God Practices DEI
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Scripture Readings
What do you hear when someone makes you an “exclusive offer”? It’s natural to feel good about yourself, isn’t it? Whether the offer is legitimate or not, and whether we might be interested in it or not, the very fact that it’s being offered to us and not to others gets our attention. Why is that? Could it be that it plays on our secret fears, not that we’re better than everyone else, but that we may actually be less than. And, frankly, playing on our insecurities works.
It seems to me that all human political interactions are based on the principle of exclusivity. There has to be an “ingroup” which naturally includes “us.” The “ingroup” is, by definition, “better.” It may be stronger, smarter, prettier, happier, wealthier, more accomplished, more spiritual, more successful, more powerful, or more recognizable than others. At least that’s the theory. What people don’t acknowledge is that none of these things actually create the “ingroup.” In fact, the only thing that makes the “ingroup” special at all is the invention of an “out group.” There is no “us” without a “them.” There are no winners without losers. Once our struggles for survival have succeeded, the only struggles that remain are those to establish ourselves as winners, even as our inner insecurities and fears haunt us with the possibility that we may fall into that other category: the losers. Exclusivity provides us with the reassurance that, even if we’re not the absolute best, at least we’re better than those people.
Behind our striving for exclusivity lies a logical fallacy: just as having a winner implies having losers, selecting some implies rejecting others. That may be the way it works in human affairs, but that’s not how God sees it. Truly, God chose Israel to reveal to them a special kind of intimacy. Yet just because God’s revelation of himself started with the people of Israel, that doesn’t mean that everyone else was ignored or tossed out as inconsequential. God’s love and his truth are not the exclusive property of any one group. Israel wasn’t chosen to receive that particular perspective on God’s revelation because they were better than others. No, in many ways they were far worse. They were chosen only because they were the right people at the right time in the right place with the right history, and their selection was meant neither to be a sign of their superiority nor an honor to be guarded jealously from the remainder of humanity. God never meant them to be an exclusive club. On the contrary, their selection was for the sake of all of humanity. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “I will also make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” [49:6] That is, after all, the same message that we heard this morning in our first reading.
This also has everything to do with our Gospel reading. Saint Matthew the evangelist highlighted Israel’s selection as recipient of God’s revelation by emphasizing that Christ preached the Good News only to the lost sheep of Israel. According to Matthew, he didn’t extend his mission to the Gentiles until after the resurrection… except here, in this passage.
In this text, we see two things: first that no one is excluded from access to God. The Canaanite woman showed extraordinary perseverance, humility, and faith. Her status was not an obstacle. She was a Canaanite—a traditional enemy of Israel—and she was a pagan, and she was a woman—who was generally barred from even addressing a rabbi. Yet Jesus rewarded her tenacity and, although he’d just scolded Peter, the insider, as a man of little faith, here he praises the woman as someone of great faith. The insider isn’t excluded from criticism while the outsider isn’t excluded from praise.
I think of the parent who calls the school five times about a struggling child, gets silence, gets excuses, gets told to wait—and calls a sixth time anyway. Not because she expects a different answer, but because her love for that child has run out of dignity to protect. The Canaanite woman has exactly that kind of love. She has stopped worrying about how she looks and started only caring whether her daughter is healed.
The second revelation we find in this gospel text relates to Jesus himself, the image of the Father. He does not, after all, discriminate. His apparent reluctance to answer the woman’s plea can be seen not so much as a judgment on her status as it is a reflection of our human experience when we call upon our God for help. God’s answer seldom comes when and how we want it. If we can hold on to our trust in God with perseverance and humility, as this woman did, we will find, just as she did, our prayers answered because of our great faith. We learn that who we are—our position, status, or value in the eyes of the world—is irrelevant in God’s eyes. All that matters is our faith and humble perseverance.
What we, as Christians, understand about our God is that no one has exclusive access, and therefore no one is excluded from God’s loving care. For God, there are no winners or losers, no us or them—only us. We’re called to love others as God loves, irrespective of nationality, race, religion, sex, or sexuality. We’re called to love others equally according to their needs rather than with regard to their identity or status. We’re called to exclude no one from our love because no one is more or less deserving or worthy of God’s love than any other.
If you didn’t catch it, what I just described are the three principles of diversity, equity, and inclusivity that are the hallmarks of God’s love. This is in contrast to those whose exclusivity requires judging others as losers—unworthy and undeserving not only of love but of respect and humanity. It’s inescapable: once humans practice exclusivity, the excluded are, sooner or later, denied their human dignity and humanity. It’s happened everywhere and, in every age, including our own. Christ has shown us that God doesn’t play favorites, but answers all who call upon him with perseverance, humility, and faith. Now it’s our turn, as individuals and as a society. All the theories of all the religions that ever were are perfectly fine. That’s not faith. Faith in action is loving as God loves, in diversity, with equity, and, above all, with unreserved inclusivity.
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