Pastor's Corner: Outer garments

I don’t know if your have noticed lately, but there seems to be a lot of division in the world today. We are great at finding ways to separate ourselves from one another. When we separate, we usually find reasons or ways to make the others less than ourselves if not downright evil so that we can justify the separation and validate our position. We are confronted daily with another group coming into being to help us separate ourselves from one another. Just for the fun of it lets name a few.

Well, first there are Democrats and Republicans, conservatives, liberals, pro-choice, pro-life, then there are those who are sure the coronavirus is a hoax and those who are scared to death of it, to mask or not to mask is another point of division. We also have the race issue: Blacks, Asians, Whites, Native American (this list can go on and on). Let’s add a little spice to the list — Religion: Protestant Christians, Catholic Christians, Evangelical Christians, Mormons, Muslims and Buddhists — I don’t want to leave anybody out, but this list could go on and on also (sorry if I didn’t name your religion). We could also start naming gender issues and sexual orientation, but I am not competent in the terminology so let’s just stick with sexual orientation and gender differences.

I would like to state here that all of the differences mentioned above could be called an outer garment that we place on one another or that we place on ourselves so that we can position ourselves within the safety of a specific group of people. I would also like to say that while these groups might define who we believe we are or who we believe “they” are, these differences fall short of who God created us to be. I also believe that when we use these differences to qualify people, we as people of faith fall short of how God wants us to live.

What is a person of faith to do amid all this name calling, division and demonizing? One suggestion is pray! Prayer is always a great place to start and prayer can change us, but it seems to me that our faith also calls us to take action.

In the Gospel of John 13:3-5:

“So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.”

When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, he also washed the feet of those would betray him. How could he do this without calling out the one who would betray him to the authorities as well as the one who would betray knowing him? Being fully human, I can’t help but think that Jesus had to work at not calling out those who would betray him, not to name them and demonize them, but he chose a different course. When he rose to wash their feet, we are told he first took off his outer garments.

When Jesus took off his outer garments, we can be sure the author of the Gospel meant his physical garments, and I believe we can be sure that Jesus also had to remove those other outer garments of anger, pride, justification, stereotypes and prejudices. This left him with only an inner garment, which is the reality that he came from God and was returning to God. With these outer garments gone, Jesus was able to rest in the love and assurance that he was God’s Son and this reality allowed him to see that he was looking at children of God who were on the same journey he was — coming from God and returning to God.

I have been taught all my life that God created everything and everyone and I believe this with all my heart. That being the case, like Jesus we all come from God and will return to God if we submit to God’s commands to love God and to love our neighbor.

One might ask, how are we to fulfill the mandate of Jesus to make disciples of all nations if we do not try to correct sinfulness and self-indulgence? As we hear in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2:3-5, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.”

Perhaps what we must do at this time in history is put on the attitude of Jesus and rise from our tables and take off our outer garments and allow our inner garment to empower us in the process of working with one another to accept John the Baptist’s call from Matthew 3:2: “Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

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Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church