It seems so simple: recognize and respect every person as our brother and sister.
This is the core message of Pope Francis’s new Encyclical: “Fratelli Tutti”. In Chapter Two, “A Stranger on the Road”, we who live in the year 2020 are challenged with the same parable that scandalized the people of Jesus’ religious tradition 2,000 years ago.
The Samaritan of that time would never have the adjective “good” assigned to him. He and all “his people” were the outcasts. Yet the righteous priest and Levite pass by and only the despised Samaritan tended to the stranger’s injuries as if they shared a common humanity.
It’s that word “every” person in Francis’ exhortation that is the challenge for me. Remember Linus, holding his security blanket in the Charlie Brown series proclaiming, “I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand!” I do well loving folks in the Fiji and Falkland Islands. I care about their well-being. I pray for them. Yet when it comes closer to home, to the strangers at my door…. What do you mean that they are my sisters and brothers?
Pope Francis writes,
“The parable is clear and straightforward, yet it also evokes the interior struggle that each of us experiences as we gradually come to know ourselves through our relationships with our brothers and sisters.
Sooner or later, we will all encounter a person who is suffering. Today there are more and more of them.
The decision to include or exclude those lying wounded along the roadside can serve as a criterion for judging every economic, political, social and religious project.”
Moreover, he writes, “For Christians, the words of Jesus have an even deeper meaning. They compel us to recognize Christ himself in each of our abandoned or excluded brothers and sisters (cf. Mt 25:40.45).”
This may be an Encyclical I want to put aside for another day. I’m not sure I’m up to the challenge. Oh… but it’s only repeating what’s in the Gospel? Oh, am I ready to hear the ancient words in a 2020 context?
