Jesus Will Never Ever Unfollow You! (Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time)

Jesus will never ever unfollow you! (Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Isaiah 56:1,

Isaiah 56:6-7,

Romans 11:13-15,

Romans 11:29-32,

Matthew 15:21-28.

Reflection

Dear sisters and brothers,

Let me start the reflection for this Sunday quoting from an article.

“One case of a tragic extrajudicial killing, which occurred in Teknaf, still saddens many people in Bangladesh.

On May 27, 2018, RAB forces detained and shot dead in crossfire Ekramul Haque, a councilor of Teknaf municipality and a ruling Awami League politician, after accusing him of being a top drug trader, which his family and relatives denied.

His wife Ayesha Begum circulated four audio clips to journalists that recorded Haque’s final mobile conversations with her and one of their two young daughters. The clips also recorded the sound of gunfire and the groans of the dying man. Ayesha and her daughter screamed and begged for his life.

The tragic cry of his daughter, “Abbu tumi kantechho je?" (Daddy, why are you crying?), was not enough to melt the hearts of government high-ups to order a proper probe and justice for Haque. The killing sparked a media and social media outcry, but justice is still a long way from being delivered.

In addition, there have been more than 500 cases of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh, according to rights groups.

While the government attempts to justify extralegal killings and disappearances to hide the failure to ensure proper justice and punishment, wider society seems to have accepted the menace of so-called summary justice.

That is the tragic part of the story, and it can be degenerating for ordinary people. In 2019, about 50 people were brutally killed in mob beatings in Bangladesh due to rumours over child kidnapping. The phenomenon was nothing but “reproduction of brutalities committed by the state” for years, a critic noted.” (Taken from the article written by Rock Ronald Rozario at ucanews)

Rock Ronald Rozario further mentions that it is the same in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

We live with this kind of social injustice. Justice is murdered in the day light day-by-day. What do we to eradicate evils from society as a Church? How do we respond to the challenges that are faced by the Church today? Are we only interested in the problems that are faced by our church and her members? Are we not interested in whole humanity?

Discrimination and division make us sick and ill-grown church. Today, Jesus the saviour of the humanity, invites each one of us to involve ourselves wherever humanity suffers.

How?

Let us listen to the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 15:21-28):

“Then Jesus went from that place

and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came

and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!

My daughter is tormented by a demon.”

But he did not say a word in answer to her.

His disciples came

and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”

He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith!

Let it be done for you as you wish.”

And her daughter was healed from that hour.”

Jesus came from a place of hypocrites. They argued with Jesus about the traditions. Jesus, on the other hand, had a human approach to the reality or the problem.

Having a new approach to the issues and problems, Jesus came to the region to prove that his human approach mixed with divine nature, can address whole humanity without any discrimination and inequality.

Why do I say?

The text is misunderstood many times saying that Jesus has come to a particular community, not for all. If it is so, we deny what St. Paul would say (Romans 11:13-15, Romans 11:29-32):

“Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.

In as much then as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,

I glory in my ministry

in order to make my race jealous

and thus, save some of them.

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,

what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Triumph of God’s Mercy.

Just as you once disobeyed God

but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,

so, they have now disobeyed in order that,

by virtue of the mercy shown to you,

they too may [now] receive mercy.