a yellow substance. She asked the class,
“What's in this jar?” At first the children were not sure,
but after examining it and smelling it and even tasting it,
they realized that it was honey. “It's honey,” the children
said.
“Good,”
said the teacher. Then she took a piece of white paper and
wrapped it around the outside of the jar and fastened it with
tape. She wrote on the paper: Vinegar. Holding up the jar
again, she said, “Now what's in this jar?”
“Honey,”
all the children said.
“But
the label says its vinegar.”
“It's
honey, just the same,” said the children.
The
teacher seemed satisfied and she put down the jar and looked
directly at the class, “What you have learned about jars,”
she said, “Apply to people.”
In
our world, people come to us with labels: labels of race,
of income, of religion, of culture. But we would be amiss
if we were to confuse the labels from the real people that
we encounter. In fact, as followers of Christ, we are called
to be very wary about what labels convey because they are
often at odds with the real people we meet. Jesus deals with
labels in today's Gospel. He is in pagan territory and a Canaanite
woman comes up to him. She is a Gentile, a non-Jew. In the
culture of Jesus' day, there was a prejudice against Gentiles,
that they were unable to have a genuine relationship with
God. For a while Jesus participates in this prejudice. He
refuses to heal the woman's child, saying that his ministry
is only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. But the
woman persists, and in time Jesus recognizes her faith and
heals her daughter.
As
far as I can tell this is the only scene in the gospels in
which Jesus changes his mind. Instead of relating to the woman
with the label “Gentile,” he perceives her as a genuine woman
of faith. What Jesus does in the Gospel, we are called to
do. As followers of Jesus, we are asked to deal with people,
not through the labels they bear, but as the people that they
are.
For
example, the label “Jew” still carries a negative association
in many Christian circles. Even though Catholics have worked
diligently since the Second Vatican Council to repudiate the
erroneous claim that Jews are responsible for Jesus' death,
even though we have tried to echo the powerful statement of
today's second reading that the gifts and call of God to the
Jewish people are irrevocable, that they still remain the
beloved, chosen people of God, it is still easy to find slurs
and jokes that characterize Jews as unbelievers, as money-grabbers,
as people who would manipulate their own influence for their
own benefit. To accept that prejudice is sinful and it is
contrary to the Gospel. We who follow Christ are asked to
deal with other people in truth, not according to the false
and prejudicial labels, which are often found in our environment.
If we claim to be believers, we must not say, “This is the
way Jews are,” or “this is the way Moslems are,” or “this
is the way alcoholics, or homosexuals or people of a different
race are.” We must ask ourselves whether we are viewing others
through our own real experience or through the prejudices
that labels can convey.
To
allow our lives be directed by the half-truths of labels is
a serious flaw. It places us in direct opposition to the design
of God.
God
makes people. We make labels. So instead of letting our lives
be directed by the prejudices that a label can carry, we are
obliged to discover and to respect the real people God has
made.
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