According to Wikipedia, “Riffraff is a term for the common people or hoi polloi, but with
negative connotations. The term is derived from Old French ‘rif et raf’ meaning
‘one and all, every bit.’”
My ancestors are Dutch,
and—like many other ethnic groups—think they're pretty special. The typical saying is, “If yah ain’t Dutch,
yah ain’t much.”
However one may assess the
muchness of the Dutch in modern times, from the perspective of the people of
Israel in ancient times, the Dutch were mere riffraff, nameless illiterate Germanic
tribes eking out a living on the cold shoreline and humid forests of
northwestern Europe. How could such
people ever enter into the fullness of God’s covenant?
The extension of God’s
covenant to all the “nations” or “Gentiles” (from the Latin gentes, “races, peoples”) is the
unifying theme of the Readings for Mass this weekend.
1. We begin with one of the
classic passages from the second half of the Book of Isaiah that indicates a
change in the covenant economy under which the people of God were living.
In the days of Isaiah, the
people of Israel were living—or should have been living—according to the
stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant (that is, the covenant with Israel mediated by Moses, not a covenant God
made with Moses). This covenant, summarized in its final form
in the Book of Deuteronomy, did not have much room for the Gentiles, except
perhaps as subjugated vassals of the People of Israel:
Deut. 28:1
“And if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to
do all his commandments which I command you this day, the LORD your God will
set you high above all the nations of
the earth.... “The LORD will cause your enemies
who rise against you to be defeated before
you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.
10 And all the peoples of the earth shall
see that you are called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you. 12 ...
you shall lend to many nations, but
you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head, and
not the tail; and you shall tend upward only, and not downward; if you obey the
commandments of the LORD your God ....
In Jesus’ day, the different
sects of Judaism had varying stances toward the Gentiles. The Pharisees were at least interested in
making proselytes of them (Matt 23:15), but the Essenes had no use for them.
According to 4QMMT, the document “On the Works of the Law” found in the fourth
cave of Qumran, it was not even lawful to take wheat grown by Gentiles and
offer it in the temple!
However, the prophets of
Israel foresaw a coming age where the negative attitude toward the Gentiles
based on the Mosaic Covenant would be undone.
Our First Reading is one of the more famous passages from the second
half of the Book of Isaiah that anticipates such a situation:
Reading 1 Is 56:1, 6-7
Thus says
the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants-
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Strikingly, some of the language used to describe the
relationship of these foreigners to the Lord is priestly terminology. These foreigners will “minister” (Heb. shereth) to the LORD and become his
“servants” (Heb. ’ebadim). The verb shereth
is usually employed to describe priestly labor (cf Exod 28:35 etc.), and
the priests themselves are called “servants of the LORD” (cf. Ps 134:1; Ps
135:1). This oracle of Isaiah makes it
sound as though, in the latter days, foreigners will not only be able to
worship God, but also serve in a priestly capacity.
Isaiah’s promise that the “burnt offerings and sacrifices”
of foreigners would be acceptable on the altar of the LORD could scarcely be
more at odds with the perspective of the Essenes of Jesus’ day. In the famous work “4QMMT,” a letter on legal
issues apparently sent from the Essenes at Qumran to the Pharisees in
Jerusalem, the Essenes criticize perceived abuses taking place in the Temple:
[Concerning
the offering of ] the [gentile gr]ain [that they are …] 7 and allowing their […] to
touch it and [become] def[iled. No one should eat] 8 from [Gent]ile grain [nor]
bring it into the sanctuary […] ... Concerning the Gentile sacrifice, [we have
determined that they are] sacrifici[ng] 12 to the […] which is [like a woman] who has
fornicated with him. (4Q394 frags. 3-7, col. I, lines 6-12 [excerpted])
Although the text is fragmentary, it seems clear that the
Essenes objected even to the grain of Gentiles being brought into the
sanctuary—much less the Gentiles themselves entering and offering sacrifice to
God!
According to Mark 11, Jesus entered the temple and drove out
the money changers. The area of the
Temple that Jesus “cleansed” is usually understood to be the outer court, or
“court of the Gentiles”—the external area that was the closest Gentiles were
allowed to come into God’s presence in the Second Temple Period (517 BC—AD 70). After driving out the merchants, Our Lord
quotes from today’s First Reading: “And
he taught, and said to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a
house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark
11:17). Part of the purpose of the
Temple cleansing was to restore to the Gentiles what access to God was
permissible for them under the Old Covenant system.
P. The Responsorial continues the theme of the Gentiles
(Nations) entering into relationship with God:
Responsorial
Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
There are many psalms that call on the “peoples” or
“nations” to bless the LORD. Is this all
empty rhetoric, invented in antiquity when no one but Jews came to the
Temple? I think not. According to the Books of Samuel and Kings,
the Kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon expanded to become an empire
including the surrounding non-Israelite nations as vassal states (see 2 Sam
8–10; 1 Kings 4). During this period,
Jerusalem probably saw a steady stream of Gentile officials coming on
diplomatic business with the royal court, which would likely include
worshipping the God of their suzerain.
