Writing to the first Christians of Rome, Paul tells them:
“God has no favorites.” (Rom.2:11)
Yet, today’s 1st reading leads me to think somehow differently.
It seems that there are some people who are God’s favorites.
The text of Exodus mentions them (Ex.22:20-26):
“The foreigner (those we call migrants or refugees), the widow, the orphan, the poor.”
All of them have one thing in common: they are needy people.
And their need makes them reliant on God
Their need seems to draw God’s love and compassion in a special way.
They are aware that they cannot manage on their own,
They are conscious that they need the assistance of someone else.
God is willing, he is anxious even, to come to their help.
More still he orders his people – the Jews – not to mistreat or be unjust to such people.
Could it be that God wants needy people to become… OUR favorites also?
And to treat them with God’s own compassion…
Note: Another reflection on a similar theme in French can be found at: https://image-i-nations.com/30e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2020/
Have you ever tried to obtain something from someone who showed no interest in your request? Worse still the person was not interested in YOU! This can be a most frustrating situation as many of us have made the experience. In such a situation, some people will simply walk away convinced that there is nothing to be done. Others, of a more stubborn inclination, will keep on asking, determined to get what they want. They will keep on begging and literally ‘pestering’ the one from whom they expect to get something.