11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (16.06.13)<\/p>\n
THE SUBTLE SHADES OF PREJUDICE
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Is the process of attaching labels more ingrained than we admit? The woman featured in the Gospel (Luke 7:36-8:3) for this Sunday, the 11th. of the Year, 16 June 2013, is usually labelled a \u2018prostitute\u2019, but the text doesn\u2019t identify her as such. Could an explanation be that generations of people suffer from subtle, almost unrecognised, prejudices? What precisely is the meaning of the word \u2018prejudice\u2019? An English definition is \u2013 \u2018preconceived opinion\/judgment not based on reason, fact or actual experience\u2019.<\/p>\n
How often, in an examination of conscience, do people identify prejudice \u2013 in thought, word or action \u2013 among their faults? If the answer is \u2018not often\u2019 or \u2018almost never\u2019, could it be that \u2018the devil is in the detail\u2019 – an idiom meaning that small things in plans and schemes, all too easily overlooked, can cause serious problems later on. How true this is in relation to our daily examination of conscience and the subtleties of self-exemption, self-excuse, that reduce our culpability, at least in our own eyes. If I\u2019m less culpable then why should I need God\u2019s forgiveness?<\/p>\n
Imagine you are viewing a comprehensive colour chart prior to painting your home. You are familiar with what are known as the \u2018Primary Colours\u2019 \u2013 Red, Blue and Yellow. You may know the \u2018Secondary Colours\u2019 to be Green, Purple and Orange. You may even know that the \u2018Tertiary Colours\u2019 are any two secondary colours mixed with one primary colour! What may be something of a shock is the number of subtle shade variations under a general colour label, for example, \u2018beige\u2019. Such subtle changes of colour can pass unnoticed unless your focus is sharp. It\u2019s much the same with the prejudices, built up over the course of our lives, lying dormant in our subconscious until triggered by a particular situation.<\/p>\n
Consciously or subconsciously, we cannot fail to notice that the woman in the Gospel doesn\u2019t go through the formal steps we learned in our first confession classes. She forgets to mention how long it\u2019s been since her last confession, doesn\u2019t confess her sins according to type and number, and nowhere does she recite an act of contrition or agree to perform a penance. She is granted forgiveness \u201cbecause she has shown great love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Devil is content enough for me to identify repeat sins related to \u2018white lies\u2019, \u2018kindness\u2019, \u2018food\u2019, \u2018alcohol\u2019, \u2018sexual peccadilloes\u2019 and the like. He\u2019s watched me juggle them since Primary School days! However, the Devil\u2019s alarm ratchets up when I openly search my conscience for instances of harmful prejudice in areas such as racism, immigration and the like. Why? Because prejudice, being a subtle \u2018predator\u2019, is capable of causing multiple, almost unnoticed, instances of unbalancing of conscience that, in turn, affect the level of honesty in my thinking, feelings, objectivity, judgement and, consequently, behaviour.<\/p>\n
To return to the woman in Luke\u2019s Gospel. Human prejudice has labelled her a prostitute whereas her repentance may have been occasioned by something completely different. Was Jesus\u2019 host that day, Simon, by his prejudicial judgment of the woman, attempting to offload his personal failure as a host? Personal culpability and responsibility is never so easily shed.<\/p>\n
Another proven saying is – \u2018Actions speak louder than words\u2019. There\u2019s telling information in Luke\u2019s detail. The woman must have been wealthy as the flask holding her ointment was crafted in alabaster, let alone the value of the content. She had breached customary protocol by her presence and even more by touching Jesus\u2019 feet. That, in the eyes of those present, would have contaminated Jesus with whatever social impropriety she was labelled. She performed a servant role in washing Jesus\u2019 feet, dusty from the street and which his host had pointedly failed to do, with her tears and dried them with her hair.<\/p>\n
This prejudicially labelled woman\u2019s silent actions had spoken more loudly that King David verbal repentance of the real crime he had committed in ordering the murder of the husband of the woman after whom he lusted. See this Sunday\u2019s first Reading \u2013 2 Samuel 12: 7-10,13.<\/p>\n
The prophet Nathan confronts David with an allegorical description of his crimes, ending with the powerful statement: \u201cThat man is you!\u201d He then continues his accusation in today\u2019s liturgical passage. The prophet first lists all the things Yahweh God has done, through the years, for King David, then dramatically points out how David\u2019s treatment of Uriah and his wife, Bathsheba, isn\u2019t what God expected in return.<\/p>\n
Nathan doesn\u2019t demand the impossible. King David can\u2019t bring Uriah back from the dead or reverse his adulterous actions with Bathsheba. The prophet can only hope David will say what he eventually does say: \u201cI have sinned against Yahweh.\u201d Without such open honesty from David, and equally from us, Yahweh God cannot forgive.<\/p>\n
The woman in Luke\u2019s Gospel is silent. Her public honesty contrasts, perhaps, with our ability to juggle the \u2018sin list\u2019 in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our failure to be open with God renders less effective the forgiveness the priest-confessor prays over us. Does \u2018the devil in the detail\u2019 again forestall our full conversion?<\/p>\n
It is also significant that Jesus doesn\u2019t say what we (or his original audience) expect him to say namely, \u201cI forgive you\u201d? He simply states, \u201cYour sins are forgiven.\u201d Jesus celebrates the woman\u2019s forgiveness. His words imply that the woman\u2019s forgiveness began when she determined to find Jesus and demonstrate her contrition. How long that journey took we are not told but the indications are that it was not a spur of the moment action.<\/p>\n
In this it is reminiscent of Jesus\u2019 parable of the Jewish \u2018Prodigal Son\u2019 who, reduced to feeding pigs what he would have gladly eaten, determined to return to his father and say, \u201cI have sinned against heaven and against you\u201d. (Luke 15:11-32) Rembrandt\u2019s painting of \u2018The Prodigal\u2019 depicts a return journey of much difficulty. The younger son\u2019s wounds, state of clothing and shredded footwear tell the tale. His belief in his Father\u2019s forgiveness brought him through the pain and degradation. The woman in the Gospel of this Sunday must have had similar faith in God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n
The manipulative skill of the Devil to subtly prejudice us away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation on the basis that we\u2019re not really so guilty should not be underestimated. The Devil ceaselessly works to shade-altering the evidential detail. God, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to heal and love us when, like King David and The Prodigal Son, we have opened our heart to him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (16.06.13) THE SUBTLE SHADES OF PREJUDICE Is the process of attaching labels more ingrained than we admit? The woman featured in the Gospel (Luke 7:36-8:3) for this Sunday, the 11th. of the Year, 16 June … Continue reading