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Life Arts    H3'ed 10/13/19

The Biblical Tradition Advocates Healthcare for All - Even for Enemies of the State

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Jesus the Risen Christ
Endorsed Paul's teaching
About the equality
Of Jews, Greeks,
Slaves and free,
Male and female
Prisoners and criminals.
Jesus identifies with all,
Paul said.
Every one of them
Is "chosen."
God cannot deny
God's generous Self.

1 THES 5:18
We are so grateful
For this wonderful teaching!

LK 17: 11-19

Like Elisha,
Jesus cured leprosy
This time
In a gang of 10 -
Including a Samaritan
An enemy of the people
Just like Naaman.
It was Healing
For nothing
Except for the outsider's
Single word of thanks
Which healed him
Totally.
[No doubt
The ungrateful ones
Remained (partially) healed
As well.]

Not much needs to be added to the teachings so clearly embedded in today's readings.

They're about curing a culture's most dreaded disease. They're about foreigners and a divine dispensation that recognizes no one as somehow "foreign" or to be "shunned." That's true even if they represent a designated enemy of the state or adherents to a religion considered intrinsically evil by prevailing community standards.

As usual, then, and in other words, this week's readings challenge our most cherished certainties. They call us to open ourselves to the poor, to foreigners, and even to those we're taught to fear and hate.

They call us to denounce and resist Trumpian "proclamations" like the recent one punishing immigrants and refugees for their poverty and accidents of birth over which they have no control, but which especially endear them to the Author of Life.

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Mike Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. Retired in 2014, he taught at Berea College in Kentucky for 40 years where he directed Berea's Peace and Social Justice Studies Program. His latest book is (more...)
 

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