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Rom.2:11

30th Sunday of Year A – 2020

23 octobre 2020
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Ex.22:20-26, favorite, help needed, orphan, persistent widow, poor, refugees, Rom.2:11, widow

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/

 

Source: Images: freerangekids.com   splash   AP News   The Guardian
 

30th Sunday of Year A

26 octobre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: compassion, cry, downcast, Ex.22:20-26, favourites, justice, needy, orphans, Psalm 82:2-4, rejection, Rom.2:11, stranger, widows

 

 

 

 

 

If I were to say : ”Here are the people God prefers”, some may be quick to reply :
“God has no favourites”, saint Paul says it clearly when writing to the Romans (Rom.2:11).

And yet… I believe that God is… partial to some people among all his children.
They are mentioned many times throughout the Bible:
the widows, the orphans, the strangers, the weak, the needy, the downcast, those whose rights are ignored.
Amazingly, God affirms that he, himself, will defend them.

It is the message of this Sunday’s 1st reading: (30th Sunday Year A – Ex.22:20-26).
The text is forceful and the words challenging, to say the least:

“You must not molest the stranger or oppress him…
You must not be harsh with the widow, or with the orphan;
if you are harsh with them, they will surely cry out to me,
and be sure I shall hear their cry.”
 
Many texts of Scripture repeat this message clearly given also in Psalm 82:2-4:
“Let the weak and the orphan have justice,
be fair to the wretched and destitute;
rescue the weak and needy.”

The lowly and the needy, those despised and rejected, the victims of exploitation and repression, the ones who experience dejection and rejection – all of them have a special… power, it seems – the power to touch God’s heart and be favoured with his compassion.

If God hears their cry, we, who should reflect God’s image, should we not do as much?…

Source: Images: blogs.tribune.com.pk        Youtube    Soul Sheperding