It seems likely to me that several psalms were originally written with
this context in mind, in which Israelites would be mixed with visiting
foreigners in the Solomonic Temple (e.g. Ps 47:9).
Of course, this ancient kingdom of David and Solomon—really
an international empire—is a type and image of the Church, in which Jew and
Gentile can gather to worship under the leadership of the Son of David.
2. St. Paul, the great
“Apostle to the Gentiles,” takes up this theme directly in the Second Reading:
Reading 2 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers
and sisters:
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
It is a shame that this reading from Paul is so highly
excerpted, omitting St. Paul’s beautiful analogy of the Gentiles being grafted
into Israel like wild olive branches grafted onto a cultured olive tree (Rom.
11:17-24; strikingly, the exact reverse of usual agricultural practice!). With such a fragmentary text as we have in
the liturgical reading it is difficult to see St. Paul’s argument. Nonetheless, we can summarize the main point
of Romans 11 as the mysterious interrelationship of the salvation of Israel and
the Nations. Though Jew and Gentile seem
to have different “paths to God,” in reality, St. Paul points out, the
salvation of both groups is inextricably united in God’s plan. Nowhere is this more evident than the
enigmatic verses Rom 11:25-26, where St. Paul states: “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand
this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the
full number of the Gentiles come in, and in
this way all Israel will be saved ....”
Commentators struggle over how it can be that the “full number of the
Gentiles” coming in will be the means
by which “all Israel will be saved.”
While we cannot enter into a full treatment of this passage, I would
just mention the possibility that Paul is influenced here by Isaiah once
again—specifically Isaiah 66:18-21, which envisions an eschatological
ingathering of the Gentiles, which will bring large numbers of Israelites along
with it.
G. The Gospel reading tells of a
Gentile woman—and not any Gentile woman, but a descendant of the Canaanites, about whom the Old Covenant (as
summarized in Deuteronomy) had nothing good to say at all (Deut 20:16-18)—who
finds salvation through Jesus:
Gospel Mt 15:21-28
At that
time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus’ disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus’ disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Many are troubled by the Lord’s apparently harsh way of
dealing with this woman, at least initially.
Shouldn’t Jesus have immediately offered to heal this poor woman’s
daughter? Yet we need to remember that
the Lord had prophetic insight into the hearts of the people with whom he
interacted. He knew what people were
thinking and the state of their heart (Matt 9:4; 12:25; John 2:25; 6:61). Jesus adapts his way of dealing with people
to their individual situations and needs.
For example, he doesn’t challenge everyone to sell all that they have
and give to the poor (cf. Matt 19:21 and Luke 19:8-10), but he knew that was
what the rich young man needed to do.
So, in the case of this Sunday’s Gospel, we need to
understand Jesus’ actions as tailored to the faith of this woman. He sees that she has faith—so he puts her
faith to the test, to elicit more faith.
Untested faith is no faith at all.
“It is not right to take the food of the children and throw
it to the dogs,” Jesus says, a painful reminder that Gentile pagans have no
covenantal claim on the God of Israel, no right to call him to be faithful to
his obligations toward them (hesed),
only the ability to throw themselves (ourselves!) on the mercy of God the
creator.
The woman has both tremendous faith, and tremendous
humility. Not taking insult from Jesus’
words, humbly acknowledging her lack of any covenant claim on the God of
Israel, she asks for unmerited mercy: “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the
scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” This reminds us of the teachings of the
spiritual masters, who point out that sometimes we can accomplish by prayer
what cannot be accomplished by merit; for prayer appeals to the mercy of God,
and God’s mercy extends beyond the category of justice, where merit has its
role.
We recall that Jacob himself, father of all the sons of
Israel, was not the direct heir of God’s covenant, but connived and struggled
his way in. From the Book of Joshua we
recall Rahab’s family and the Gibeonites, both Canaanite groups that should
have been wiped out in the conquest, but who tricked and struggled their way
into the people of the covenant. From
the Books of Ruth and Samuel, we recall Ruth the Moabitess and Uriah the
Hittite, both of whom renounced their ethnicity and swore oaths to the God of
Israel. And so we realize that
throughout salvation history, God has been finding a place in his covenant for
people who, in some way or other, didn’t belong there, but wanted to be
there.
We are reminded of St. Paul’s words elsewhere:
1Cor. 1:26
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble
birth; 27 but God chose what is foolish
in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame
the strong, 28 God chose what is low and
despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things
that are ...
At Mass this Sunday, look around. You are surrounded by the riffraff of the
earth. You may be the riffraff of the
earth yourself. “Go out to the highways and
hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled!” What kind of God is this, that lets all the
riffraff into his covenant? He is a God
of mercy and a God of the poor. He is a
God who knows that the privileged often let their privilege go to their heads,
and take their blessings from God for granted; whereas those who have tasted
life without God’s presence are often delighted when they discover his presence
in Christ. In this Mass, let’s pray for
the virtues of humility and gratitude, realizing that almost all of us come
from races that had no ancient covenant claim on God, but that God in his mercy
has made salvation available to all people on earth.
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